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