Rocketts Landing Triathlon Recap

Sunday dawned hot and clear.  I was very excited to be competing in my first triathlon.  My alarm woke me at 4:45am, although I was probably up every hour on the hour, worried I would oversleep (I do that before every race).  Anyhow, I ate my standard pre-race PBJ sandwich, prepared my water bottles with ice and gatorade, packed up my gear and headed out to the transition area.

Arrived at the race around 5:30.  It was 82 degrees.  Luckily, a number of folks were already there setting up.  Not knowing how to set up a transition area, I just copied what everyone else did:  racked my bike, laid out a towel with bike shoes, running shoes, helmet, jersey, socks, hat, sunscreen.

I got my body marked (number 8's on both arms, both quads, and left calf, age on the right calf).  Around 6:30, I went down to look at the swim course.

Basically, an out-and-back in-the-water-start course, swimming upstream in the James around a small rock island and then back to the dock.  I decided to swim a few strokes to warm up and, I thought, cool down from the heat.  Of course, the water temperature was about 86 degrees.

Swim Portion
Anyhow, 7am rolled around.  I was in the second wave start (7:05), air temp still 82 degrees.  The first wave started, and we jumped in the water, swam out to the starting buoy and had  to tread water about 3 or so minutes until the air horn went off signalling our start.

I felt much more at ease swimming this time than I did at the Chesapeake Bay Open water swim.  Maybe it was because I was now used to open water swimming, or maybe it was because the James was much much calmer than the Bay (with almost zero current), or maybe because the start line was much more spread out so there was no Cuisinart-start.  Most likely, some combination.  Anyhow, I went right in to a very comfortable and, I think, strong stroke. Although I had not practiced it much, my sighting technique was surprisingly very good.  I never had to breaststroke to do sighting.  I even passed some slower swimmers from the first wave (and yes, I was passed by stronger swimmers from the third wave).

I rounded the rock island and headed back to the swim finish.  Could I have swum harder?  Perhaps, but I wanted to swim conservatively, not knowing how my energy would hold out for the full tri, and in the heat.  Did I mention that it was like swimming in a bath?  Also, at times the river smelled a little like the port-a-johns I visited pre-race.  Good thing I only swallowed a few mouthfuls of that water. Yikes!!

Anyhow, I finished the swim in 28:18.  74th out of 267 overall and 13th out of 38 in my age group for the swim portion.

Transition 1
Out of the water, we ran across a set of train tracks, along a carpeted path across rocks, through two hosing stations, up a very long flight of stairs, down a long street, and finally entered the transition area.

I dried off my feet, slipped on my socks and cycling shoes, put on my jersey (with number) and helmet, swallowed two salt tablets with some gatorade, grabbed my bike gloves and was off to the bike start.

Total T1 time: 3:11.  137th overall and 21st in my age group.  Okay, here is room for improvement #1,  I need to get this done a lot quicker.

Bike Portion
The bike portion was a lovely out-and-back on the back roads east of Richmond.  We rode passed corn fields and horses and cows.  It was flatter than I would have thought with only a few rolling hills.  The air temp was about 83 degrees when I started.

Overall, I was very much impressed with my bike portion.  I kept well hydrated, drinking about every five or so minutes.  I took a GU at the beginning, at 30 minutes, and at 60 minutes.

I kept to my strategy of using a lower gear at higher cadence.  It seems  that is what everyone else does as well.  As other athletes passed me (yes, I was passed quite a bit on the bike, although I did pass about 10 cyclists myself), I could see that most of them were not in the highest gear either.  I reserved the highest gear only for when I was heading down a large hill (I reached speeds of 34 mph).  This strategy definitely seemed to work, as my overall speed was 18.8 mph, about 1 mph faster than any of my previous training rides. 

Funny thing about heat and the bike.  The constant movement created a nice breeze so I never felt hot, yet I was still dripping with sweat from the heat.  Good thing I stayed hydrated and good thing I downed the salt tablets.

Anyhow, I finished the bike in 1:19:09.  131st overall and 23rd for my age group.  Room for improvement #2.  I need to get better on the bike.

Transition 2
The air temp was now around 90 degrees as I dismounted and ran my bike back into the transition area.  Re-rack the bike, rip off the gloves, take off the helmet, switch shoes, down two more salt tablets, then out to the run portion.

T2 time: 1:38  183rd overall and 23rd in my age group.  Do you see the pattern?  Room for improvement #3.  Gotta learn to switch shoes faster.

Run Portion

The run was an out-and-back along the Richmond canal walk, across the Mayo Bridge, along the River and back.  At mile 2 (and 4) there were ice-cold sponges (what a treat) and water/powerade at 1 (and 5) and the turn-around.  The only downside -- there were a lot of steps, including a huge flight of steps that we had to go and up down (twice) to cross a set of train tracks.  Who put those there??

Anyhow, I maintained about a 7:16 pace and passed all those folks who blew passed me on the bike.  I felt great.  The finish line finally came in sight and I finished very strong.

Run time: 45:07.  19th overall and 3rd in my age group.

Overall time:  2:37:21.  48th out of 267 finishers overall, and 10th out of 38 in my age group.  Not too shabby for my first triathlon ever.  Can't wait until the next one...