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Race Result

Racer: Keith Bohnenberger
Race: Riverwatch Triathlon
Date: Sunday, July 25, 2004
Location: North East, MD
Race Type: Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group: Male 35 - 39
Time: 1:43:55
Overall Place: 218 / 643
Age Group Place: 40 / 74



Race Report:



2003 Riverwatch splits
Total 1:47:58
Swim 0:21:59
T1 0:03:06
Bike 0:56:04 17.1
T2 0:01:46
Run 0:25:04 8.34

2004 Riverwatch splits
Total
Swim 23:10 1:45 pace
T1: 2:28
Bike: 52:54 18.1mph
T2: 1:52
Run: 23:30 7:50 pace

HR info:
160 avg for race;
149 avg for swim 169 ending;
157 avg for T1 153 ending;
161avg for bike 158 ending;
153 avg T2 155 ending;
172 avg for the run 181 ending


The week before the race I had to go on work travel which consisted of 0 exercise, lots of work, little sleep and lots of fast food... Got home from travel late friday afternoon and spent some quality family time before I gathered up some stuff Saturday afternoon and headed north. I met up with a high school friend who I convinced to try his first triathlon. We later hooked up with Micheal and Margaret and Chris Allen and his mom,dad and brother for some dinner.

Got to sleep around 10:30 or so and woke up a little after 5:00am. Ate some fig newtons and a banana and drank some gatorwater. We arrived at the race around 6:30 or so. I think it was around 7:00 when I realized that I left my bike shirt with pump and spare tube back at the hotel. It was too late to go back and get it. Ran into Doug before our swim heat and he suggested that I just go shirtless as opposed to wearing an extra cotton T-shirt I had. Jumped into the gasoline water and we were off. Our heat seemed very big. I fought for space all the way out to the half way point before I finally found some free space. At one point I battled with the same person for what seemed to be about a quarter of a mile and actually got punched in the face by his recovery stroke. I got out of the water and took a quick glance at my watch 23:11 ... not a stellar swim. I actually tried to focus and hurry through T1 but still took too long. I was psyched to hop on my bike but I was worried about flatting since I was a moron and forget my stuff at the hotel. As soon as I got through the first turn I started worrying about flatting even more. I immediately saw several people walking their bikes back with flat tires and saw several more on the side of the rode fixing flats. Not a good omen. I felt pretty good on the bike and pushed it up the hills (and down the hills) as much as I could. My goal was to avg at least 18mph which I had never done in a race. By the time I finished the bike leg I would guess that I saw at least 20 people with flats. It was very strange. I made it through T2 feeling pretty good. Right at the beginning of the run, some girl said something like, dont slow down you are my motivation, which I replied, you are bummin. She thought I was pacing her but after that it was really the opposite. We stuck together and kept a pretty constant pace for the whole run. I would later find out that this person was a friend of Rat Amanda.

After the race I found out that some donkey put a bunch of tacks on the road which is why there were so many flats. Brad confirmed this and pointed out that a license plate number was taken of a suspect. May he get what he deserves.

After a rough week of work travel it was great to be out there. I was reasonably happy with my overall time but not very happy with my swim time. I definitely wanted to avg at least 18mph on the bike and met that goal. Last year Riverwatch was my first ever triathlon so it was fun doing the same race and comparing.

It was fun seeing a bunch of rats out there (mike, doug, margaret, diana ...) and meeting Chris Allen. He is a very impressive young man and has a very interesting race report. Hopefully he will share it with you all.


Next up: Reston.


Keith