St Peters RecPlex Sprint Tri Race Report

Sunday, I was back at it with another race, a sprint tri in St Peters, MO (near St Louis). My family and I have been doing this race 6 years in a row now, as it provides a good excuse for us to get together near my sister who lives in St. Louis. The race itself is the St Peters RecPlex triathlon, which consists of a 500m pool swim / 20.5 mile pancake flat bike / 4.4 mile run on an undulating path through the nearby neighborhoods. One notable feature of the race is that it always tends to be about 90 degrees and sunny on race day. Always uncomfortably warm by the finish. This will be the last short-course race of my season before ramping up the distances for a HIM in July and Ironman Louisville at the end of August.

My goals going in were pretty aggressive, hoping to break 1:31 and finish top 10 overall…now, on to the report.

Race Morning / Prerace

Woke up early and decided to forego the breakfast banana. The Mexican pizza I had for dinner the night before was still talking to me a little, so I decided to limit pre-race intake. It wouldn’t be an issue for this short of a race. The family and I packed up and left the hotel at a little after 5 AM to arrive at the race site by 5:15. The transition area here is a little messy and unorganized due to the variable starting times of competitors. There are no assignments for rack position and the area is never technically closed since late starters arrive well after the race has started sometimes. Also, the transition area itself is not designed to be fair to all competitors, using the same layout as last year.  I was able to snag a good spot, just inside the swim entrance and bike exit area and right on the end. The transition area was setup quickly and we were off to get marked, then to the pool to wander around until ~6:19, my assigned start time.

500m long course pool swim

Early in the swim

Like most pool swim triathlons, this race had the serpentine layout where you snake your way across the pool. The first 2 lanes are subdivided, requiring you to swim up and back in both of them. After that it opens up for the last 6 lanes. Passing early on can be tricky, but this year I was able to do it pretty smoothly. I worked past a couple people in the first 200m and a handful more the rest of the way. I felt smooth from the get-go on the swim and I thought I was moving at a pretty good clip. There were no real highlights, especially with such a short distance. After the race, I was a little disappointed with my time, but I think I had not taken into account the difference b/w short course yd pace and long course meters pace. Either way, I still PR’d by about a minute and a half, so the improvement is definitely evident.

Time: 9:17 (4/23 in AG, 57/330 OA)

Glad to be off to T1, and suprised to see the wife snapping photos

T1: ~1:30, no chip timing and splits for this race…times are worked into bike…I estimated based off pictures my wife snapped

20.5 mile bike

The bike course here is a speedway. The only notable hills are a short one climbing and interstate overpass and another on the return toward the interstate about 3 miles from the finish. Neither is difficult. Otherwise, the course is super-flat and fast and most of the roads are recently repaved or low-traffic country roads in good condition. I got my race wheels inflated properly for this race, but rain the day before limited my ability to test ride, so this would be their first real ride. Also, I didn’t think about switching over my speed sensor from my training wheels, so the bike PC was out of commission. However, I did have my Garmin305, but the fields weren’t setup to give me instantaneous speed. I could general tell how fast I was going, but the ride was basically all based on perceived effort. My goal was to really crush it and just see if my legs could survive the run. I think I may have held back some because I felt pretty fresh when leaving T2. Either way, it was a fast bike split and a new PR. I think I represented my new race wheels well and it was a fun ride on the rocket ship.

Time: 50:45 according to Garmin (24.2mph avg, 2/23 in AG, 8/330 OA)

Preparing to dismount at T2

T2: I felt a little unorganized here, and took much longer than I needed to. ~1:00 according to photo evidence

4.4 mile run

Starting the run

The run here is enjoyable, an out and back with a short loop at the turnaround. Almost the entire run is on multi-use paths and it winds through a couple small parks and the surrounding neighborhoods. It does have some short, steep climbs thrown in that can throw off your tempo. I got into my rhythm quickly and just basically even split it as far as I can tell. I haven’t looked at the Garmin data to confirm this, but it felt pretty steady. Before I knew it the home stretch had arrived and I did have pretty good kick through the line. I was tired to be sure, but not totally exhausted, so maybe left some time on the table. Once I settled down a bit I noticed it was really starting to warm up. I was glad we signed up early to get 6ish start time to avoid the bulk of the heat.

Time: 29:42 (6:44/mi pace, 2/23 in AG, 9/330 OA)

The home stretch

Total: 1:31:55 (2/23 in AG, 9/330 OA)

So, I hit my top 10 placing goal, but missed my time goal, although not by much and I can see where I could have grabbed seconds here and there. After the race I waited around for the rest of the family finishers and grabbed a breakfast burrito, one of the highlights of this race is the post-race breakfast burrito. We wanted to shower before hotel checkout and grab lunch so we could make the trek back to Cincy, so no hanging around for the awards ceremony was in order. For the family, we saw PRs across the board, and my sister’s BF also completed his first ever tri in a very solid time. Now, it’s a couple long training weeks, then back at it long-course style with Muncie Endurathon on July 10.