Swim
Comments: Told TSW to expect 25 minutes and that’s exactly what I delivered. Had hoped for a little bit better. Course felt long as I swam and Garmin showed 915 yards, resulting in a pace more in line with expectations. Thought I stayed on line, but maybe some snakiness resulted in the longer distance. Overall, though, I swam my plan, counting strokes and breathing to both sides like I do in the pool, coming up every 12-14 stroke to sight What would you do differently?: This is pretty much the norm for me, so not a whole lot to do differently. Maybe take easier, longer breaths, as I got just a smidge breathless toward the end. Transition 1
Comments: Run to transition was quite a ways, and uphill, had to have been at least a couple hundred yards, so that was part of slower than normal time here. What would you do differently?: Nothing. I was a little out of breath coming out of water and then having to trudge a bit uphill before I realized the route was further than I thought. At that point I started walking. Bike
Comments: Tough bike course. 619 feet of climbing and lots of twists and turns. Over the distance that only amounts to 40 feet or so per mile, which isn’t that much and probably accounts for the course description of “generally level”. But my Eastern Shore trained legs were not happy with the climbs, of which there were several and some of those were steep over short distances. Climbing began right out of transition; I worried all night and even on site whether I’d be able to get clipped in and get going without tipping over. I asked a Kinetic person about it and she rolled her eyes and said, “Now, you sighed up for one of toughest triathlons out there, so...this is what you get.” Apparently a lot of people had issues getting going but I managed fine and my left foot clipped on the first try. TSW got a tape of it and I actually look like I know what I’m doing. I’m actually quite pleased with my results here on this course. What would you do differently?: Can’t think of a thing. Transition 2
Comments: Any kind of flying dismount (which I can’t do anyway) was off limits here due to the downhill run into transition and the dismount line within feet of its entrance. All of that necessitated a slow dismount, and the immediate shape of my legs after the bike course put me into nothing more than a saunter through transition to my rack spot. What would you do differently?: Jog with the bike, but my legs were kinda toasted. Run
Comments: I knew this was going to be a tough run, just looking at the elevation profile, and even before I knew how I’d feel getting off the bike. I didn’t anticipate quite this slow but I also didn’t anticipate how the first mile and a half, mostly all uphill, would feel. 291 feet of climbing on the course, almost all in the first 1.5 miles, that’s 194 feet per mile and an average grade of 3.6% over that portion. Wore my ass out and I wasn’t the only one walking the hills, and the uphill walk wasn’t actually easy! My HR hit 184 at some point during that portion. I did run/jog the downhills and walked/jogged on the remaining flats. Didn’t have the chest issue much, but the HR was elevated throughout. What would you do differently?: Train on hills, I guess. But where to find them? Post race
Warm down: Man, I was cooked at the end. Just stumbled around with TSW trying to stay upright. Drank a Diet Coke, had half a banana, and ate several Oreos. What limited your ability to perform faster: Toughness of the course, mainly due to the hills. I’ll say it bluntly: I was not in sufficient shape to manage this course. Not to suggest I’m out of shape because I don’t believe that to be the case, but without hills to train on either here or in TX, there’s just no way to be ready for this course. Proud of my bike leg, but that tanked me on the run and I just don’t think there’d have been any way around that. Event comments: Excellent race and a cool venue, although very difficult, probably too difficult for me. But Kinetic has it down, man. And a tremendous shout out to the guy working the race tent, a Kinetic employee, who saved my butt on the swim by introducing me to and actually applying Quick Spit (a real product) to my goggles so they quit fogging up. Finally, the volunteers from Frostburg State and Alderson-Broaddus were absolutely awesome. Great job all around. Last updated: 2019-09-06 12:00 AM
|
|
United States
Kinetic Multisport
65F / 18C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 113/147
Age Group = M 60-64
Age Group Rank = 4/4
Spent the night near the race site, about four hours or so from home. Got up a little before six and ate half a bagel with almond butter and sipped regularly from Gatorade. Napped a little. Packed the car and put the bike in granny gear (see bike comments later)...had a moment of stress when, in shifting, the chain popped off the ring. Took a bit to get it back on, which made a real mess of my hands, but all ended well.
Not much, per usual. Set up transition, and got mildly wet when an unexpected rain shower popped up. Did get into the water to swim some in order to acclimate to water temperature.