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.

Deer Creek Olympic Triathlon, Way too long Race Report

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.

Finish Line, pre-race

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.

Did anyone call for rain?

1500m Swim

First wave of the Olympic Tri – I’m in there somewhere

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)

Heading out for lap 2, notice the dangling water bottle

T2: Shoe change, grabbed my Trifuel hat, and onto the run

Time: 0:57

   Transitioning

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)

    The stretch run

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.