Seafair Sprint Triathlon race report (long, PIP-heavy)

[niq]

Race photos are up, and I promised a longer writeup of my first ever triathlon!

Swim The course is a counterclockwise half-mile triangle. Olympic triathletes do two laps, Sprinters just go straight from the last buoy to the swim finish. This was a little annoying  for me. The lifeguards were lined up mostly to keep Olympians from going too far off course, so they made you hug the shortest path on the last leg pretty tightly. Since I kept passing people, I was swimming to the outside, which meant on the final leg I kept running into lifeguards telling me to get on course. But I was on course! Grrrrr.

I swam through middle and high school, so I expected this to be my best leg by far. I just bolted out of the messy start and swam a little to the outside for a while. I had lots of slow olympic swimmers to pass, and having so many swimmers with so many different paces made for an awkward race. I wish they had the Olympic swimmers swim further out instead of do two laps.

Tip: if the triathlon has a "collegiate/alumni challenge" or other special wave that you qualify for, sign up. The college/alumni wave only had 10-15 people in it instead of 40 in the men's 30-34. WAIT HOLD THE PHONE, NIQ IS A GUY?!? Um, yeah. People on Seattle, MMM or MM might know that at this point. I swear I don't read the bra or period threads, I figure I don't really have much to contribute to those. Anyway, moving on ...

Chip time: 14:57; Garmin time: 14:58 over 0.55 miles. 119/408 overall. I was expecting 15:30 or mayybe 15:00, so this felt pretty good!

Here I am tapping the lap button on the garmin underneath my swim cap, like a boss. Click for a bigger picture.


122434-034-035h by niq77174, on Flickr

T1 felt like I did well, but the clock says otherwise. I didn't have that spray stuff people use to make it easy to pull off the wetsuit, but I'm not sure what else I could have done better. The transition area is pretty big, which is part of it. Chip Time: 3:41, Garmin time: 3:45

Bike The course is almost completely flat. There's one short & steep climb onto the I-90 express lanes, another hill at the turnaround, and that's it. The Garmin map doesn't deal well with the tunnel, but since I have a speed/cadence sensor, it gets the distance right.

I am, um, not a biker. I passed like three people at the start of the bike leg, and after that a million people passed me. My plan was to bike for two miles, then grab some gatorade over the next 0.4 miles. Repeat x5. I usually have my watch set to "speed for current lap", but in Multisport mode, it didn't show my current speed at all!

Lap 1 (8:37): alright, not exactly great, but if I average that pace for the whole course I'll feel pretty good about it.
Lap 2 (9:34): This is the one big hill, I guess I won't hit 40:00, but maybe I can catch back up on the downhill
Lap 3 (9:27): I had planned on hills, but I hadn't planned on wind!
Lap 4 (7:56): downhill and downwind. That barely counts
Lap 5 (8:47): I was doing fine until I heard a POP hissssssssssss at mile 11. One mile to go and I get a slow leak?



I slowed down and thought it was due to the leak, but it was all in my head. Someone's helmet sticker had fallen off, then got pulled into my fender and was dragging against the wheel. Argh! I probably lost 20-30 seconds because of it.

Chip time: 44:27, Garmin time: 44:23. 301/428 overall. Yuck. I thought I could do 42:00 or maybe even 40:00. I blame some of it on the wind and freaking out over the stupid sticker stuck in my fender. But that's not enough to get me down to even 42:00. I just need to get better at the bike. 16.2 mi/hr pace. Meh.

Tip: if you grit your teeth when you see a camera, it sometimes looks like you're smiling. Here I am trying my best. Click for a bigger picture:


122434-259-032h adjusted by niq77174, on Flickr

T2: I had trouble getting my second shoe all the way on and lost some more time. I check my watch as I'm crossing the T2->Run mat, and I'm right at 1:05. Chip Time: 1:56, Garmin Time: 1:55.

Run: The course is mostly flat, then one huge hill at about 1.8 miles, then downhill, then a flat half mile to the finish line. I've run a slightly different version of the course for a Halloween 5k run.

In my bike->run brick training and practice tri, my 5ks were just under 27:00 on flat ground. When I started the run, I had two thoughts in my head. "Well, I probably won't get close to my goal time of 1:30, let's just finish", and "don't overdo it before the hill". In my brick training I found that the first mile felt brutal, but I was actually going pretty fast. And it happened again. Mile 1 was 8:14, even though I was holding back. I geared down a little bit before the hill, and made it uphill just fine. 8:37 for the uphill climb -- I'll take it! Going down it was a little slippery, so I didn't want to just go full bore. 7:49, then a 7:20 pace for the final sprint.

Chip time 25:36, Garmin Time: 25:39. 159/408 overall. I had no idea I had it in me!

Here is my best "I might be middle aged, BUT I HAVE THE INTENSITY OF A TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD" face, lolol


122434-146-028h by niq77174, on Flickr

And finally at the finish line:


122434-082-020h by niq77174, on Flickr

Official time 1:30:37, 180/408 overall, 23/42 for M30-34. I barely missed my goal, and there's plenty of low hanging fruit: swim straighter, get better at the bike, improve on transitions, manage the run a little better, etc.

I'm torn about next year; I want to do the olympic, but I also want to see if I can break 1:25 or even 1:22:30 on the same course. To do that, I need to get a little better at swimming and running, plus a lot better at cycling and transitions.

Special thanks to Susie for the baby shampoo suggestion, and to whoever it was who wrote up that detailed "how to do transitions" answer a few weeks ago. Both of those really helped!

[Susie]

Great job! There will always be some low-hanging fruit as you get into doing tri's, there are just so many moving parts. Way to finish with a super strong run! I am betting if you did the same course again in a week or two you'd do it faster, just on strength of experience alone.

[al320]

Yeah, ok, ill fess up, i didnt know you were a dude lol

Congrats! Sounds like you had a great race. This really really helped to read, since my planned first tri is in a few weeks.

[niq]

Jul 24, 2014 12:53:21 GMT -5 al320 said:

Yeah, ok, ill fess up, i didnt know you were a dude lol

Congrats! Sounds like you had a great race. This really really helped to read, since my planned first tri is in a few weeks.

Can someone post a link to the transition thread I'm talking about? I wish I knew the names better on H&F, I can't remember who had the awesome transition answer.

I brought a towel to put all my stuff on, lots of other people did too. Ettiquette seems to be to fold your towel to half its normal width so you don't take up space. I brought all my stuff in a bucket, then turned it over to cover my socks (it was raining at the swim start) and to sit on as I changed my shoes.

[emilyj]

Congratulations! Sounds like a great race overall!

[al320]

Jul 24, 2014 12:56:45 GMT -5 niq said:

Jul 24, 2014 12:53:21 GMT -5 al320 said:

Yeah, ok, ill fess up, i didnt know you were a dude lol

Congrats! Sounds like you had a great race. This really really helped to read, since my planned first tri is in a few weeks.

Can someone post a link to the transition thread I'm talking about? I wish I knew the names better on H&F, I can't remember who had the awesome transition answer.

I brought a towel to put all my stuff on, lots of other people did too. Ettiquette seems to be to fold your towel to half its normal width so you don't take up space. I brought all my stuff in a bucket, then turned it over to cover my socks (it was raining at the swim start) and to sit on as I changed my shoes.

Was it in one of my posts? I can look for it.

[CallingAllAngels]

Great recap! Thanks for sharing. I am loving all this tri talk lately.

[niq]

Oh I meant to post these earlier, if you are a neeeeerd you can see the maps and my speed, cadence, heart rate, elevation, etc.

Swim: you can see how not-straight I swam after the last turn:


Seafair Sprint Triathlon 0.5mi Swim by niq77174, on Flickr

Bike, you can see me slow down at the end, and just generally not be very fast. My BIL who bikes more told me that I should use a lower gear and pedal faster, but when I pedal at 85-95 rpm comfortable it feels like my legs are barely doing anything.


Seafair Sprint Triathlon 12mi Bike by niq77174, on Flickr

Run, you can see me gearing down a little before the hill, but otherwise stay strong:


Seafair Sprint Triathlon 5k Run by niq77174, on Flickr

[niq]

Jul 24, 2014 13:08:48 GMT -5 al320 said:

Jul 24, 2014 12:56:45 GMT -5 niq said:

Can someone post a link to the transition thread I'm talking about? I wish I knew the names better on H&F, I can't remember who had the awesome transition answer.

I brought a towel to put all my stuff on, lots of other people did too. Ettiquette seems to be to fold your towel to half its normal width so you don't take up space. I brought all my stuff in a bucket, then turned it over to cover my socks (it was raining at the swim start) and to sit on as I changed my shoes.

Was it in one of my posts? I can look for it.

heh. it was one of your tri questions threads, @sessalee's reply is what I was thinking of.

pandce.proboards.com/thread/344880/step-closer-tri

[shorewife]

Great re-cap, awesome pics! I also didn't notice you were a dude but we'll let you stay I think tris can be hardest mentally for the swimmers who are first out of the water and then proceed to get passed on the bike by what seems like everyone.

[reginaphalange72]

I'll admit, I had no idea you were a guy. We still love you though.

Great recap and congrats on a great race!

[sassystace]

I guess I didn't realize you were a guy either. You get a the "most thorough race recap award" for sure. Great job and story (with pics and data)!

[kams]

Oh my gosh, I am surprised too.

Good job - sounds like a fun race!

[jene]

Great job, I loved your recap!

[bostonmichelle]

Great job! I loved your recap!

[joenali]

Great job! We should do a race together next year! I promise, I'm not creepy!

PS I knew you are a guy!

[hannahb]

Great job!
Also surprised you are a guy!

[niq]

Jul 24, 2014 18:04:51 GMT -5 joenali said:

Great job! We should do a race together next year! I promise, I'm not creepy!

I think that'd be fun, I hope your recovery continues to go well!

[labbie]

Congrats! Thanks for the detailed recap since I'm doing a sprint tri next weekend (gulp) and I find any and all feedback helpful.

Sent from my XT1080 using proboards

[sadlebred]

Congratulations!!! Great recap!

[coconutbug]

Nice job! Congrats!!

[ktzmoh]

Congratulations! I really enjoyed your recap too- really makes me want to try a tri

[thom]

Great recap! Congratulations to you! I'm still intimidating by the thought of a tri, but all these recaps and the helpful tips posts make it seem like a distant possibility.

Instead of waiting until next year to decide on a race distance, is there another sprint you'd look at yet this summer?? I bet you'd get your time under 1:30, especially on a flatter course.

[gumi]

Jul 24, 2014 12:53:21 GMT -5 al320 said:

Yeah, ok, ill fess up, i didnt know you were a dude lol

Congrats! Sounds like you had a great race. This really really helped to read, since my planned first tri is in a few weeks.

I know, I thought someone was writing a race report on behalf of their husband...I was like, wow, that is support!! You are cute.

If cycling at 95rpm feels too "easy", then  you need to cycle at 95rpm in a higher gear 

I put baby powder in my running shoes and it helps my foot slide in.  No advice on the wetsuit though -- most of the local races here have strippers that pull the suite off so I have been spoiled.

Congrats on your first race!

[clseale]

LOL! I'm cracking up at everyone who didn't know you were a guy. As I think about it though, I think I just happened to catch one of your first posts on here, when it was mentioned. After that, how would you know, I guess?

Anyway, congrats in your tri, and awesome job on the race report!

ETA: Oh, and you have the dude thing in your avatar! lol

[skwcm80]

Great recap! Congratulations.

I guess I'm one of the few who knew you were a guy.