Chasing Chics Triathlon - Race Report

Before I get into the details of the race, I want to describe something new I tried for this race. Recently, I have read a couple of different articles about race day nutrition that suggest eating 800 to 1000 calories 4 to 5 hours before the race. Most races start early in the morning making it difficult to eat that far in advance. However, a couple of coaches recommend waking up at 2:30AM, having a big smoothy, and then going back to bed. So I decided to give it a try. It worked out pretty well and I will probably start making this a race day practice. I lost 45 minutes of sleep which gave me a total of about 5 hours of sleep but I had extra time to digest my smoothy before my vigorous swim.

Triathlons are different than other races because of all the gear involved. The night before the race, I packed my race bag which includes the following items: knee braces, swim goggles, bike helmet, bike gloves, bike shades to keep bugs and sun out of the eyes, running shoes, socks, small towel, food, and extra water. Gathering all this gear and making sure it is all in the bag can be a bit nerve racking. I usually end up checking and rechecking my gear a few times before I feel comfortable going to bed.

The morning of the race, I put on my race suit, loaded up the gear, bike, and bike pump, and then had my morning toast with peanut butter and hot water with lemon. We got to the venue about 6:20AM which gave me plenty of time to rack my bike in the transition area, get my body marking done, and use the bathroom about 5 times. Let's just say I was very well hydrated for this race. Maybe a little too hydrated.

I ended up doing some practice laps in the pool as a warm up. It was a little intimidating to be next to some of the guys who were warming up next to me. The guy in the next lane over was Kyle Pawlaczyk who is a Pro Triathlete based out or Richmond who also coaches at Endorphin Fitness. Endorphin had a number of racers competing in the race.

Pool swims work as follows: Racers are seeded based on their predicted swim finishing time (self reported). Their start time in the pool is based on their seed. Once the race starts, the first swimmer starts by kicking off the wall and heading down one side of the lane. The next person waits 15 seconds and then kicks off the wall and is on his way. Racer number 3 kicks off after another 15 seconds, etc. After going up the lane, swimmers will kick of the wall and return down the same lane but on the other side of the lane line. Once the swimmer returns to the wall, he goes under the lane divider and continues down lane 2. After going up and back in lane 2, he again goes under the lane divider to go up and down lane 3, etc., etc., until finishing the 12 laps (this race venue only had 6 lanes).

For this particular race, 3 very fast women racers got a 9 minute head start on the rest of the field. These women each had their own lane and started at the same time. The idea was the all men field would be chasing them down (hence the name of the race). Whoever came across the finish line first got $500.

I was seeded 83 based on my 7 minute predicted swim time. Since I was so far back in the race, by the time it was my turn to swim, the race had been going on for about 30 minutes or more (each racer has his own clock time which is recorded when he starts the race). I waited patiently although I was nervous. Here are a few pictures of me waiting for my turn to swim. Actually the first picture is a picture Melissa snapped of me before we went inside to the pool. It was a bit chilly. I mostly wanted to show you this one so you knew what I was wearing so you could more easily pick me out in the other pictures. The lighting was not so good so some of the pictures are grainy.







Even though this was a controlled pool swim, it was still a bit nuts. The water was sloshing around and was a bit turbid. Once I got about half way through, the following thoughts went through my mind, "What am I doing? I don't belong here. This is crazy. I am signed up for 3 more of these things. What was I thinking." I kept going though. And according to Melissa, I maintained good form throughout. I did have to pull up a few times to avoid some collisions. Here are a few photos Melissa snapped of me swimming in the pool. In the first picture below, you can just make me out all the way up against the wall as I swim my first 25 meters. My head is right about next to the chair.



Below I am about in the center of the picture with my elbow up in the air.



Here is another one of me in lane five still looking pretty decent.



I was pretty darn winded when I pulled myself out of the pool and started the barefoot run out of the pool, up about 15 wooden stairs, and across the parking lot to the transition area. It did not take me long to get my wind back. By the time I got into the transition area my heart rate had gone down quite a bit.

Transition 1, or T1 as it is known, took me a little longer than some of the other guys. I had to put on my knee braces and I opted to put on a long sleeve shirt since I tend to get chilly on the bike. After donning my riding gear, I ran out of transition. It is against the rules to mount the bike in transition. In Triathlon, we have to run out of transition and beyond the mount line before we can get on the bike. Melissa snapped a few pictures of me running in my bike shoes out of transition. Running in bike shoes is actually kind of difficult.




The 13 mile bike was fun. It is nice to be able to go all out and not worry about the intersections. All of the major intersections were being controlled by the local police so we did not have to stop for traffic. I felt decent on the bike. Just a little gimpy but not too bad at all. I did get passed by about 3 or 4 bikers on serious Tri bikes. Everyone is so polite in Triathlon and always say encouraging words as they pass.

After the bike, I removed all my bike gear and my shirt and headed out on the 3.1 mile run. I passed another runner right away. After a few early turns, I set my sites on the next people I would pass. I saw a group of 3 guys running about the same pace. It was time to pick them off. Boom, three more guys who I would beat. I kept running hard and managed to pick off about 3 more people before nearing the finish line. As I made my way towards the finish, there was one more victim in front of me wearing a green shirt. The volunteer waving us towards the finish said, "catch green shirt." My reply? "Oh I got him." As soon as I passed him, I kicked it into high gear and had a very strong run finish. Here is picture of me running towards the finish. It is a bit blurry but I think you can see I was running well.



I must say I enjoyed myself a great deal despite the moments of doubt at the beginning in the pool. I don't know what all my splits were for each discipline but they had preliminary overall results posted. I was 60 out of about 105 racers with a time somewhere around 1:19:30. Not bad at all in my book. I do have to kick it up a notch if I want to compete well in future triathlons. But I think this was a good start.