This is my first season of triathlon and today a I raced my first Olympic event. I not only had an absolute blast, but did better than expected finishing 9th out of 71 in the M30 - 34 AG. This race was very well organized and the conditions couldn’t have been better–cool temps for this time of year in northern Illinois, 77 degree water temp, light winds, and partly cloudy skies.
While I’ve been training fairly hard leading up to this week, I took it easy the week prior to the race with only a couple light workouts and a short 3 mile ride on my trainer followed by some stretching the day before the race.
I’ve only completed two sprints before this, but I felt good during the entire race. The swim was a time trial start where they started three of us at a time five seconds apart. Not a bad way to do it, but I was randomly placed at the end of the starting sequence and had to fight my way through lots of slower swimmers which was pretty annoying. T1 could have been faster for me, but after fumbling with my wetsuit a bit, I finally got it off and headed out on the bike. I drove the bike course yesterday which definitely helped (particularly since it was a two lap course and you had to know where to turn on which lap). There was some guy in my age group on a tricked-out bike that kept passing me and then I’d pass him back. This went on for probably 10 miles or so and really helped me to push it on the bike as I didn’t want to let him get away. After one of the small climbs (the bike was generally flat with some small rolling hills throughout the course), I was hammering trying to catch him when he must have flatted and pulled off the road. I continued to push it on the bike and was surprised the 22.4 miles went as fast as it did. I probably drank about 20 oz. of gatorade on the bike. The second transition was a little better as I had to run my bike about 100 yards into the transition area which helped acclimate my legs to the run. My run was very fast for me. I averaged a little over 7 minutes per mile which I can’t seem to do when training. I actually slowed a little after getting my first split thinking I was doomed if I kept that pace. But I felt so good after the 2nd mile that I picked it back up and finished my last couple miles faster than the others.
Its so gratifying and rewarding to see all of my hard work and training pay-off. Though more than twice the distance of my previous two sprints, it really didn’t feel that much different and I feel like I was able to push myself about the same. Thanks to all the STers out there for the invaluable advice and insight they’ve given me–from what bike to buy to what to eat the day before an event. I can’t wait for my next event (Chicago) and next season of racing!