Tri For Fun - Race Report

August 21, 2010. Time for another fun race in my own backyard. Got up a bit before 5:00 and out the door. I knew the weather was going to be great -- not too hot; not too cold. Got there early enough to get the primo rack in transition. Got things laid out and here comes Tom Hall -- doing his first triathlon.


I helped Tom get a transition spot and get him oriented for what's about to follow. He was like a little kid.

Waiting to start. That's me in middle with the yellow cap.

Did a little warmup run, put on the wetsuit, and headed out to the start area. I always make sure to go in the "competitive wave", the first wave with 100 of my closest friends.

The horn blows and we're off. Arms flailing and nervous energy all over the place. I went wide left and had a pretty good line to the first buoy. There before I know it. After rounding it, I'm surrounded on all sides. Great. Hardly any contact though. Round the last buoy and head back to the beach. Feeling quick and steady. Below is a picture of me mid-swim. You can see me on the far left (not middle) wearing a yellow swim cap (not the guy with his head up).

Exit the water and am taking off the wetsuit while running and hear Jim and Pam Ott yelling to me. I don't know how they recognized me in all the commotion, but that was great.

Swim exit, heading towards bike rack.

Swim: 7:16 (by the time I hit the lap button anyway). Pretty good.

T1: No problems. 53 seconds. Nice. Jim made his way up to just outside my rack and took some pictures.

Heading out to start the bike

A bit windy on the bike. What a surprise. Not. At the turnaround on Vineyard, I was surprised at how many riders there were in front of me, especially since I'd had a decent swim and quick T1. I guess the competition is always getting tougher and tougher. And they all seemed to be much, much younger. Anyway, everything was going smoothly until I was at the small hill and shift the front chainring and the chain pops off. Had to get off the bike to fix it. Quick fix but had to wait till about 4 riders passed me before I could get going again. I probably lost 45+ seconds. Got back into the right state of mind and finished the bike quickly.

Bike: 27:20 Av speed: 21.1 mph.

Quick T2: 31 seconds.

The legs loostened up pretty quickly for the run. Just focused on trying to pass one person at a time, and flying on each downhill roller. This is a slow 5k course because of all the rollers and turns and being on trails. Saw Tom on the last straight-away and we high-fived each other. He yelled a time out to me (something like 40:41) and I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. And it's just impossible to do math while your racing.

Run: 22:51 Av pace 7:07 (7:09, 7:22, and 7:03 mile splits)

Total: 58:47. So I figure I might have broken 58:00 if not for the chain popping off. Next year I'll definitely be looking at going sub-58, or maybe faster . . .

It was great hanging out with Jim, Pam, and Kelsey and watching Tom finish strong. He had so much fun. Me too.