Race Result

Racer:	Brad Payne
Race:	3Sports Sprint Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, July 25, 2004
Location:	Richmond, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Male 35 - 39
Time:	1:08:57
Overall Place:	78 / 357
Age Group Place:	14 / 37
Comment:	First rain race--but rewarded for persistence!

Race Report:

As I mentioned in last year’s report, the 3Sports Sprint Tri in Richmond is an ideal introduction for a novice triathlete intimidated by open water swims as the swim is done in a pool using a "serpentine" course through all six lanes. Despite the use of timing chips, transition splits are morphed

300m Swim + T1: 5:57
12 mile Bike: 36:21
T2 + 5K Run: 26:39
Final: 1:08:57

Pre Race
I grew up just a few miles from the racecourse so this is sort of a homecoming for me. Despite the fact that my number one fan is now eight months pregnant, I figure if we "pull a Brady," that my BRAT (baby RAT) will simply be born in the same hospital that I was born. Because of aforementioned pregnancy, Eagleman had been my "A" race for the season. Showing up for anything else would be gravy. We had not even loaded my bike into the back of my car at Cambridge when the Frau declared that "Your [butt] is mine!" So the last month I’ve been preparing the nursery, some other home improvements, and going to "baby school" while my training volume diminished significantly. When I did get opportunities to train, I made them short and intense hoping to inject a little speed into my legs for this race--as an opportunity to let it all hang out, a shakedown, or simply "pummel" (apologies to Guzek).

However, it had rained all week in Richmond, and it was coming down pretty hard Sunday morning. I had never raced in the rain, and come to think of it, I had never done any road riding in the rain either. So I had to rethink my entire clothing and transition strategy. I was also worried about becoming road pizza so I made doubly sure my wheels were properly inflated aligned, and the brakes were working properly.

Swim
It’s a pool swim, and we all start 15 seconds apart. I caught myself taking off at 100m pace on the first lap and made myself relax. It paid off as I was FINALLY able to RUN through the entire transition. Extra bonus, the transistion area had been moved from a muddy field to part of the parking lot!

T1
This was the first race in which I was pleased with my T1. I didn’t bother changing into a jersey and simply finished the race in my Zoot pants. After much agonizing, I decided to indeed change into socks since I never ride or run or without them, and I didn’t want to violate cardinal rule of "NEVER DO ANYTHING NEW ON RACE DAY!" However, I had to leave my glasses behind as they fogged up once I put them on. In addition, it was still pretty dark at ~7:20 AM so I was worried about visibility.

Bike
I hammered the first few miles at 24 mph, but months of training at 18 mph just couldn’t be undone. After trying to chase down Brady, Dave, and Steve last weekend when they decided to teach some smart ass “a lesson,” I learned that lots of base doesn’t necessarily translate into speed. It was driving rain out there too, but I don’t think it adversely affected my speed. I just treated the turns rather gingerly and pre-squeezed my brakes to dry them out on each approach. In the end, I had dropped off to 17-18 mph. Ironically, my average mph was HIGHER at Eagleman even thought that ride was almost five times longer.

T2
Not as good as T1. My dismount was pretty sloppy, and my shoes did not stay dry in the plastic bag I had left them in. They were difficult to tighten up and came untied several times during the run.

Run
This season I had really suffered on the run as I was probably leaving my legs on the bike course. I actually felt pretty good on the 5K and ran steady eight minute miles when I wasn’t dealing with loose shoes. I did lose a few spots on the run, but I did cross the line nine minutes faster than last year!

Post Race
They were still lining up athletes for the swim when I crossed the finish line, and I took pregnant #1 Fan back to my parent’s house and out of rain so she could go back to sleep. I had a hunch that the post race was worth sticking around for…

When I got back to the race, there were still people coming out of the water and into T1 so I knew it was going to be a long morning. Bethany and I hung out for a while as she was the only other RAT that made the trip that I knew of. Finally, at 12:30 they started the awards ceremony (mind you I crossed the finish line at 8:30), and there was hardly anyone there. They got tired of calling out names for door prizes so they started to simply throw prizes into what crowd was left...including bottles of hammer gel! I caught a bottle motivated purely by self-defense rather than desire to win! However, for the big prizes, they did meticulously call names until someone actually won. So after they called out twenty other names ahead of me, yours truly walked away with the XTERRA wet suit they gave away! Woo hoo!

I had initial "dreams" of actually trying to place in my age group. If I had maintained my early bike pace I may have had a shot. The larger field brought faster competition as well. My wet course time in last year’s dry but smaller field would have put me dangerously close for an award. More incentive for next year...

Another observation was that earlier this spring, Triathlete magazine asked, “What kind of triathlete are you?” After answering the questions, my score indicated that I favored sprints despite my recent penchant for the challenging long races. Sure enough, at Eagleman, I finish in the bottom third, at Columbia, in the middle, and as the race distance diminished further to this sprint, I finish in upper 25%. I shouldn’t be too surprised as I was a "fast twitcher" as a kid, and I guess in my old age, I’ll just have to settle for being a slower fast twitcher:)