Pre-Race:
There were a lot of familiar faces at the race so I spent a little time chatting, but I made sure to remember my chip this time! I went for a short bike for the warm-up and was planning on doing a longer swim warm-up but I took longer than I anticipated getting my transition ready. I still managed to get a decent enough swim warm-up though and was glad to find out how warm the water really was.
Race:
Swim (11:11 - 1:29/100m):
As I mentioned before I hadn't put to much into this race mentally and it was pretty obvious at the start since the gun went off while Alex and I were basically in mid-conversation. I tried jumping on his feet as usual and maybe made it about 100m before the choppy waves stole my breath and he got away a few seconds earlier than he would have in calm waters. I tried bridging over to the larger pack to our left and they dropped me before getting to the first turn as well. So, as usual, I ended up swimming solo and with about <200m left to go Kristen Marchant passed me and put about 10 seconds into me before transition.
T1 (46 seconds):
I was a little inefficient and I certainly wasn't sprinting out of the water, but it wasn't terrible. Took my cap and goggles off before I should have, and I struggled a little with the wetsuit around my ankles (during which time I should've put my helmet on). No trouble getting the shoes on though.
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| Bike out - Basically the only picture I wasn't making a face in |
Bike (36:58 - 32.46km/h):
Seeing the splits of my competitors it is easy to say my bike was underwhelming, but I'm neither happy nor mad about this split. I felt something was off before I even got my feet in my shoes so I certainly don't think this was my best possible split for the day, but I also don't have a split from last year to compare to and considering a lot of people said it was windy out, and I'm still out there hammering a road bike without aerobars, I really don't have much to say on the matter. I tried hopping on some wheels (legal distance of course) a few times, but couldn't manage. All I can hope is that the split was sub-par for what is to come in the rest of the season.
T2 (41 seconds):
Definitely some room for improvement here as well. I noticed when I went to get ready for a flying dismount that I had zero confidence since I'm still getting used to my new bike and haven't practiced it once yet. Regardless, I slowed down quite a lot but still managed what I will call a "crawling dismount" since I had the courage from never having trouble with flying dismounts before. Again, some small mistakes cost me some time (ie. fiddling with my race bib), but overall not terribly slow.
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| Bike In - See what I'm sayin'?? |
Run (20:17 - 4:03/km):
I came out of transition with another athlete and I tried to hold a steady pace for at least the first km hoping he would drop back, but he managed to inch ahead before the 1km marker. I kept him in my sights the whole time, but it was disappointing to find out later that the fight for 3rd male 20-24 was between him and I. The run is where the lack of mental preparation I mentioned came in. I held a pace I knew would get me to the line without blowing up, but not at a pace that was pushing my limits and that's likely what lost me a medal (although no one was in front of my fellow M20-24 either so maybe he was on cruise as well). I felt like had I needed to I could've kept the pace up for another 5km. This time however I am pleased with the split because although I don't have a split to compare from last year, I remember feeling like absolute s**t. At the same time, being able to run near sub 20 at the effort I gave and given the course tells me my run legs are still there and just need to be woken up.
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| Run - How about another one. Just for yolks. |
Overall (1:09:53 - 30th OA, 4th M20-24):
All in all a pretty mediocre race, as was my attitude going in. I didn't expect anything special, and nothing special happened. I'm happy to walk away with a PB of over a minute though and having lost to some individuals who I would've liked to beat has got me motivated to get back into training full gear.
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| Finish - I thought looking at the camera would make for a better picture. I didn't hurt anyone. I swear! |
Next up:
I'm hoping to race at the Toronto Triathlon Festival (TTF) again in 2 weeks. It's a nice fast course and although getting around the race site and Toronto itself is a little troublesome I usually don't regret going. I'm trying to figure out the details of how I am getting there and whether or not I can get into the U23 draft legal race so I can get my a** handed to me like in Detroit. If I manage to get in I'll probably post a quick update.
Until next time,
Matt M
