TDD Triathlon Race Report

This was my second triathlon and I was really looking forward to trying out my new wetsuit in the swim. It took place at the Douglas State Forest, a place I am familiar with because I hiked part of the Mid-State trail there last year. Saturday morning I arrived early and got a prime parking spot right near the entrance. Since it was so early I just wandered around the beach area for a while until the line formed to get race numbers.

After I got my number I got all my stuff over to the transition area, put my bike on the rack, and laid out my stuff next to my bike. I got my bearings in transition and then practiced going from the water to my bike so I know exactly where it is and won't get lost on my way there.

About 20 minutes before the start I put on my wetsuit and got in the water to see what the water was like. The water was fairly warm on such a cold morning, probably warmer than the air. This was also my first time racing in a wetsuit and I was eager to find out what my time would be like.

Then they had us all line up on the beach to start in waves for the 1/4 mile swim. I stayed on the side and near the back of my wave. My wave went first running into the water from the beach. I guess it's not surprising, but I didn't realize how difficult it would be to run through the water to where it was deep enough to start swimming. I held back for 5 or 10 seconds so I wouldn't end up hitting the feet of the people in front of me. Jumped in and got to the first buoy, swimming in a heads up style almost the whole way since so many people were around me. After the first turn it thinned out and I could put my head down and go a bit faster. I only just recently got enough coordination to more comfortably go between breathing every third stroke and every other stroke to take air more often, so that helped me keep a faster pace and not have to pause to catch my breath as much.

When i got out of the water there was a long run through the grass to the transition so I had ample time to get my arms an shoulders out of my wetsuit as I ran. I got to my bike and pulled off the wetsuits legs. I think the body glide on my ankles here helped a lot when getting it off. I put on my bike shoes, going sockless this time since I had been practicing without socks to help make transition faster. I dried my face and hair with my towel, put on my bike helmet, glasses, and bike gloves and ran out of transition with my bike.

The 11 mile bike course was quite hilly and they started right away with a gradual climb. I tried to conserve my energy on the hills and keep it in reserve so I could change into a higher gear at the top of the hill and cruise down the other side in the aero bars. This was my first race with aero bars and they came in very useful going down hill, though I didn't use them as much as I though I might since there the course was kind of crowded in spots and I wanted to be on the brakes. On the final down hill stretch I hit about 35mph, the fastest i've gone on the bike yet!

There was a dirt path one had to ride down to get to transition and I nearly wiped out on the dirt and gravel on my bike before dismounting. Narrow road tires don't like dirt gravel paths. Somehow I managed to stay upright and I got into transition and got pulled off my bike stuff and slipped into my running shoes. No socks here either, and I had bungie laces too which I think helped me cut a bit off my T2 time. As I was running for the exit I realized I still had my bike gloves on, so I turned around ran back to my area to pull them off, lost some time there. I realize now I probably could have just stuffed them in my jersey pockets and saved some time. The 3 mile run started out going up the same first long hill as the bike. My running legs didn't seem to adapt as quickly as I thought they would and felt tight during the whole first half of the run. At the turn around point they started to loosen up a little bit and I was able to pick up my pace a bit on the way back to the park.

Around the turn into the park and then one final small hill and then it was all downhill to the finish line. I was happily surprised by my time of 1:23. This time I even undid my own timing chip and handed it to them. I grabbed a water bottle and some post-race food and watched some other people finish.