Tuckahoe Triathlon (run-bike-canoe) - TriathlonOther


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Queen Anne, Maryland
United States
Tuckahoe State Park
70F / 21C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 24m 7s
Overall Rank = /100
Age Group = Parent-child
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

My daughter Zoe (age 10) and I entered this race as a parent-child team. It's a small annual event at a state park on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, consisting of a 2-mile trail run, a 10 mile bike, and a 1 mile canoe (teams paddle together in one boat). We drove up the night before and stayed in a little camper cabin at the park. The pre-race nutrition plan called for making grilled cheese sandwiches over a campfire with our new pie irons (... no I hadn't heard of them either). Early to bed, listening to the owls and frogs.
Event warmup:

With our team bikes set up in the little transition area, each team member selected his/her preferred warm up strategy. Dad jogged up and down to loosen up his aging muscles. Zoe warmed up by bounding around the tire playground.
Swim
  • 17m
  • 1760 yards
  • 58s / 100 yards
Comments:

(Not sure how to enter a race report with a non-standard sport or a non-standard order. So this is not a swim report. It's the tale of our debacle of a canoe leg, which came last.)


Did I mention the part about not practicing the canoeing? We had figured that paddling would be pretty straightforward. It was. But we hadn't reckoned with the challenge of paddling along a marked course, in a consistent direction, and navigating hairpin turns around a series of buoys. Oops. I knew that my swim navigation is bad, but it turned out that I have laser-like precision compared to our canoeing. I tried to paddle hard and Zoe tried to steer, but we frequently found ourselves pointing in quite the wrong direction. And it was hard to steer, as we were probably sitting in the canoe in the wrong order. One parent-child team pulled smoothly away from us right at the start of the canoe leg, and a few grown-up teams passed us too. When we finally navigated our way around the final buoy we saw that we were being caught by another parent-daughter team that we had passed early in the bike. We readied ourselves for a frenzied sprint finish ... but soon found that we were sprinting in entirely the wrong direction, and they paddled smoothly past us.
What would you do differently?:

Practice. And chill out.
Transition 1
  • 01m
Comments:

(This was the run-to-bike transition. You're following along, right?)


Dad helped daughter with helmet and bike, then she set off while Dad messed around with bike shoes and then headed off in pursuit.
Bike
  • 45m
  • 10 miles
  • 13.33 mile/hr
Comments:

The bike went by pretty well, especially considering that we hadn't ridden as much as 10 miles together before. Zoe really enjoyed riding her new grown-up road bike -- we recently found her a women's XS bike on Craigslist that fits her great. We picked off a couple of the other parent-daughter teams, who were struggling along with kids bikes, and we got passed by a few grown up teams. The miles went by fairly quickly, and we had some good conversation along the way - admiring horses, noticing snakes in the road, all the kinds of things that I'd normally not get to appreciate in a race.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing - this was fun.
Transition 2
  • 03m
Comments:

(This was the bike-to-canoe transtion. I actually have no idea how long it took.)

Quickly drop off bikes and send Zoe to run down towards the lake while Dad again messes around with shoes. Run to the lake, wondering if there will be a canoe there for us. Not exactly the smoothest transition. We struggle to get Zoe's lifejacket on, then we're intercepted by a park ranger who says she has to change into a smaller one. The canoe is pointing backwards, and we're not sure how to get off the beach. Perhaps the fact that we hadn't practiced at all played a role here.

What would you do differently?:

Pay attention to who sits where in the canoe. The person who weighs far more probably shouldn't sit in the front.
Run
  • 20m 50s
  • 2 miles
  • 10m 25s  min/mile
Comments:

Individuals set of in the first wave, and teams in a separate wave 10 minutes later. The run followed a snaking forest path along the park's fitness trail. We settled into a steady jog in the mid pack. Zoe got a side cramp within the first few minutes, but managed to tough it out. We took only a couple of short walk breaks and finished strong. A couple of parent-child teams pulled ahead of us, but we reeled in one more. Average pace around 11 min/mile.
Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster:

We really weren't out there to compete, so this question doesn't apply. But we were rather taken by the wooden paddles that were given as race prizes, and so we might want to do some practice if we come back to do it in future years.

Event comments:

This is a fun event, not a race-race. And it needs to be taken in that spirit. I don't think I saw a single tri bike in the transition area. All the serious triathletes were a few miles down the shore getting psyched up for Eagleman.


Profile Album


Last updated: 2012-06-10 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:17:00 | 1760 yards | 58s / 100yards
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/100
Performance:
Suit:
Course: No, this wasn't a swim. And it wasn't first. It was a 1-mile canoe around a W-shaped course, at the end of the race.
Start type: Plus:
Water temp: 0F / 0C Current:
200M Perf. Remainder:
Breathing: Drafting:
Waves: Navigation: Bad
Rounding: Bad
T1
Time: 01:00
Performance:
Cap removal: Helmet on/
Suit off:
Wetsuit stuck? Run with bike:
Jump on bike:
Getting up to speed:
Biking
00:45:00 | 10 miles | 13.33 mile/hr
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/100
Performance:
Wind:
Course: Easy, flat loop on smooth roads, with right turns all the way. Very good for a ride with a child.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Cornering:
Gear changes: Hills:
Race pace: Drinks:
T2
Time: 03:00
Overall:
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike
Racking bike
Shoe and helmet removal
Running
00:20:50 | 02 miles | 10m 25s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/100
Performance:
Course: Zig-zag route along the park's fitness trail.
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4