Discipline: My Life as an Amateur Athlete: Rumpus in Bumpass Roundup

My heart was racing and I was sucking air something fierce. I had just pulled my head up out of the water during the first 10 minutes of the swim leg of the Rumpus in Bumpass International Triathlon for a little breather and to get my bearings. I had not been swimming for that long really. Perhaps I went out too fast, perhaps I am used to swimming 25 meters and then hitting the wall for the turn around. Perhaps both.

In an open water swim, there are no lane lines and no walls. I am used to swimming in the pool with lane lines, lane dividers, clear water, and kicking off the wall every 25 meters. More importantly I think, I am used to the 1-second breather I get when I hit the wall and turn around. This 1-second recovery actually adds up and makes swimming longer and faster much easier. When I reach the end of the lane, I grab the wall, take a breath, and then push off going the other way. Unfortunately, while swimming this way does improve technique and increase my swim fitness, my overall swim fitness suffers slightly when I swim this way in the pool. This translates into taking breaks while out there in the open water and makes it hard to get in the groove.

After taking my first breather, my heart rate calmed a little and I was able to start swimming at a more even pace. I was still mostly breathing to one side and taking a breath on every stroke. Ultimately that was slowing me down. My form has a lot to be desired but it has improved, especially when I breathe to both sides every third stroke. Later in the race, I did get into the three stroke breathing groove and I noticed a huge difference. My hips started to rotate better and I noticeably sped up and starting to run into people in front of me. But before all that, I was struggling.

While taking another breather and coughing up some of the yummy lake water that I had inadvertently swallowed, I starting thinking something that I always seem to think about during the swim leg. "What was I thinking? I have no business being out here." I also think about some of my long-term goals to do a full Iron Distance race someday and I think, "No way could I do it! I can hardly make it through this 1500 meters!" But I pushed my doubt aside and kept on trucking. I knew it would eventually be over and I could move onto the next leg where I could breathe whenever I wanted to and I would not have people kicking me, swimming over me, etc.

After rounding the last yellow turn buoy and heading to shore, I knew I was almost done and that my swim time would be acceptable. Not great but not terrible. At the end of the swim, there were 4 0r 5 steps to climb to get out of the lake. I was a little wobbly climbing the stairs. As soon as I got across the timing mat, I started to work on getting out of my wetsuit. Now you might think that running through the grass towards transition while unlatching the back of the wetsuit and grabbing the zipper pull to start unzipping the suit would be a fairly easy task. I have seen many people do it. However, my body was having nothing of it. So I decided to just raise my goggles and run for a bit and fiddle with the wetsuit later. Finally, the land stopped moving from side to side, and I was able to start unzipping the wetsuit as I ran to my bike.

When I got to the bike, I took a queue from another racer and mimicked the way she took off her wetsuit. She stood on the wetsuit and then yanked her foot out. I did the same thing and after a couple of attempts, I was free. As quick as I could, I put on my cycling gear, unracked my bike and ran out of transition to the road. I quickly mounted my bike, started my watch, and started pumping my legs. While other riders were fiddling with their shoes or settling in, I was on my way in a low gear with a very high cadence to get engine going and to climb the hill. Starting on a hill seems to be a theme at some triathlons. Always fun.

It seems that I could possibly be a climber. I passed a number of riders on this first small hill. Some of them eventually passed me once they got cruising. Also, later in the race, when we hit some turns followed by hills, I passed more people. Again, most of these people would eventually pass me. The hills were short lived. I am not convinced I am a climber but I do need to investigate that possibility.

I still have long way to go with my bike training but I have also made great strides over the winter in improving my technique, understanding my body, and getting my cadence up. As we all know, Force x Velocity = Power and sustained power is what matters in a cycling race. I was able to push it harder on the bike than in past races. Also I discovered another technique that seemed to work very well for me. And I discovered it by accident.

As I made my way across the causeway on the first loop of the two-lap bike course, the wind really hit me. I noticed that the riders on time trial bikes who were down in the aero position did not seem to be as affected by the wind. Taking a queue from these racers, I settled into my drop bars. Up until this point, during training and racing, I had not really rode much at all in my drops. I instantly went faster. I could feel the difference. Luckily we had done one leg drills in our drops at RCC and I think that helped. I was able to maintain my power plus get the advantage of a more aerodynamic position. I raced the rest of the race in the drops. And since I have a road bike with SRAM Rival shifters, I was able to shift gears without moving out of position. Finally, while riding in the drops, I felt more like a bike racer rather than someone out for a casual ride.

Thankfully there is not too much to report about the bike portion. I had no mechanicals, was able to take on about three servings of Vanilla Hammer Gel with water and about 16 ounces of HEED, and most importantly, I had a blast. At two different points in the bike portion of the race, I was passed by some Pro K racers. Of course that pumped me up and make me ride faster to try to keep them in my sights. I ended up finishing the bike leg just behind Jill. I said hello and then ran down the driveway towards transition.

My T2 time was much shorter than T1. In just under 2 minutes, I ran to my bike rack, secured my bike, changed shoes, put on my knee brace and run visor, reset my watch for running and headed out the back of the transition area.

The first part of the run was down a gravel hill. I passed a number of people who were probably not used to running on gravel. My trail running experience helped me here I think. I was able to go flying by a number of people. At the bottom of the hill, I took a short Porta John break. What a relief. And then I was off, climbing back up the gravel hill. I passed some people who were walking up the hill and a few slightly slower runners before cresting the hill and taking on some water at the first water stop.

It was starting to get hot so I decided that at each water stop, I would take some water. Mostly I wanted it to help cool me down. I would take one small gulp and then either pour the rest on my head or down my pants. Yes, down my pants. I saw Mirinda Carfrae doing this during the Ironman Championship and thought I would try it. It really worked great to help cool my core temperature. The cooler the core, the greater the performance. It is all about blood flow. If the core is hot, more blood gets diverted to cooling processes and less blood and fuel goes to the muscles needed to run.

I felt great on the run. Much of the run was on gravel road with a few hills. I flew down the hills, passing many people on the way. I had overheard several people before the race saying that they had never run on gravel. My trail running was paying off big time. There was only one guy who passed me on the run towards the end and I was not able to catch him. What a blast!

In the end, my times were not super great compared to my peers but I am happy with my performance. My swim time was 33:46 for the 1500-meter lake swim. For the bike, I did the 23 miles in 1:17:57. Finally my 10K (6.2 miles) time was 49:07. Throw that together with a 4:25 T1 and a 1:48 T2 and I ended up with a total time of 02:47:02. Not too shabby for my first Triathlon of the season. I placed 324th out of 511 men. My age group results have not been posted. Once they are posted, I will let you all know how I stacked up against men age 40-44.

And finally, here is some fun stuff. The pictures. Thanks to Melissa for taking the pictures, cheering me on and all the great support she gave me. Another great day on the farm.