Race Result

Racer:	Fabrice Guillaume
Race:	Kinetic Sprint
Date:	Sunday, April 20, 2008
Location:	Spotsylvania, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Male 30 - 34
Time:	1:32:28
Overall Place:	73 / 371
Age Group Place:	16 / 63
Comment:	Splash, splash, splash,.... Damn mud in my shoes

Race Report:

Pre race
========
I woke up at 5am, checked the weather and it was indeed a rainy day with thunderstorms everywhere....
I had my breakfast and drove over the race site (1h50 drive).
I met Stacy at the chip pickup place. She had raced the HIM the day before.
I then met Dave Orton, Shawn and Reid, and finally Kevin.
I set up my transition area and hanged out with Kevin.

Swim: 750m 16:12 158/371 Men, 34/63 AG
====
I was in wave #3. The swim was a triangular shape.
I had quite a bad swim.
It's like everything I worked for at the pool this winter was gone. I could not focus on my stroke.
I was also hyperventilating in the first part of the swim. Had to stop a few times to catch my breath. I also did not do a good job at swimming straight.
Eventually, I got back into a decent rhythm.
As usual, this is my weakest sport and I need to keep working on this.

T1
==
Got off my wetsuit without pb. I put my helmet on, shoes on, grabbed the bike and headed out of the Transition area.
That's where I had to run in the mud. Getting our of the water with my time also meant a lot of people had already gone
through the same area which made it even worse (mud).

Bike: 18 miles 51:45 92/371 Men, 23/63 AG
====
Start of the bike was just terrible!.
I could not clip my shoe. I tried several times to take out the excess of mud with my fingers, then water. Nothing worked.
I stopped, put the bike in the grass on the side, sit down and forced the mechanism. It eventually worked with some water.
I guess I lost 1:30 easy on that. I was so upset, this probably gave me a boost of adrenaline.
Rest of the bike segment was no pb. I passed a fair amount of people and got passed by 5 or 6, 1 of them flying like a rocket (maybe it was Richy).
It was also fun to pass a guy in my AG, that would pass me again. we played that game 3-4 times before he gave up as I passed him while he was having a gel. This is also where I realized my gel was actually gone because of the rain. I had taped it on my frame but the water made the tape very weak and it probably fell. No big deal I though as this is a short race anyway. And I am not going to suffer from the heat today! :)
The heavy rain pouring down made seeing the up/down hills a bit hard. But overall, I did not suffer too much from the rain.

T2
==
No specific pb here except I had to look for a gel in my bag that was covered because of the rain. Got the wrong pocket, had to go for the other,....
Finally got a gel, a bottle of water and off I go.

Run: 5k 20:51 47/371 Men, 8/63 AG
===
I started running and I felt surprisingly good. So I pushed a bit up hill, then I maintained my pace for the rest of the flat and I used the downhill to accelerate in the last mile.
I passed probably 10-15+ people on the run which was a good moral boost.
I saw Shawn after mile 1 that told me "Catch me". That gave me another boost. I also saw Kevin and another fellow RATS.
I caught up with Shawn after mile 2 in the down hill. I was thinking, damn he is strong today after his HIM of the day before. Quite impressing...
I congratulated him, passed a few more people and finished the run.

Post race
==========
I stayed a bit at the finish to see Shawn, Reid and Kevin finishing up. Shawn and Reid were just awesome. They pulled out a nice race after their HIM the day before.
It was not the best day of Kevin though as he finished after us when he should have been way ahead of us. Looks like he had some hyper ventillation issues in the swim.
I did not see Dave Orton and Dave Cascio. They finished both a strong race in 1:23 and 1:20 respectively. Same with Debi in 1:32.
They probably had gone already. I also got to see our new RATS hard core biker Richy (Gendron). He had a great race too.
I did not stay too long because of the rain pouring down.
All in one, it was a good race. I will do it again. Hopefully, we get some sun next time...