750m swim, 18m bike, 5k run
Swim 11:16/5--T1 1:24/2--Bike 53:45/11--T2 :17/1--Run 22:08/4
2nd overall, 1:28:48
Pre-race
I arrived at the race site as planned with just enough to time to drive the bike course and then get parked and checked in two hours ahead of the start. That timing turned out to be perfect because parking and packet pick-up started to get quite backed up soon after I had sailed through. I walked quickly to transition to claim my bike spot, then did my usual bike warmup to check out the mount area and first few miles and adjust the gear I would start in (important here because the bike leg started on a hill), transition set up (checking and double-checking that my shoes were clipped into the bike with straps left open this time) and brief warmup swim (also being sure to evaluate the course carefully from both in and out of the water). I do tend at least to learn from my past race mistakes but as you will see, that doesn't mean I don' t commit new ones...
The Swim
My wave was the third on this day, 8 minutes back from race start, and I made sure to focus on the waves before me to see how the strongest swimmers dealt with the mass start running into the water. This is not my preferred start type, although I think many triathletes like it better than a in-water start where they worry more about being kicked and trampled. I find it much easier to start from a position of treading water, because I can place myself to the very front and side and take some quick strokes off the line to get into mostly open water. I guess I'm one of the kicker/tramplers that everyone dreads, whereas from a running beach start I have to spend much longer in the scrum of bodies.
At any rate, the horn sounded and I raced as much as possible to get ahead of my wave. Coming up to the first turn buoy, I noticed that there were more fellow green caps than I would have expected in the vicinity so I tried to speed up my stroke a bit more. At this point we were also hitting the end of the wave before us, and for the rest of the swim it would be very crowded and rough because the waves had picked up and with only three total buoys everyone was just sighting off the mass in front and staying in a clump. Coming around the second turn buoy, I was stroke for stroke with two women from my wave, one on my left and one on my right. I think we could all see each other and were working hard to not let anyone get ahead, but fortunately we did a good job staying parallel and not doing any hitting, while I think a similarly positioned group of competitive guys would have beat each other up. When we hit land, I heard I was 5th or 6th woman, not a spectacular place for me but at least I knew that two others were right there with me.
The Bike
While I was hoping to have a better bike start at Kinetic than in my last race where I had left my shoes strapped shut on the bike, this was not to be. This time I couldn't get a decent mount on the bike at all. Part of the problem was the crowded mount line which was also on a incline, part was the fact that the elastic holding my left shoe off the crowd wouldn't break when I got my foot on it, so the other shoe wouldn't come around for me to push off and go, and my continued failure was due to the fact that this trailing shoe was then hitting the ground as I tried to get going causing me to nearly fall multiple times and also barely avoid riding into a ditch on the far side of the road from where I had started. After probably 45 seconds of fumbling, I finally got going, but I definitely had lost a lot of momentum in the interim as well as several places, so now I was not sure where I stood among women. Fortunately I had no trouble slipping my feet into my shoes a little bit up the road when it got more level and I again used my frustration and anger to fuel a fast ride.
The rest of the bike leg felt great and I really loved the course. It was hilly in parts, but rolling, and I just felt very fast and was aero essentially the whole way. I knew I had to do a lot of catching up, not only of women who were close to me coming out of the swim and flew by during my mount troubles, but also those who already had an unknown lead. During the ride I focused on picking people off, and always hoped as I was coming up for a pass that it would be a woman. Sometimes with triathletes it's really hard to tell, however, and I was definitely disappointed more than once to find that the person I had chased down was actually a man who favors short and tight jerseys, or a young boy. Still I was able to pass about three other ladies, with only one who passed me, and I came into the final three miles within the state park with two women in immediate sight. During this last stretch, the bike was just as clumped up as the swim had been, so I ended up slowing a little to be safe and conserve energy because it seemed that passing would be too difficult. In retrospect, I wish I had pushed this section more, other cyclists be damned, because I know I could have gone much faster and lost less time to the leader.
The Run
Coming into transition, I knew that I could pass the two women who were essentially even with me so I sped through (17 seconds--I really must pat myself on the back for this one!) and took some fast first steps into the run to get myself into the groove. I heard that I was third and the second woman was about 40 seconds ahead, so I set my sights on closing that gap as quickly as possible. I felt good, even with the short but steep hill that started the run, and was happy to be able to spot the woman I was chasing when the road opened up on a downhill. The road was not very shaded or scenic, but I was focused on my goal and was able to pass into second right about at the turnaround point. Since most of the course was out and back, I had seen the leader who seemed pretty far ahead but possibly running a slower pace, as well as a woman chasing me and clearly closing the gap. This gave me good incentive to pick up my pace even though I felt like I was cramping up, and as I stole looks behind me to make sure she wasn't right there, I started to feel stronger and knew I could sprint through to the finish. The last stretch of the run was through the woods and I gave it everything I had. As it turned out, I had the fourth fastest run split overall among women. Not only was that my best ever triathlon run placing, but for the first time ever, I placed more highly on the run than I did on the swim. That is something I would have never anticipated before I started triathlon training...
I'm pleased with my result at Kinetic Sprint although of course I am still seeking an overall win. Fortunately I loaded this season with races, so I have 6 more opportunities to go for first. I think that I raced well here, especially in the run but also in the bike, aside from my mounting disaster, maintaining over 20mph average, which I believe is another first for me. I still have things to work on (bike mount!) but I can see where training has paid off and there is a lot more still to put in for greater improvements.
Swim 11:16/5--T1 1:24/2--Bike 53:45/11--T2 :17/1--Run 22:08/4
2nd overall, 1:28:48
A First for Me but not 'The' First
On Sunday, May 9, I competed in the Kinetic Sprint triathlon, my first time doing this race. It was held at Lake Anna, with which I have grown familiar from doing the Giant Acorn triathlon in the fall and Rumpass in Bumpass three weeks ago, but this course was on the other side of the lake so completely new to me. I chose the race based on its proximity to DC and because I appreciate how Set Up runs their events, especially same-day packet pickup and later start times for early-season races. A sprint with a longer bike section is not the optimal race scenario for me, but I've been working a lot to improve on the bike so I still went in with high expectations.Pre-race
I arrived at the race site as planned with just enough to time to drive the bike course and then get parked and checked in two hours ahead of the start. That timing turned out to be perfect because parking and packet pick-up started to get quite backed up soon after I had sailed through. I walked quickly to transition to claim my bike spot, then did my usual bike warmup to check out the mount area and first few miles and adjust the gear I would start in (important here because the bike leg started on a hill), transition set up (checking and double-checking that my shoes were clipped into the bike with straps left open this time) and brief warmup swim (also being sure to evaluate the course carefully from both in and out of the water). I do tend at least to learn from my past race mistakes but as you will see, that doesn't mean I don' t commit new ones...
The Swim
My wave was the third on this day, 8 minutes back from race start, and I made sure to focus on the waves before me to see how the strongest swimmers dealt with the mass start running into the water. This is not my preferred start type, although I think many triathletes like it better than a in-water start where they worry more about being kicked and trampled. I find it much easier to start from a position of treading water, because I can place myself to the very front and side and take some quick strokes off the line to get into mostly open water. I guess I'm one of the kicker/tramplers that everyone dreads, whereas from a running beach start I have to spend much longer in the scrum of bodies.
At any rate, the horn sounded and I raced as much as possible to get ahead of my wave. Coming up to the first turn buoy, I noticed that there were more fellow green caps than I would have expected in the vicinity so I tried to speed up my stroke a bit more. At this point we were also hitting the end of the wave before us, and for the rest of the swim it would be very crowded and rough because the waves had picked up and with only three total buoys everyone was just sighting off the mass in front and staying in a clump. Coming around the second turn buoy, I was stroke for stroke with two women from my wave, one on my left and one on my right. I think we could all see each other and were working hard to not let anyone get ahead, but fortunately we did a good job staying parallel and not doing any hitting, while I think a similarly positioned group of competitive guys would have beat each other up. When we hit land, I heard I was 5th or 6th woman, not a spectacular place for me but at least I knew that two others were right there with me.
The Bike
While I was hoping to have a better bike start at Kinetic than in my last race where I had left my shoes strapped shut on the bike, this was not to be. This time I couldn't get a decent mount on the bike at all. Part of the problem was the crowded mount line which was also on a incline, part was the fact that the elastic holding my left shoe off the crowd wouldn't break when I got my foot on it, so the other shoe wouldn't come around for me to push off and go, and my continued failure was due to the fact that this trailing shoe was then hitting the ground as I tried to get going causing me to nearly fall multiple times and also barely avoid riding into a ditch on the far side of the road from where I had started. After probably 45 seconds of fumbling, I finally got going, but I definitely had lost a lot of momentum in the interim as well as several places, so now I was not sure where I stood among women. Fortunately I had no trouble slipping my feet into my shoes a little bit up the road when it got more level and I again used my frustration and anger to fuel a fast ride.
The rest of the bike leg felt great and I really loved the course. It was hilly in parts, but rolling, and I just felt very fast and was aero essentially the whole way. I knew I had to do a lot of catching up, not only of women who were close to me coming out of the swim and flew by during my mount troubles, but also those who already had an unknown lead. During the ride I focused on picking people off, and always hoped as I was coming up for a pass that it would be a woman. Sometimes with triathletes it's really hard to tell, however, and I was definitely disappointed more than once to find that the person I had chased down was actually a man who favors short and tight jerseys, or a young boy. Still I was able to pass about three other ladies, with only one who passed me, and I came into the final three miles within the state park with two women in immediate sight. During this last stretch, the bike was just as clumped up as the swim had been, so I ended up slowing a little to be safe and conserve energy because it seemed that passing would be too difficult. In retrospect, I wish I had pushed this section more, other cyclists be damned, because I know I could have gone much faster and lost less time to the leader.
The Run
Coming into transition, I knew that I could pass the two women who were essentially even with me so I sped through (17 seconds--I really must pat myself on the back for this one!) and took some fast first steps into the run to get myself into the groove. I heard that I was third and the second woman was about 40 seconds ahead, so I set my sights on closing that gap as quickly as possible. I felt good, even with the short but steep hill that started the run, and was happy to be able to spot the woman I was chasing when the road opened up on a downhill. The road was not very shaded or scenic, but I was focused on my goal and was able to pass into second right about at the turnaround point. Since most of the course was out and back, I had seen the leader who seemed pretty far ahead but possibly running a slower pace, as well as a woman chasing me and clearly closing the gap. This gave me good incentive to pick up my pace even though I felt like I was cramping up, and as I stole looks behind me to make sure she wasn't right there, I started to feel stronger and knew I could sprint through to the finish. The last stretch of the run was through the woods and I gave it everything I had. As it turned out, I had the fourth fastest run split overall among women. Not only was that my best ever triathlon run placing, but for the first time ever, I placed more highly on the run than I did on the swim. That is something I would have never anticipated before I started triathlon training...
I'm pleased with my result at Kinetic Sprint although of course I am still seeking an overall win. Fortunately I loaded this season with races, so I have 6 more opportunities to go for first. I think that I raced well here, especially in the run but also in the bike, aside from my mounting disaster, maintaining over 20mph average, which I believe is another first for me. I still have things to work on (bike mount!) but I can see where training has paid off and there is a lot more still to put in for greater improvements.
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