Finally I got to do another race. I know it’s only been a month, but my excitement after the success of my first race had me making more aggressive goals and raised the anticipation level for the upcoming races. However, now I get 3 races in 3 weeks…which should tide me over for a while since I have almost a two month layoff after the third before my first A race in late August. Enough setup…onto the RR.
The St. Peter’s RecPlex Triathlon is a kind of strangely proportioned sprint race just outside St. Louis. It is a non-USAT event that has some weird quirks to it, but is a generally fun event that I have been doing the past 4 years now. It usually consists of a 500m pool swim, 21 mile mostly flat bike, and 4.8 mile park path run. It’s a non-swimmers dream tri. As I mentioned earlier, it is the 4th year I’ve done it as well as the 4th year my dad and sister have participated as well…which has made it a solid father’s day tradition.
Race Morning: We arrive to see the transition area has been moved from previous years to behind the RecPlex…it’s a smaller area which leads to more congestion in a growing event. Due to the move, the pool swim will start on the opposite end and snake the other way leading to a shorter T1 run…not too bad. The bike course has also been changed last minute due to flooding, but the updated map is confusing, so we just decide to go with the flow once we’re out there. The run course was back to the way it was 2 years ago since the construction is complete in the area.
Swim: One of the quirks of this race is that the swim is started on a first come first serve basis from a registration stand-point (the earlier you register the earlier you start). This makes some weird congestion problems at times since there is no speed arrangement. We finally registered properly this year getting an early start time (7:00 AM) and in the correct order based on our relative speeds (my sister first, then me, then my dad). Everything is running smoothly so we start on time. My swim feels awful and I post my worst time here in 3 yrs at 10:44, I was hoping to be 9:30 so obviously I need some work on my swimming. Either way it’s over quickly and I’m into and out of T1 in about a minute.
They don’t do chip timing here so transitions are both added to bike time, I estimated 1 minute for each to get a better idea of my bike time, which would be about correct based on my CPU avg speed.
Bike: In my initial race plan I was hoping to break an hour on the bike (~21.5mph avg), but with the course change wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I figured it was still a reasonable goal. I felt strong once I got over the interstate overpass and used an early downhill to cruise along at 27mph for about 1.5 miles which felt great. I was passing people like crazy which is also fun…especially on my roadie with clip-ons and stock wheels. I got to the farmland area, the bulk of the ride, and was easily pushing 24.5 mph on the flats on the way out…there must be a tailwind. Hit the turn around and it turned against me. I was still able to hold close to 20mph on the way back in (and pass a high end tri-bike with a zipp disk and aero helmet…awesome), got to the next turnaround (since the course was shortened to avoid flooding there was a loop section) and had to come to a complete stop around the cone because it was basically people on their first loop coming thru and people turning for loop 2 merging in…kind of annoying. Second loop same story with the tail/headwind. Came back in noticing my time was already over 1hr so switch to check distance…pulled into T2 at 23.5 miles. They forgot to tell us they added 2.5 miles to the bike course, oops. Average was slower than I wanted but the addition of 3 180 degree turnaround points, one with oncoming traffic was a large contributing factor.
Got into T2 to find that a bike was in my spot on the rack and there was not space for mine to fit in…very annoying. Another quirk of the race is that with a staggered start in the pool they only tell you to get to the course 1hr before your start time to setup and get marked. So a guy who was starting 2hr+ after me saw my spot as open while my bike was gone and took it. I slid bikes along the rack with the help of someone nearby and crammed mine in. Quick shoe change and off on the run
Run: Wanted to make sure to not go out too fast as it was getting hotter and I knew I’d regret it later. Had to hold myself back since I felt very strong. Kept pushing along and before I knew it I was at the turnaround heading for home. I picked up the pace a bit and pushed on. Since it was out and back, I got to see my dad and sister both on there way out on the run as I was coming in, which I always like to do to keep tabs and make passing comments. I think I just yelled “Bike was long” between breaths at my dad as I passed. I had a little pain in the last mile from side stitches but was too close to slow down at that point. Crossed the finish line, found my mom and waited for the rest of the family.
Dad passed my sister on the run and came in about 3mins before her…both were pretty close. We didn’t hang around to see final results since we were pretty sure no AG placings among us and there were people still just getting on the bike course.
The breakdown:
Swim: 500m in 10:44 (bad)
T1: ~1 minute
Bike: 23.5miles @ 1:07:04 (21.0mph avg)
T2: ~1 minute
Run: 4.4 miles at 30:54 (7:01/mile)
Total: 1:50:43 (5th of 17 in M20-24 AG, 30th of 473 overall)
The official results had adjusted to the correct distances. Dad finished in ~2:14 and sister finished in ~2:17. Well done by all. The highlight of my day which I had been looking forward to all year was the Sonic breakfast burritos at the finish. Since I improved, I upped the ante and ate 2 of them this year (and now you know why I’m a Clydesdale).
Next race is a super sprint with the fiancée, my sister and her friend in Indy on Saturday. Race report to follow
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