No Ham, Just Fun

Once again, I welcome my guest blogger, Melissa. 

It's been three weeks since the Smithfield Sprint, and I've had some time to reflect on it. A sprint distance race, Smithfield was intended to be my season opener, a race that would get me back in the swing of things after a long break from racing. My last race was in June of last year, when I did the "I Love the Tavern" sprint tri in Richmond. That race had a 650 meter open water swim, downstream in the river, 18.6 mile bike leg, and a 5k run that I died on due to the heat. 


So, on April 6th, we traveled to the ham capital of Virginia. Yup, a place where the water tower says "Smithfield: Ham, History, and Hospitality". That's right. HAM was first on the list, not history or hospitality. Too, too funny. Too bad I don't like ham. Or bacon. Or pork chops...but I digress.

 

Fortunately, the weather for Smithfield cooperated nicely. The temperature was in the low 50's, which was perfect as far as I was concerned. We arrived early and had our transition area set up in plenty of time, so we proceeded to warm up in the pool. For a race like this, the warmup (for me) is really just about mental comfort. The race started at 10 am, but because racers are "dropped" into the pool about 10 seconds apart, my start time was actually 11:38 am. The pool closed for warm ups at around 9:30, so that gave me two hours to wait around for my start time. As you can imagine, all the benefits of warming up your muscles have worn off during that waiting time. So, for me, the warm up is just mental-- making sure I feel mentally prepared, plus it helps me relax too. AND, the pool was warm! Almost warm enough to be called a bath. Kind of nice, actually. Had the swim been longer than 300 meters, I would not have liked it that warm. But 300 meters is not long enough for my body to really get too heated up, so it worked out ok.

And this time around, I had something to keep me occupied during that wait: My Dad and brother had come to see us race! What a treat. It was really great to see them, and I enjoyed their company as we waited together. I was glad that I was able to share this event with them, and that they could get a better feel for how these races work.

My swim time ended up as a 6:33.  Not terrible, but not the best I can do either. In retrospect, I did not really dive under the lane lines on the turns, like I should have. This probably added to my  time quite a bit. So much for mental preparation! I am not sure how I missed that one, but I did.

As I exited the pool, there was my Dad and brother cheering for me. Awesome! It is always so nice to have someone cheering for you. I ran into transition #1 and did not dilly-dally. Even though I know I am not going to win (or place) in these races, I don't like to waste time in transition. I was able to keep my T1 time to a 1:37, so I felt good about that. The funny thing about transition, though, is that while it's happening, I always feel like I am moving in slow motion. I ranked 3rd in transition times (in my AG), so I guess I was going faster than most.

The bike course- FUN, FUN, FUN! I loved this bike course. As I headed out of T1, again, my family cheering for me. Awesome. What a boost that gave me. The course was mostly flat, with one steep but really short hill, so I powered through it and kept on going. I averaged 15.4 mph on my bike leg, which is really good for me (10 miles, total time 38:11). In my races last year, I only averaged between 13.9 - 14.5. So, I am improving, which is sort of a relief, because sometimes it's hard to tell!

My T2 time: 1:27. No time to powder my nose-- I had a 5k to run!

The run course was a fairly easy out and back. Even though the sun had come out, it was still cool enough out to have a good run. According to my Garmin data, it was 52 degrees at the time of my run. I had my best sprint tri-run to date at a 9:59 average pace. The course was a tad short at 2.96 miles, but I didn't care. At that point, shorter is better.

Overall, it was a great race experience, and I would highly recommend the Smithfield race to anyone who wanted to dip their feet into the tri-waters, so to speak. I realize this race report is a bit dry, and is a rather straightforward reporting of the event. I don't have a moving story of overcoming cancer and finishing my first tri, like this guy. But I do, at least once per race, reflect on how lucky I am to be out there, doing what I'm doing. I'm not the fastest, but I am happy with the incremental improvements I've made, and grateful that I have the ability to at least be in the race at all.


What's up next? The MonticelloMan Olympic distance triathlon on May 5th. This will be roughly double the distance of the sprint tri, and my FIRST olympic distance. This of course, will be a good warm up for my main race this year, Raleigh 70.3 (another first). I'll be back again as a guest blogger after the M-Man tri, but in the meantime, you can read about another first for me this year in a previous post, where I wrote a race report about my first half marathon. Cheers.

Smithfield Sprint Triathlon Race Report

There is something about a Sprint Triathlon that is extremely fun. To me anyway. The Smithfield Sprint was no exception. Going into the race, I knew that it would be short. And as Craig Dodson from RCC always says, “the shorter the interval, the higher the intensity.” With that in mind, I calculated I could finish the race is just over one hour if I kept the hammer down throughout the race.

While the race started at 10AM, since it was a pool swim where swimmers go off one at at time every 15 seconds, my start time was not until 11:32. Unfortunately this meant my swim warm-up ended at 9:30 or so and then I had to wait quite a while for my start time. Plus it was cold and breezy outside. Walking around in a wet tri suit was not actually that comfortable. Mostly we waited inside but I did have to go outside a few times.

Finally it was my time to line up. I lined up in the order of my race number which was based on my predicted time to finish the pool swim. While in line, I chatted with a few of the guys, watched some teammates swim who were in front of me in the line, and thought about the upcoming race. My goal for the swim was to push myself a little but not go all out.

When it was my turn to swim, I pushed off and started down the lane. I caught up to a few people in the first 100 yards. Everyone was nice and let me pass them. I noticed that I was gaining time on people at each wall. Some people were dunking under the lane line and then pushing off the wall. I simply pushed off and swam under the lane line which saved me a couple of seconds on each wall. In swimming, a couple of seconds adds up quickly.

I felt really good on the swim and exited the pool feeling pretty pumped. T1 was just outside the pool exit. I quickly made my way to my bike and geared up. Considering I had to put on my Garmin plus two knee braces in addition to the helmet, socks, and bike shoes, I think my T1 time was not bad: 1:54. I tried to make up for the extra time it took to put on my knee braces by running very fast with my bike through transition to the bike exit.

Once on the bike, I wasted no time ratcheting things up. I knew that I had to push it hard for the entire bike segment. The bike leg was only 10 miles and I wanted to try to get it done in 30 minutes which would mean I would have to average 20 miles an hour which is pretty fast for me.

The bike course was great. There was very little traffic, smooth roads and the turns were well marked. Also, it was mostly flat. Definitely conducive for hammering. Usually on the bike leg of a triathlon, I am passed by lots of men and women. They catch up to me and fly by as if I am out for a Sunday stroll. This time, however I was passed by 1 guy. I was passing people this time around. Let me tell, that felt good and served as fuel for my fire.

It turned out there was quite a bit of wind on the course which did end up slowing me down slightly. I was not able to manage 20 miles an hour so I missed my arbitrary 30 minute time goal for the bike. But I still felt great on the bike and was pleased with my time of 33:09.

In T2, I did have a little trouble with my shoes. I had pre-tied them and while I had practiced at home, putting them on in transition proved to be harder than when I had practiced in my bedroom. But I got them on and got moving. My total T2 time was 1:37.

Once out on the run course, I was in my element. Running off the bike is always fun for me. I see people in front of me and I am driven to catch them. So one by one, I pick them off. Little kids, men and women of all shapes and sizes. One by one, I push past them. In this particular race, I felt really good on the run. I have been doing lots of high intensity workouts in the month of March and I think it paid off during the race. Once I got to the turn around, I knew I would be able to keep up my pace and have a good finish. As I approached the finish line, I noticed a young woman in front of me moving pretty fast. She was my final extra motivation: one more person to pass. So I kicked hard and booked it through the finishing chute for a run time of 21:23. My Garmin said the course was slightly short at 2.96 miles but I was still very pleased with that time.

My total time for this race was 1:03:59 and I ended up with 5^th place in my age group. There were 27 total in my age group: M 45-49. I was quite pleased and had a really great time racing. Now it time to focus on the next thing. Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.

Jim