The following is a race report that I wrote up for a my triathlete friend, Kathy, so it's in Triathlese and may seem kind of odd if you don't speak the language, but it's how I've come to think about races in the past year. I like to breakdown what happened, go over it all in my mind, figure out how I want to improve, adjust my plans and move forward. The planning and improving are all part of the fun.
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So here we were, back at Red Bank sprint tri, where my love of triathlon all began. This year we got sunny skies instead of rain, but faced a swim course that was more convoluted than ever. The quality water was unappealing, but the race organization was light years ahead of Bassman (see previous post's race report for Bassman 1/2 iron).
This year I was looking to improve my times, but was a bit disappointed when I realized I only beat last year's by 7 seconds. Considering my weight is up a few pounds and I haven't done as much running (or biking, really) as I'd wanted through the winter, I guess this is a reasonable start. But it still makes me grumpy.
I took about a minute and a half off my bike time, trimmed another minute out of the transitions combined (-:15 for T1, -:45 for T2). Then I added a minute to my swim and a minute to my run. The run minute didn't bother me too much. The extra minute on the swim, however, was perplexing given how much swimming I've been doing to train.
I looked to see if, overall, everyone's times on the swim were a bit slower this year, as they changed the course, and they were, but I still wasn't satisfied with that effort. I don't know if I was just being complacent or what. I started out strong and was getting a good draft off the three ladies in the front. I kept up with them until the turn (it was an out and back) then the pulled out of drafting distance and I maintained my pace. But I struggled to navigate between swimmers in the wave ahead, especially because a LOT of people were getting way off track due to the sun being directly in our eyes and no one being able to sight the finish very well.
Even the front runners in the olympic distance (including my teammate) were way off course at the end. I had watched that before getting in the water, and knew to steer to the left, but the support group of kayakers were trying to make a kind of channel to herd everyone to the finish and that meant a narrow area for getting around competitors. I had to sight practically every stroke instead of every three or four. That slowed me down.
I believe I was putting out good effort, and I was with a group of three women that came in about 30 seconds behind the first three, so we were 4,5 and 6th women out of the water (I was 6th only because we had to all climb up one step ladder to exit). So it was a respectable showing overall, but I swear if I could go out today and do it again I could take a minute or more off that swim. I mean, I'm doing 8:15 consistently in the pool for a 500, so 11:51 in the race was just sort of insanely bad. A race will be slower, but I can do 10's consistently in open water without killing myself (that was my pace for Bassman). So I'm still trying to figure out what the problem was. The little glitches added up, maybe?
Looking to the season ahead, I realize I've got my work cut out for me, but I won second in my age group, and that is a good place to start the season. (Note: they originally announced me as first in my age group, which is why I'm on #1 rather than #2 in this photo)
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