Yesterday morning marked the 4th annual Tri for Joe sprint triathlon, duathlon, 5k run, and kids fun run in Cincinnati. I participated in the sprint tri for the second year in a row. Here is my race report…
Pre-race: Was up and out the door by 6:15AM and noticed it was a little more chilly than I had expected. I got there earlier than I normally do for a small race like this, but I hadn’t picked my packet up yet, so I wanted the extra time to get set up. As I was setting up, water temperature was announced to be 62, about 5 degrees warmer than last year. However, air temps were around 50 so it balanced out to feel about as cold overall as last year. My wife and parents showed up with about 30 minutes to start, so I hung out with them to keep the nerves under control until heading to the swim.
The wife covering her feet with my warmup pants to stay warm pre-race.
Walking toward the swim start
Swim: I’ve described this swim before, and it’s definitely a mess with the open water pool format. My wave was first up like I hoped, but I had a local high school swim team in the wave with me so I let them get ahead of me since I’m not that strong a swimmer. As we head off into the water, there was a good deal of water running to be done before getting into the deeper water where we could swim. My goggles started leaking, so there were quite a few stops to empty them. Finally I got them seated correctly and was able to get on a roll for a while. I felt like I had to be near the back end of my wave, but with all the turns as well as picking up the later waves in the second lap I really had no idea.
Start of the swim
On the second lap, I just focused on a smooth stroke and started getting my mindset ready for transition. Time: 11:12 (Not a lot of improvement from last years)
T1: My wetsuit got stuck a little on my leg with the timing chip, but it didn’t cost me too much time. Time: 1:30 (estimated, since transition times were built into swim and run respectively)
Bike: Out onto the bike, I wanted to get my pace up quickly and make up some of the ground I lost on the leaders of my wave. I passed a few of the swim team guys pretty early on and went back and forth a little with another rider. I started to pull away from him for good and started to focus on getting some nutrition in. The course is pretty straight and flat other than some sharper turns while on a bike path that circles the airport, so I didn’t have too much climbing to worry about. As I got onto the airport path, I saw a group of 3-4 guys riding in somewhat of a pack. I slowly approached them for the next few miles until I was finally up on them. I didn’t feel comfortable with the closeness of this group, so I tried to put in an acceleration to get past them and not have to worry about drafting. Unfortunately, soon after I passed them we hit the bulk of the course turns and had to slow a bit. The next thing I knew I had a tail group. They hung with me for a bit, but no one passed me. This was a little frustrating, but once we hit the next long straightaway, I tried another burst accel and was able to put some space between us. After that, I was pretty much on my own the rest of the ride, so was able to smooth out my effort some since creating my own space had used up more of my energy than I wanted. My legs had a pretty decent burn going the rest of the ride, so I wasn’t sure how the run would go, but at least I had about a minute on the pack that I knew was behind me. Time: 46:47
T2: Pretty straightforward here, but I felt a little rushed since I could see the competition arriving on the bike as I was grabbing my hat and number belt. Time: 0:45 (est)
Run: Leaving for the run, I noticed I had passed someone in transition and he followed me out to the run. He looked like a pretty good runner, so I expected a quick pass.
The course is pretty wide open, and pancake flat so I knew I’d have a chance to keep an eye on my competition. It’s also an out and back, so that helps as well. My chaser never came, and when I finally looked back I found I was putting time into him. That was a good sign since I felt pretty under control. As I hit the parking lot, where you can see a good deal of the course I noticed I was pretty much all alone. My chances of catching anyone in front of me was looking slim, so I just focused on keeping off the group behind me. As I hit the turnaround, I saw there were about 5 guys not far behind me and it looked like they had gained on me. I tried to up the speed a bit, but was definitely feeling fatigue so could merely maintain my current pace. As I hit the parking lot on the return, I noticed the group hadn’t gained much more on me, with the exception of one runner who was on the move. I spent the rest of the race trying to just focus on the finish and hoping I’d hold him off. Heading down the homestretch, I was still ahead, but knew he was close.
About 200 meters from the line. This spectator is in the way, but I’m on the left of him and the guy chasing me is just to his right. He closed a little more ground before the finish.
My mom yelled something to the effect of “He’s right behind you!” as I passed the family, but I wasn’t really hearing anything. I was able to hold him off, but turns out he wasn’t in my AG, so no matter. It was a good mental boost nonetheless. Time: 18:46
Final numbers recap:
- Swim (~700m) and T1: 12:42 (9/20 in AG)
- Bike (~17.6miles): 46:47 (22.6mph avg, 3/20 in AG)
- Run (short 5k) and T2: 19:29 (3/30 in AG)
- Total: 1:18:56 (2/20 in M20-24 AG, 9/317 OA)
Overall, I didn’t hit my goal time, but wasn't sure what to expect when I made my race plan. With this being my first race of the season, it’s a good baseline for me to adjust my other race plans to. I have a better idea of where I should focus in the next couple weeks as well. Below I’ve included some other Race/Event pictures. My next race is in 3 weeks with an Olympic tri. Between now and then I have some solid training weeks planned, so hopefully some gains can be made in the meantime.
Great RR.
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