Finally, the 2010 tri season is officially under way for me. I completed my first race, the Deer Creek Olympic Tri in Mt. Sterling, OH, on Sunday. It was a C race that I actually approached more like a B since it happened to fall on a recovery week in my training cycle. This is a race I did last year on the same course, so would be a good benchmark to see my improvement.
Background on the race
The Deer Creek triathlon is a part of the regional (Cincinnati/Dayton/Columbus) races put on by HFP Racing, the same people that do Triple T. It is the first race in a point series called the Wheelie Fun Race Series. Each event in the series offers a short girls only tri on Saturday (new this year), along with a sprint (750-20k-5k) and Olympic tri on Sunday. The course for Deer Creek is pretty basic, a double loop rectangular swim, a double loop (and slightly long) bike course that is mostly flat but open to wind, and an out and back (slightly short) run that is pancake flat with a short off road section (~.5 mile) but also susceptible to wind especially when running across the levy.
As with all HFP racing events I’ve competed in, it was run very professionally and I would highly recommend their races to anyone in the region. The only complaints are that they are a little slow in getting accurate results posted at the race and their morning of packet pickup is slow and has threatened to delay the race both years.
Race Weekend/Morning
My family and I picked up our packets on Saturday and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in Washington Court House, OH, a city I probably never need to return to…just not much to see there and a lack of good food options. We also seemed to be the only people in town not attending the truck pull at the local fairground. I just recently acquired a front race wheel (Hed Jet 6) to go with my Jet 90 and (also new) wheel cover, so I went to work prepping my race wheels, only to be frustrated with my apparent inability to inflate the “disc” wheel and to get the Jet 6 past 80psi. After about an hour’s frustration, I decided I’d visit the support tent race morning, and if they couldn’t help me quickly I’d go with my training wheels. The dinner that evening consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, curly fries, and UDF ice cream… nothing like a healthy pre-race meal, right.
Race morning came and it was wet, it had rained overnight and was supposed to be rainy throughout the AM. I decided to heck with the race wheels at that point and just opted for the trainers to eliminate some of the morning stress. I downed a banana, loaded the car and it was off to the race. We got our transition areas set up had plenty of time to warm-up, which turned out to consist of hiding under the pavilion from the storm / downpour that rolled through right around 8AM (scheduled start time). It passed quickly, and the sun followed, so things were back on with a slight (~30minute) delay. Before heading to the start I ran back to check my now soaked transition area and rang out or poured out whatever accumulated rain I could…everything was still soaked.
1500m Swim
Side effects from the pre-race downpour included a substantial increase in the wind and churning of the water in the lake, so we were now swimming on a murky (could not see my hand in front of my face) and choppy course. I have taken a couple swim lessons and joined a master’s team this off-season, so was hoping to see big improvement here, but it was also my first OWS of the season, and it showed. I took off aggressively, but was unready for the chop and body churn, so drank more of the lake than I needed to. By the turn at the first buoy, I started to panic a bit, so switched to breaststroke to get my bearings and relax. Finally, once I had fallen back in the pack unfortunately, I was able to get my freestyle rhythm going. It was smooth sailing on rough waters from there. In the second lap, I was rolling along pretty good, but definitely got tossed about some by the waves. Still I worked my way back through some of my competition and exited the water mid-pack.
Time: 25:10 (4/12 in AG, 49/191 OA…~3minutes faster than last year!)
Heading to T1
T1: Socks, shoes, watch, helmet, etc…thrown on, and away I went
Time: 1:44
40k Bike
The wind was apparent from the outset, and although I felt like I started into somewhat of a headwind, my speed was still good and I didn’t feel like I was over-extending. I got into my rhythm quickly, and started my nutrition rotation of sports drink (310cal/serving Infinit custom blend) and water every ~10 minutes A lot of the sprint participants were on the road in the first lap, so there was traffic to navigate, but nothing too terrible. With the course being more or less a rectangle, the wind effects changed periodically. When travelling north/south, there was a gusty cross-wind that made me thankful I didn’t decide to break in the disc at this race. A highlight of the bike course was a ~.75mile stretch that was aligned perfectly with the wind. I was able to hit 36mph on a pancake flat road…insane! At around the 10mile mark, I went for my Infinit to find that my behind the seat bottle cages (profile design…I’m not a fan of this system and will be changing soon) had come loose at the pivot and were flopping around, which had launched my sports drink. The rest of the bike would be water only. From there, I decided to ride a little more conservatively since my speed seemed pretty good already and I didn’t want to blow up on the run. The second lap was quiet, nothing too exciting. Pulled back into transition and my Garmin had the bike at 25.25miles, a tad long.
Time: 1:04:44 (23.0mph avg, 1/12 in AG, 5/191 OA)
T2: Shoe change, grabbed my Trifuel hat, and onto the run
Time: 0:57
10k Run
As I left transition, I was surprised how fast my legs were turning over. They felt great. Compared to last year, the wind was a little worse, but he clouds and lower temps made it much nicer conditions overall. I got passed early by another competitor and tried to match his stride, but gave up on that quickly…he was too fast. My new goal was to just keep him in sight. I carried 2 amphipod bottles, 1 w/ Infinit (1/2 serving) and 1 w/ water and alternated them until mile 5 when I ran out. I evenly split the run and was surprised how easy it felt. When discomfort set in, I just focused on shortening my stride and picking up my cadence and it seemed to get me back on track. I passed 1 other racer in the last mile and a sort of kicked it in, but didn’t have much of a sprint in me. I crossed the line and knew immediately it was a PR, just had to wait for results to make it official. The Garmin read 6.12miles for the run, so it was slightly short to counter the bike.
Time: 39:57 (~6:27/mile, 2/12 in AG, 7/191 OA)
Final Results
Time: 2:12:33 (~8min PR from same race last year)
12/191 OA
1/12 in AG
Much success
My next race is a sprint in St Louis in 2 weeks where I can hopefully iron out my race wheel issues…then the ramp up to long course in prep for Ironman Louisville. Glad to be in season again.
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