Well here is my first attempt at a race report: On 9/8/07 I completed the Reeds Lake Triathlon. It was wonderful having so many friends and family there to cheer me on! I was placed in the first wave which meant that I was among the first in the water. The swim portion of the race felt the worst, the rented wetsuit that I was wearing was a size too small and severely restricted the movement of my arms making it very difficult to swim well. However, my training and the added buoyancy of the wetsuit helped me complete the 1/2 mile swim in just over 21 minutes, which was only 1 minute slower than my "best case scenario" time, so I was happy. I had been worried about getting out of the wetsuit since it can sometimes be quite a pain, but the Pam that I sprayed on my lower legs helped it to slip off my feet with no problem. My Transition 1 (T1)time was 1:55, which is REALLY fast for a total newbie like me (top 15% of the field for this event). The bike section felt really good, the error that I made was in not pushing myself harder at the beginning, I was trying to preserve energy for a big hill that I knew would be in the second half of the ride; as it turns out I had plenty of energy for the hill and some to spare at the end of the bike despite pushing hard for the rest of the distance after the hill. I finished the 17.2 mile bike course in just over 51 minutes which was still only 1 minute slower than my "best case scenario" time for that event as well. Coming into Transition 2 (T2) I had a clean bike dismount but then I ran my bike past my rack and had to backtrack which cost me at least 30 seconds, probably more. I started the run and it felt really slow, my weeks of 'brick' workouts paid off and my legs were able to handle the transition from bike to run without any problem, but I just felt like I was jogging. The whole run I felt really slow, but I focused on just running my own pace and picking "rabbits" in front of me to run down, most of the time I kept telling myself "it's all mental, just run faster." Well something must have worked because, despite feeling slow, I managed to finish the 4.9 mile run in just over 38 minutes which was 2 minutes faster than my "best case scenario" time.
Here is a breakdown/summary of my performance:
1011 Finishers
½ mile swim –
Time: 21:14
Rank: 851/1011
T1: 1:55
17.2 mile bike -
Time: 51:29
Rank: 401/1011
Rate: 20.12 mph
T2: 2:00
4.9 mile run –
Time: 38.27
Rank: 367/1011
Rate: 7:45/mile
Overall time: 1:55:09
Overall Rank: 444/1011
20-24 Age group rank: 31/50
Before the race I had determined that, based on my "best case scenario" times of 20 min swim, 50 min bike, and 40 min run, I should be able to finish the events in 1hr 50 min, but I failed to factor in transition times which meant my finishing time was almost exactly what I predicted based on my training. Clearly my swim has the most room for improvement and hopefully joining my local Master's swim program will go a long ways in helping me, but I also feel that just a little more bike training and a better bike race strategy could help me shave a few minutes off as well. The run will just take time and training to improve my pace, for this event I was very happy with how it went.
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