Yesterday was my 'A' race, if I have one: the NJ State Triathlon. Not only is it a triathlon, but it is also the official NJ championship, and also the Mid-Atlantic Regional championship. So lots of bling (and I do mean bling) at stake.
Two things concerned me going in. I tweaked my calf last Sunday running too fast, so no running on it at all this week, and I didn't know how it would hold up. Also, there was a guy aging up who, on paper, seemed quite a bit faster than me.
The water was 80.x for the sprint on Saturday, so I was looking forward to a non-wetsuit swim on Sunday. We also appeared to avoid the 90+ high humidity day that we always seem to get. It looked to be in the 70s during the race, and overcast.
For once, the bike racks would be individually numbered, so no need to get there at 0 dark thirty to get a prime spot. Also, each returning NJ State champ would get a little NJ State flag at his/her spot, which was a cute little touch (also was convenient for locating the spot in T2!).
I set my alarm for 4:40am, as transition opened at 5:45 and it's about an hour from home. First fun surprise of the day: I was having a dream in which I was on a bus and couldn't figure out where to get off the bus, and someone was tapping me on the shoulder. This woke me up, and my watch said 5:15am. Turns out that my watch alarm has a "Weekdays" setting, which is what I used. Oops. I managed to get out the door, bagels in hand, in five minutes. It took me only 40 minutes or so to get to the site, so I wasn't too far behind. It had rained overnight, and was a bit cooler than expected.
Parking is in a huge field, and for some reason they started putting people at the far end first. So I was quite a distance away. No problem. Walked the bike (leaving the wetsuit behind), got body marked and heard that the water was 77.5, so wetsuits were legal. Bummer and second surprise. Set up my transition area, and noted that my competitor had not yet shown up. Took the bike out for the critical warmup, and re-racked. Finally saw the guy, and noted his uniform and bike.
As our 55-59 wave was DFL, I had an hour after transition closed to get ready. I chatted briefly with Doug Clark before he started, then walked back to my car to get my wetsuit. I noted that they had almost filled the parking area, so I drove my car out and back and ended up very close to transition.
Swim went well, but afterwards I was surprised (#3) to see that someone in my AG had out-split me. Possibly the first time (other than Nationals) that's happened in nearly a decade. No big deal. Almost forgot: running into T1, a friend yelled to me that I had dropped my goggles, so I had to backtrack and pick them up. Thanks, Moira!
Started the bike, and found that my computer was no longer registering after about 2 miles (surprise #4). My vintage 1999 or so PowerTap hub had finally died a few weeks ago, so I switched back to a Cateye. Turns out it slipped down the fork just a bit. Luckily, the course had a dozen or so mile markers in the 25 mile distance, so all that math I do in my head allowed me to at least figure out my average speed (take current elapsed time, subtract time leaving T1, divide by miles, etc.) during the race.
I kept waiting for fast guy to catch me. I figured it would be somewhere between 15 and 20 miles. Kept waiting. Approaching T2, still no pass. Surprise #5. Did my transition and went out. We had to run downhill to the exit, and then back uphill next to transition, so I passed by our racks and noted that his spot (in fact, the entire area) was still empty.
The run course has three out-and-backs at about half a mile, 2 miles, and around 4.6 miles. First turnaround, fast guy wasn't within 2:30 or so. Second turnaround, more than five minutes back, so at that point I figured something had happened to him on course. Coming past transition at the 5km point, his bike was not there. So, I could relax a bit and try not to cramp up or pull something. My long run of the year was 5.4 miles to that point.
At the final turnaround (the first 180 around a cone), my calf tweaked again. It wasn't quite a pull, but I had to be careful. Managed to complete my first 10km run of the year without too much damage, although my calf is really sore today. Won the AG by 6:37, and the final surprise was 2nd place: a guy who was a local stud back when I started in the 1980s, who swims with us in the morning, and who I had no idea had gotten back into triathlon after a long absence.
Final surprise was getting both chicked and geezered…by the same woman. Nancy Smith, age 58, beat me. Very impressive.
It turns out that fast guy had some kind of mechanical problem on the bike, so didn't finish that leg. Never got to meet him and say hello.
----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"
Two things concerned me going in. I tweaked my calf last Sunday running too fast, so no running on it at all this week, and I didn't know how it would hold up. Also, there was a guy aging up who, on paper, seemed quite a bit faster than me.
The water was 80.x for the sprint on Saturday, so I was looking forward to a non-wetsuit swim on Sunday. We also appeared to avoid the 90+ high humidity day that we always seem to get. It looked to be in the 70s during the race, and overcast.
For once, the bike racks would be individually numbered, so no need to get there at 0 dark thirty to get a prime spot. Also, each returning NJ State champ would get a little NJ State flag at his/her spot, which was a cute little touch (also was convenient for locating the spot in T2!).
I set my alarm for 4:40am, as transition opened at 5:45 and it's about an hour from home. First fun surprise of the day: I was having a dream in which I was on a bus and couldn't figure out where to get off the bus, and someone was tapping me on the shoulder. This woke me up, and my watch said 5:15am. Turns out that my watch alarm has a "Weekdays" setting, which is what I used. Oops. I managed to get out the door, bagels in hand, in five minutes. It took me only 40 minutes or so to get to the site, so I wasn't too far behind. It had rained overnight, and was a bit cooler than expected.
Parking is in a huge field, and for some reason they started putting people at the far end first. So I was quite a distance away. No problem. Walked the bike (leaving the wetsuit behind), got body marked and heard that the water was 77.5, so wetsuits were legal. Bummer and second surprise. Set up my transition area, and noted that my competitor had not yet shown up. Took the bike out for the critical warmup, and re-racked. Finally saw the guy, and noted his uniform and bike.
As our 55-59 wave was DFL, I had an hour after transition closed to get ready. I chatted briefly with Doug Clark before he started, then walked back to my car to get my wetsuit. I noted that they had almost filled the parking area, so I drove my car out and back and ended up very close to transition.
Swim went well, but afterwards I was surprised (#3) to see that someone in my AG had out-split me. Possibly the first time (other than Nationals) that's happened in nearly a decade. No big deal. Almost forgot: running into T1, a friend yelled to me that I had dropped my goggles, so I had to backtrack and pick them up. Thanks, Moira!
Started the bike, and found that my computer was no longer registering after about 2 miles (surprise #4). My vintage 1999 or so PowerTap hub had finally died a few weeks ago, so I switched back to a Cateye. Turns out it slipped down the fork just a bit. Luckily, the course had a dozen or so mile markers in the 25 mile distance, so all that math I do in my head allowed me to at least figure out my average speed (take current elapsed time, subtract time leaving T1, divide by miles, etc.) during the race.
I kept waiting for fast guy to catch me. I figured it would be somewhere between 15 and 20 miles. Kept waiting. Approaching T2, still no pass. Surprise #5. Did my transition and went out. We had to run downhill to the exit, and then back uphill next to transition, so I passed by our racks and noted that his spot (in fact, the entire area) was still empty.
The run course has three out-and-backs at about half a mile, 2 miles, and around 4.6 miles. First turnaround, fast guy wasn't within 2:30 or so. Second turnaround, more than five minutes back, so at that point I figured something had happened to him on course. Coming past transition at the 5km point, his bike was not there. So, I could relax a bit and try not to cramp up or pull something. My long run of the year was 5.4 miles to that point.
At the final turnaround (the first 180 around a cone), my calf tweaked again. It wasn't quite a pull, but I had to be careful. Managed to complete my first 10km run of the year without too much damage, although my calf is really sore today. Won the AG by 6:37, and the final surprise was 2nd place: a guy who was a local stud back when I started in the 1980s, who swims with us in the morning, and who I had no idea had gotten back into triathlon after a long absence.
Final surprise was getting both chicked and geezered…by the same woman. Nancy Smith, age 58, beat me. Very impressive.
It turns out that fast guy had some kind of mechanical problem on the bike, so didn't finish that leg. Never got to meet him and say hello.
----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"