High Anxiety - first open water Tri, did one previous open water swim. This was an experience to the 10th degree. We arrirved at Sand Hallow to find out we needed to haul all the Tri gear for a mile up to the transition area, Sylvie helped me lug the gear. *note for the future, get a back pack and ride the bike.
Transisiton Setup - found a nice spot with good spacing, laid out my stuff in order, chatted with the other two bikers about what a good setup we had for transistion, so we thought, read on.
My swim wave was at 9:40, waves 10 minutes apart, we watched the Olympic distancers go and go, two laps around the course, from the shore, sure looked like a long swim. My time drew closer and closer, my nerves were going wild, like the start of a downill 5k, with 20 minutes to go, Sylvie helped me get on the wet suit, no easy task. It was hot waiting the next few minutes in rubber suit, with the heat of the day rising. Finally, we we called to the starting area, yellow swim caps and all. Once the swim starts you cannot tell swimmers apart, our heads just bobbing. 5,4, 3, 2 1, goooo- started at the back, only got kicked ten or fifteen times, none in head. My swimming technique went to heck, to survival mode, waves, thrashing the first 100 yrds. Wow, was I tired after the first couple hundred yards, took a ten second break on my back and got my breathing back in order, made the next marker and turned to shore, yea, I was burning up way too much energy, this is the longest non-stop swim ever. I am not sure how I placed in my wave either second or third dead last of dead last, at least not dead. I was pooped, walked up the boat ramp, when I started jogging, teh crowd started cheering, they were great, stripped off the wet suit and started trotting for my bike. Now, remember that neat transistion setup, 3 other bikers had crowded in, it was a mess, took way too long getting things going for the bike, ate a cliff shot and headed out.
The bike was my best leg, starting passing bikers right away. I was worried about the 11/23 cassette, thought I would get hammered on the hill, powered right up passing bikers, I only got passed by one biker, got chicked by a gal named Lezlie, she would the womens sprint race. Happy with the bike portion, the new Cervelo P2C was great.
The run, legs were dead, used up too much energy on the swim, it was survial to the finish, 3.3 miles felt terrible, toughed it out and sprinted the last fifty yards to the finish. Sylvie said I placed 3rd in div. We did not stick around for the awards, was too darn hot at the finish, 90 degrees or so for the run.
Lessons learned - swim more, swim more and then swim some more, get lessons, cannot trash the legs on the swim and expect to have a good run portion, get faster on the transition, wasted a couple of minutes.
Over all - happy that I was not claimed by King Neptune of the deep, much respect to triathletes, they are tough, took me down a peg or two, good lesson to get me focused.
1,000 Commando points for Sylvie supporting me, taking pictures.
Stay Kool, Bof BS Rools out
Race Stats: big room for improvement - goal next year, take off 15 mintues
Swim 23:37 -
T1 - 3:49
Bike - 42:35
T2 - 2:10
Run 35:07
165 out of 210 males
244 out of 373 overall in sprint
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