Monday, July 23, 2012

White Star PT Services Trithlon Race Report

This was my 8th race in 8 weeks. The White Star Tri was held in Gibsonburg, Ohio near Toledo. The race venue was a great location held at an old quarry turned into a metro park, and the distances were typical with a 750meter swim, 20K bike, and a 5K run. Once again, I traveled the morning of the race and got up at 2:50am and was out the door by 4:00am. I arrived at 5:45am at the break of dawn to be greeted by the HFP staffers getting the course all ready for us. I think I was the 3rd one in the parking lot and felt a little stiff from the long ride from Columbus.

This was a small race with 160 athletes and a large group of relay teams. The swim was a triangle swim counter clockwise starting with a beach start. I was able to hang out prior to the start of the race with Randy Lehrer, Daniel Smith, and Shannon Kurek. However, Shannon wasn't racing and was just chatting with us prior to the start. Eventhough the water temp was well into the 70s I still decided to wear a full wet suit just to help me glide better in the water. I'm so much slower without a wet suit. Randy made a comment that hopefully he'll make my blog for the race today. Yes, Randy made the blog by being a great competitor in the sprint tris. I knew if I was going to have a chance to do well today I would have to stay close to Randy and Daniel in the swim and then just try and pace with Randy on the bike and run. At the start of the swim we all started pacing in the water with Randy taking off and I was right behind Daniel for most of the swim. However, there were a few young good swimmers that were flying fast in the water along with Randy in the first group. On the back stretch I was able to see the first group that was about 100 meters in front and then Daniel about 20 meters in front of me. I came onto the beach and looked down at my watch and it read 12:25 and with a final time of 12:45 crossing the mat and I heard Sandy Donald the announcer state that I was 7th out of the water. By the time I got to my bike I didn't even see Randy around and noticed Daniel was mounting his bike at the mount line. I had a flawless transition and was timed at :38. However, Randy was the 3rd out of the water at 10:39 and it appeared that he had a very good swim. Daniel was at 11:56 just in front of me. The bike course was just a huge rectangle on very flat roads. Within the first mile of the bike course I was able to pass Daniel and 4 other riders moving me into the 2nd position on the bike leg. I just attempted to get a good pace and not slow down at all with a high cadence around 90-95rpms. It seemed as if my averages were staying about 24mph throughout the race and going up to 26-27 on some occasions. I was able to see Randy far ahead of me (1/3 mile) but it didn't appear that I was gaining on him at all. I sometimes would lose focus and start to day dream on the second half of the bike and this caused me to slow down at times once again. Coming into transition, I knew that it had to be fast to try and close the gap on Randy. When entering the transition I heard Sandy announce that Randy had a 2 minute lead in front of me.  I just wanted to try and make up as much time as possible, but I figured that this was just too big of a lead for me to make up, unless Randy was having a bad day. My final bike time was 31:49 the second fastest overall with Randy having the fastest at 31:32, and my transition time again was a very good :27. The run course was a cross country course with a lot of twist and turns on a wooded trail and with a few sections in an open area with more turns. I felt that I really couldn't get into a good flow with all the turns on the trail, but would just try and run a shorter stride for pacing. I was averaging around 7 minute mile pace, which was decent for me on this tight trail. The last mile was somewhat straight with only a couple of turns, and heading down the last 1/4 mile was a straight line to the finish where I was able to have a good kick. During this last sprint, I heard Sandy announce that another runner was coming up on my rear so I sprinted faster. It's a good thing because I beat this 25 year old by only 5 seconds. Randy announced that both Randy and I were in our 50s crossing first and second and then a guy right behind us half our age was right there. I thought this was so funny that we were over twice his age. My final run time was a 19:09 and I had heard that the run was only 2.9 miles long. My final overall time was 1:04:50 and Randy beat me with an overall time of 1:02:58. His run time was exactly the same as mine with a 19:09. I ended up 3rd place overall with a 43 year old guy that started in the 3rd swim wave beat my time by 9 seconds. My lesson for the race is to attempt to stay as close as possible to Randy in the water if I want to have a chance to beat him at our next race together. Next race for me is the Giant Eagle this coming Sunday, 9th race in 9 weeks.

No comments: