Race Result

Racer:	Kevin Shaw
Race:	Reston Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, September 9, 2007
Location:	Reston, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group:	Male 45 - 49
Time:	2:25:46
Overall Place:	70 / 322
Age Group Place:	16 / 66
Comment:	My third Tri and first Reston!

Race Report:

What an awesome event this is. This is a great local race with, in my opinion, some very, very competitive and talented athletes. There were 630 registered Triathletes and 473 actually made it to the start line. This was my third and my longest triathlon event so far as the swim leg is one mile. There were322 total men 63 in my age group (AG 45-49) that started the event.

The Swim

I ended up in wave 4 of the swim. Standing at the boat ramp of lake Audubon with all the other participants listening to a violinist from the National Symphony Orchestra play the Star Spangled Banner (in a wetsuit as he was also a competitor) as the sun rose was simply beautiful.

Soon enough the first wave was off and swimming the out and back swim course. Waves were set to go every three minutes and they went off like clockwork. We walked across a timing mat to register our chip and stood in the water waiting for our signal. I ended up in the front line but new I would let others pass me. I even offered for people to get ahead for the start but no one seemed interested. The horn sounded and off we went. It took me most of the out portion of the swim to get into some type of rhythm. I had difficulty sighting the markers. There were two main packs one went the route to the middle of the course, while one stayed to the right and near the bank. I was mostly in between but should have stayed right as it would be the most direct. Because of this there was really no one to draft off of as there were just about three of us that I know of in the middle all pretty much side-by-side. I think I might have been zig-zagging a little bit as I kept bumping into the person on my left and was trying to sight and make course corrections to minimize the distance I was swimming.

By the time I made it to the turn buoy I felt like I had gotten into a bit of a rhythm. The sun was now over the horizon and shining directly into our swim direction. This made sighting a bit more different, but since we were now pretty much all packed together it was a bit easier to stay on course. I was also able to begin a bit of a draft. I couldn’t really see the person in front, or their bubbles as the water was pretty murky but I could feel the change in the water. My main problem now was my swim cap felt too tight was giving me a bit of a headache. I had not experienced this before in any swim. We started to catch some people in the wave ahead of us (orange caps) which boosted my moral a bit and by the time we were half way back I started to spot some purple caps in the group so we were catching some of the wave in front as well.

The end of the course is a turn around the spillway and then back to the boat ramp. I exited the water and began stripping off the wetsuit. Crossed the timing mat and jogged to my bike which was racked pretty close to the mount line. Swim time 31:22 (24th in my AG: 124 overall). This should be too surprising as my swim training has really taken a back seat lately as the fall marathon and Ultra get closer.

T1

This transition was going to be a bit different than the others. I had never competed in a Tri where T1 and T2 were in different locations. As part of this transition, we had to pack our gear into a bag with our name on it. I was also trying something a bit new, I was into going to put on socks for the bike or the run, although I placed socks at T2 just in case I developed a blister or any soreness on the ride. I had only one training run of 5 miles with out socks and it went well so I thought it was worth the gamble. I almost knocked my bike over while I finished stripping off the wetsuit, but managed to keep everything upright. With everything in the bag I exited T1 with a transition time of 1:48 (11th in my Age group: 66th overall).

On the bike I tried to maintain a fairly easy pace for the first few of miles to get my HR down and ease into the task at hand (avg speed for mile 1-3 = 18mph). In retrospect I might have held back a little too much here and lost a couple of minutes. The bike course is three mostly identical loops, on the last loop you exit to another road to T2) I was passed by the really fast guys but did my own share of passing as well. Near the end of the second lap KonaKev passed me and was going so fast that by the time I shouted out “Go KonaKev” he was way ahead. On the third lap I was passed by number 355 who would have been in my swim group. His age on his calf was 47 as well, so I tried to stay with him. I ended up passing him back at mile 21 and he passed me again at mile 22. The dual was on, at lest in my head. I decide to take my feet out of my shoes and leave them cleated in as I coasted to the dismount line, hoping to gain a little advantage over 355 in T2. I kept 355 in sight at the dismount line but since there were three of us at the line it was a bit crowded. I think I saw him almost go over (fall) at the line and I started the Jog over the mat. Bike time 1:05:27, average speed 20.4 mph (26th in my AG, 111 overall).

T2

I saw Suzanne who was volunteering at T2 and she shouted out some encouragement. I racked my bike, slipped on my shoes (still no socks), my bib number belt and hat and jogged out of T2 with a time of 1:05 (10th in my AG, 38th overall) and ahead of number 355! I think that not putting on socks save me about 10-15 seconds and this felt like the best transition yet!

The Run
Reston run paths are generally fairly hilly and not a place I would think about getting a PR, and today was no different. The plus side of these runs in Reston is that they are very shaded and while a nice challenge, the are fun to run too. This was basically and out and back course with a finish on the track at the high school stadium. Early on the run I was passed by 31 year old women. I decided to try and keep her in my view while I determined what my legs would do. She was a pretty good runner who was picking off people left and right so I stayed with her and enjoyed the draft for a bit. The volunteers at the water stations were local girl scouts and they did a great job handing out water, Gatorade and encouragement.

I had a bit of an issue with my Garmin watch. I had set it up for multisport mode which meant that with each push of the lap button and it would switch from bike to transition to run mode. Unfortunately something went wrong, most likely operator error, and I had no idea what my current run pace was, So I was fumbling with the watch on the way out. Then the bib number on my belt got a tear in one corner and started flopping around. I knew this would annoy me so I slid it around a bit to the back to keep the flapping a bay and told myself to remember to bring it back around to the front at the finish. I was really hoping that nothing else, equipment wise would go wrong and began to wonder if my decision to not wear socks would come back to haunt me. I finally got it into run mode about .6 miles into the run. At least I could tell my current pace and HR but had no idea of my total run time.

I didn’t feel all that strong at this point and realized I had not done near enough brick workouts in training and was now paying the price. I think we finished the first mile in about a 7:45 m/mi pace. My goal at this point was just to keep it below 8: m/mi for the run and not blow up. Mile 2 was a 7:37 m/mi pace and I decide to dial it back a bit to make sure I had something left for the finish. Mile three was back to 7:43 m/mi and we hit the turn around.

I decided that the second half was time to put the hammer down and see what I could do. I passed the 31 year old woman and pushed the pace a bit. Mile 4 was 733. I saw Anna Bradford running in the opposite direction and said hi to her. I spotted Jim Nagle from the Reston Runners and decide to see if I cold hang with him for a bit. I kept right on his back, for about a quarter mile, I tried to pass, but every time I went left, he went left, I’d go right, he’d go right. I don’t think he was covering my moves, it was just the way it worked out as the path twisted and turned and runners approached from the opposite direction. I finally got a chance to get around and Jim gave me a nice word of encouragement. I saw Kevin Hart, who will be part of my crew for JFK50, coming the other direction and managed a hello to him. Mile 5 was now a 6:56 m/mi pace. For the last 1.2 miles I was really starting to hurt. However, every gap in the tree cover, I imagined was the stadium and told myself to just keep pushing. Finally one of the gaps was rally the stadium but that meant I had a nice steep climb to get there and half a mile to the finish. I pushed up the hill and was running behind the stadium. I passed the last water stop and debated taking a cup but decide that with just over ¼ mile to go that it wasn’t worth the time involved.

Suzanne was at the turn into the stadium and shouted out that I was looking good, sometimes she tells me fibs. I certainly wasn’t feeling good. Mile 6 was a 6:58 m/mi pace.

The Finish

At this point I was red lining and just trying not to upchuck on the track. Even though I felt awful, I felt great running on the track, I snuck a peak behind me to see if anyone was gaining and didn’t see anyone. I told my self to just coast it in and then told myself that was stupid, “keep pushing. Try to catch the shirt ahead.” Well that shirt was a bit too far for me to actually catch but I did gain some ground. I crossed the line, it was over and I didn’t throw up! Run time 46:06 avg pace 7:26 m/mi (9th in AG: 31st overall) and total time was 2:25:46 (16th in AG: 70th overall). Suzanne was there at the finish and it was great walking the track and recounting the race and trying to figure out how well I did. She thought I did pretty well and no matter what the clock said, that was good enough for me.

Overall it was a fantastic experience. I know I need to work on the swim, and bike ( a Tri bike would sure be nice too) and do more brick workouts. The decision to not where socks ended up a good one but I will train more with out socks to keep my mind at ease. The organization was good and the volunteers were out of this world!