Nice!!! First race report of the season...finally! I've been waiting for this race for a while. It wasn't my A Race for 2011, but it was intended to be a great preparatory race for Hawaii on June 4th (which is an A Race).
The race weekend started by me packing way too much for the trip to Tempe. Being my first race of the season and only my 3rd triathlon, I didn't want to forget anything. In the end, I think it gave me a good idea of what I need for the trip to Hawaii. Back to this race though, I decided when I registered for this race several months ago, that I would drive to the race; avoiding bike handling fees and rental car costs. I left early in the morning for the 12.5 hour drive. It was a cool morning here in Parker, CO at 35 degrees...I arrived in Tempe that evening to the car saying 102! Quite a change. I decided, with coach's advice, to try and get a good night's sleep Friday, anticipating a worthless night's sleep Saturday before the race. Unfortunately, even though I went to be early, I didn't get a great night's rest Friday night.
I woke up Saturday pretty early and headed out for a quick ride and run to keep the legs loose. I left just after 6 a.m. to try and avoid the impending heat. I didn't push anything hard and got to see a little bit of the course. I wasn't able to get a warmup swim in since Tempe Town Lake is closed to swimming except for special events. What I did do is stop along a boat launch to feel the water and get an idea of what the temperature was like. Honestly, it felt like bath water to me. I was already thinking at that point to scrap the use of my shiny new wet suit, figuring I would overheat.
After cleaning up and eating some breakfast, I worked on the bike a little to make sure it was ready to go. I didn't have too much to do, but added an X-Wing on the back of the seat and did some minor adjustments. For lunch, I was fortunate to meet an online friend which was fun and we talked about all the events we're planning. Her boyfriend was also doing the race so we could discuss that some.
Later that afternoon, I rode my bike to the race registration, which was about a mile from the hotel. I was able to get registered and set up the bike, which had to be left overnight...I wasn't a fan of that, but it worked out. The pre-race meeting was fairly uneventful but I was glad I stayed. After getting everything ready for the race, I went to dinner and back to the hotel to sleep.
I was somewhat surprised that I got a decent night's sleep before the race. I didn't have too much of a problem getting up at 3:30 and immediately started my nutrition plan. Unfortunately, I've become addicted to our VitaMix machine at home but obviously couldn't bring that to Tempe. Instead, I opted for several Naked Juice drinks to appease my smoothie fix. All prepared, I left for the transition area just after 4:30. Once I got to the area, I got my body mark done and set up my little spot, rested as much as I could and kept hydrating.
Finally, it was race time and the transition area closed at 6:15. I downed my First Endurance Pre-Race and Hornet Juice drink and headed for the beach. Unfortunately, the race didn't start off on the right foot. I was already slated for a 7:01 swim start. The waves were set for the Sprint distance swimmers first and then Olympic distance. Of course, the older you are, the later you go, so there weren't many waves behind me. Anyway, the race started late...30 minutes late to be more accurate, due to some issues with the police department delays. I tried not to stress about this too much, but had planned all my nutrition and hydration on a 7:01 start, not a 7:30 start. Oh well...not much I could do about it.
The swim started from a treading water start which was new to me, but I didn't mind it at all. The water was a little cooler than I had anticipated though and I thought maybe I should have donned the wet suit...too late though. The siren went and we were gone. I quickly felt like I was in the wrong wave...people were passing me like crazy. I didn't feel like I was going that slow, but it was quickly apparent that I wasn't going to finish the swim in the top 10...or 20...or 30. Couldn't let it bother me, I needed to race my race. Unfortunately, this wasn't the end of my swim issues. Turns out...I can't sight buoys worth a crap! It was challenging anyway, because we were swimming to the East, into the rising sun. That makes it amazingly hard to see when you look forward. Second, the buoys were not large by any means. In my one open-water swim before this race, there were HUGE buoys I think you could see from space. Not so here. So, it seemed like every time I saw a buoy to my right, it was 30 feet away from me...nothing like swimming extra distance. I took it for what it was worth...a lesson for the future events. I ended up with a swim of 29:45 for 1500 meters. Not bad, but I could've done better.
Once I reached the shore, I started the brief run up 3 sections of stairs and into the transition area. I quickly took off my swim skin and got ready for the ride, which included putting 2 First Endurance Liquid Shots into my jersey pockets. The intent was for one to be for the ride and second for the run. I got on the bike and quickly got into my groove. By far my best event, I felt like I was cruising on the ride. My confidence was boosted by the constant passing of other riders, and even passing some with outrageously nicer bikes than I have.
The bike course had a lot of turns many 90 degree turns and some 180 degree turns. There was a lot of slowing and speeding back up so I wasn't expecting a record time for me. I nearly crashed on one of the turns but was fortunate. Here was the situation: I was on a straight section that went slightly downhill, so it was fast. We had 2 lanes of road on this section, so plenty of space. There was a well-marked 90 degree turn ahead and I slowed down to what I thought was an appropriate speed. About half-way through the turn, I hear a race volunteer yell "stay in your lane!" What? I wasn't sure what that meant at the time. Turned out, we went from having two lanes to one on the new road, with traffic in the second lane. Hmmm...not good! I planned on having both lanes of this next section. It was too late to slow down enough to make the turn...I just would've locked the wheels and gone down for sure. So, I veered into the next lane but came a little too close to a large cone. Fortunately, I was able to swerve at the last moment and avoid what could've been an ugly situation.
Most of the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I did have several instances of riders cruising along side-by-side and a few times individuals were riding on the left instead of the right. Luckily, the USAT referees where riding around on motorcycles and warned a few of the riders. As I was finishing up the ride, I was looking at my GPS and very happy with the time. I was looking at just over an hour for the roughly 25 mile course. That got me pumped for the run. In the end, the ride ended up at 1:05:13 or about 23.3 mph.
I ran into transition and quickly put on some socks (not a usual thing for me, but paid off later), shoes and hat and headed out for the run. The start of the run included climbing down the 3 sets of stairs we had to climb after the swim. Once down, it was pretty much all trail from there. About a half mile into the run is when I noticed that my pre-planning by putting in a second Liquid Shot before the ride, failed. Apparently, I lost that second shot somewhere on the road. If there's one thing I would like changed on my De Soto jersey, it would be slightly bigger pockets so things would fit in there a little better. After about a mile into the run, I could feel something digging into my left achilles tendon. I couldn't imagine that it would be the shoes as they've never bothered me before and I have over 300 miles on this pair. Suddenly, I realized it was the timing chip strap. I quickly stopped and tucked my sock under the strap so it wouldn't rub...this was a good idea as it was a decent cut already at that point. Of course, the sand stuck under the strap from the swim didn't help either.
As the run carried on, I could feel myself starting to fade. I was certainly running out of energy and could've used some more liquids too. Of course they had water at aid stations and I took some, but I'm used to training with electrolyte drinks, not just water. I pushed through the first lap and got to the halfway point...ugh, more stairs. Lap two was pretty much the same...hot, dry and mostly flat. I pushed my legs with all I had left all the way to the finish, but didn't have a spectacular sprint in me. I wasn't worried about that, I was just happy that I had finished my first Olympic Distance tri! The run ended up being 54:33, which was a little slower than I had originally hoped for.
Total time for the race was 2:33:38. I didn't feel too bad about that for my first venture at this distance. I know I could've done better but this race served it's purpose...help me learn those mistakes so hopefully I don't make them on my A Race.
After a quick snack at the post-race party, I headed back to the hotel to quickly get cleaned up and start the drive home. My original plan was to just go about half-way and stay the night in Santa Fe and finish the drive Monday. Apparently, post-race adrenaline kept me going longer. I got to Santa Fe and still felt wide awake, even though it was getting to be dusk. Once I got back to Raton, NM, I was still doing okay, but starting to feel a little sleepy. For the last two hours, it got pretty difficult to stay awake. By this time, it was nearly midnight on a Sunday, so there were very few cars or distractions to help keep me awake. Of course, I didn't want to stay in a hotel just two hours from home, so I kept plugging along. I made it home around 1:30 in the morning and crashed, almost immediately.
In the end, I was very happy with my trip to Tempe for the tri. I think it's a great early season OD and the event was well organized. I may have to keep this one on my list for future years...but I may fly next time.
Thanks for reading!
- Brian
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