I finished the CB&I triathlon! I had done the super-sprint in March, but this was my first "big-boy" triathlon. It was a 500m open water swim, 15 mile bike, and 5K run.
It was an unusually cold morning for May in Texas - air was 42 F and the water was about 68F. Standing around before the race started was the hardest part. I forgot to do several minor things, like tear off my gel packet tops, drink my "prime Gatorade", and check the wind forecast. I need a pre-race to-do list, not just a to-bring list. I did eat a Honey Stinger and filled my water bottle with Gatorade for the bike.
Overall
The race went pretty well: I finished near the top 3rd of my age group in the swim, then I got passed by everyone and their mother on the bike, but then made up on a little ground on the run and hit a new PR for a 5K on the run (26:34)!
After the swim, I was 28th in my AG out of 80. After the bike, I dropped to 55th, and then I passed a few people on the run to finish 49th. The guy who finished in 48th place was 1:58 faster than me, so even if I avoided the little errors (see T1), I still would have been in 49th place, so that prevents me from beating myself up.
Overall, I was in the 61st percentile of my age group and 46th percentile overall. My run time of 8:31/mile was only good enough for 62th percentile of my age group on the run, so that is an indication of the strength of the field. If you ran a 10 min/mile you were in the bottom 10%. I basically hit all of my higher goals. I beat the top goal for the swim by a few seconds, I missed the top goal on the bike by about 30 seconds, and then I crushed the run goal!
As you crossed the finished, they call out your name, so that was pretty sweet. Most important, I had a great time! It was fun just getting out there and being in the mix. There is a lot of great people in the triathlon community. I am already looking forward to my next one!
SwimIt was an unusually cold morning for May in Texas - air was 42 F and the water was about 68F. Standing around before the race started was the hardest part. I forgot to do several minor things, like tear off my gel packet tops, drink my "prime Gatorade", and check the wind forecast. I need a pre-race to-do list, not just a to-bring list. I did eat a Honey Stinger and filled my water bottle with Gatorade for the bike.
Overall
The race went pretty well: I finished near the top 3rd of my age group in the swim, then I got passed by everyone and their mother on the bike, but then made up on a little ground on the run and hit a new PR for a 5K on the run (26:34)!
After the swim, I was 28th in my AG out of 80. After the bike, I dropped to 55th, and then I passed a few people on the run to finish 49th. The guy who finished in 48th place was 1:58 faster than me, so even if I avoided the little errors (see T1), I still would have been in 49th place, so that prevents me from beating myself up.
Overall, I was in the 61st percentile of my age group and 46th percentile overall. My run time of 8:31/mile was only good enough for 62th percentile of my age group on the run, so that is an indication of the strength of the field. If you ran a 10 min/mile you were in the bottom 10%. I basically hit all of my higher goals. I beat the top goal for the swim by a few seconds, I missed the top goal on the bike by about 30 seconds, and then I crushed the run goal!
As you crossed the finished, they call out your name, so that was pretty sweet. Most important, I had a great time! It was fun just getting out there and being in the mix. There is a lot of great people in the triathlon community. I am already looking forward to my next one!
My age group started in the 2nd wave, only one minute after the pros. So we had one minute to get in the water and get our body and face used to the water temperature in one minute. There was no countdown or warning, just a horn, which caught many people off guard. I at least had my goggles on, but I forgot to start my watch. It wasn't on the right said, but I didn't try to fiddle with it. Later waves supposedly got at least one warning and 3-4 minutes.
I think the lack of warning did help to avoid a buildup of nerves. The swim went rather well. I found it easy enough to sight, because I just looking for a mass of people. I was only significantly off course once. The lake was so dark and muddy that it was impossible to find feet to draft off. Battling other swimmers was okay, in a way, fun, except when I got whacked which caused me to stop and look up once.
Two recent pool swims of 500m were 10:46 and 10:52, so my overall time was right in line. The advantage of the wetsuit was negated by not swimming in a straight line and the one quick stop. Total Time: 10:53
T1
It was so cold, I was worried about the wind on my wet body when I started biking, so I took the time to put on a skull cap, bike jacket, and gloves. I then tried to start my watch, but it was on the wrong setting and then I was fiddling with it. I had also rolled up my socks so I could put them on easy, but I found myself unrolling one of them. wtf, Chris? Total time = 4:12
Bike
I literally passed only one person on a mountain bike. I probably got passed by at least 50 people from all of the slower swimmers in my wave, and the fast folk from the waves behind me.
Despite my slow speed, I was happy to see some improvement. At the super sprint I did in March, I did 6.5 miles at 16.4 mph, so in 5 weeks of training, I improved to do over twice the distance at higher speed. Total time = 53:35: 16.8 mph
T2
My poor T1 time bothered me during the bike, so T2 was as efficient as I could be. (1:59)
Run
I hit a PR on the run by about 45 seconds! I was faster than my standalone 5k from January. I was expecting to be slower. I felt like I was running slow, but I knew from a previous bric that I was actually going faster. My watch was giving me some data that was in the 7-8 minute mile range, but I knew that wasn't true either. Total time = 26:34 8:31/mile
Awesome first Tri!! It is great that you had suc ha strong run after the bike. Your post is giving me some things to think about as my first is in 2 weeks!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Good luck in your first tri! Soak it in and have fun!
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