On Sunday June 14th, I competed in my first triathlon, an Olympic distance event. The 2009 Capitol View Triathlon and was held in and around Governor Nelson State Park just north of Madison. It was a perfect day for the event, although the temperature started creeping up towards the end. The event is put on by my friends at Endurance House, a great local tri store in Madison.
Packet Pickup
The packet pickup was held at the Hilton Garden View hotel on Madison’s west side. I showed up close to the end of the pickup time, and there were not too many people there. We had to fill out a USAT release form, which seemed kind of weird, because it was the single day event form, and I’m already a USAT annual member. Speaking of being a USAT member, I was never asked for my USAT membership card, even though it meant I had paid less for the entry fee.
There were some vendors at the packet pickup, but I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to check out the merchandise. Besides, I’ve spent way to much this season, even without buying a bike.
Pre-Race Thoughts
My goal entering the day was a finishing time of 2:40, with a stretch goal of 2:30 and a top 3 finish in my age group (based on last years results). For the stretch goal, I was hoping for a 25 minute swim, 1 hour 10 minute bike and a 50 minute run with 5 minutes worth of transitions.
Coming into the event, I had two concerns (I guess I should have had three), the open water swim, and the run. I managed to get in two open water practice swims, so I wasn’t coming in completely green. However I expected there to be some differences between swimming by yourself, and swimming with a large group of people.
The run was took place on the trails in the park, which are quite hilly in places. Based on some training I did leading up to the event, I noticed I lost about .5 mph when running off road, and I was afraid I hadn’t worked in enough hills.
Pre-Race Setup
I woke up at 5:30am and was on the way to the park by 5:50am, snacking on a cliff bar. I was extremely fortunate in that my parents live only 10 minutes away from the park. By the time we arrived at the park at 6am, people were already parking on the street, so I did as well. This resulted in about a 10 minute walk from the car to the transition area.
By the time I got to my transition spot, it was about 6:15, and there was a pre-race meeting in 30 minutes, so I didn’t have much time to set up, let alone do any type of warm-up (not that I was planning too anyway). I think I did an OK job setting up my transition area, but as you will read through-out the rest of the post, everything about my transitions needs improvement.
I got my body marking taken care of pretty easily, as a volunteer was roaming the transition area with a marker. There was nothing special about the marking, so I might just bring the same kind of marker with just in case things are getting tight. I made my way down to get my timing chip, and I should have brought my wetsuit with me, as after I was done using the port-a-potty, I had to get back to my transition spot, put my wetsuit and and make it all the way down to the beach.
By the time I got to the beach, the pre-race meeting was getting underway. There was nothing significant said during the meeting, except that the start was being delayed by 10 minutes because the support boats had not arrived yet. This did allow me some time to get in a little bit of a warm-up swim at least.
Swim
I lined up in the front of the group for the swim, but we were so spread out that there were maybe only 1-2 people directly behind me. I didn’t feel too pressured by other swimmers at the start, which was probably due to how far out we were spread, and the fact that I wasn’t trying to swim a tight circuit.
For the first 400 or so meters, I felt very out of place and poor form. My nerves finally settled down enough for me to remember what a good form felt like, and I was able to get into a comfortable rhythm for the rest of the swim. I stayed pretty much on the outside edge of the swim course, which caused me to swim further, but I had to deal with less people. I am hoping to be a little more aggressive with my positioning at my next event.
Coming out of the swim, I felt light headed and a little dizzy, which I had experienced on both my previous open water swims. I think it was a combination of the way I breath, and the cold water on the face.
I did perform my good deed for the day. On the way out of the swim, another racer ran up to me and asked for help unzipping his wetsuit. He had gotten in the zipper stuck in the flap that goes under the zipper. I’m surprised I was able to fix the zipper, while sloshing my way out of the water while being dizzy.
T1
I didn’t realize how bad my T1 was, until after I got home and looked at all of the results. I think I was 269th out of 277 racers on the T1 time….oops. The dizziness after the swim wasn’t a good start, and apparently I have really sensitive feet, because running barefoot in the parking lot was too painful, and I had to walk.
My transition area was at the far end from the swim, so I had a nice leisurely walk (I was in a race right?) to my bike. I feel I did a pretty good job setting up my transition area, so that wasn’t an issue, I just wasn’t in a hurry for some reason. I was overly paranoid about ruining my wetsuit, so I took my time getting it off. Next, I realized that my timing chip was so low on my leg it would cause problems with my shoes, so I had to take that off and re-adjust. Finally, I took way too much time drying my feet and putting socks on.
Bike
I really like biking, and like to think of the bike as my strength. I had previously biked the race course to get a feel for it, and I think this worked to my advantage. It allowed me to time a couple of my passes before and during some climbs.
After that not so stellar T1, I was able to make up quite a bit of time. I only remember being passed by 2-3 people, and was 49th overall on the bike. The only thing I can think of to improve upon (outside my normal training), is to be a little more aggressive. I need to use the passing rules to my advantage, in that once I get by someone, they have to drop back, which would allow me a few seconds of recovery before resuming my pre-pass pace.
T2
T2 was better then T1, but there is still room for improvement. Since I will be going sockless for the bike, I need to consider if I will put socks on for the run. Since my next run is twice as long, I think I’ll have to. I tried running without socks, and it wasn’t very comfortable. I just hope I don’t blow the time savings from T1 in T2 with the socks.
Run
The run was surprisingly good for me, and I beat my goal time by almost 3 minutes. I still can’t believe I ran close to 7:30 miles on trails. So I guess I’ll try to keep things the same for the run. I could probably use a little practice in drinking from cups while on the run.
After Race
I didn’t stick around long after the race. I took liberal advantage of the free Gatorade to rehydrate myself, but the greasy thin crust pizza did not look all that appealing. I like how you were able to get a print out with your results right away. Next year I plan on staying longer, as I’ll need to be present to pick up my age-group award 
Room for Improvement
T1 obviously needs some work, but it should be something I can take care of with a little bit of practice. I think just having one race under my belt will also help tremendously. I now know that my wetsuit is pretty durable, so I can get that thing off faster and not worry. I’ve been riding without socks, so I can cut that out and just try to dry my feet the best I can while putting my helmet on. I’ll also be attaching my gloves to my bike, and maybe even my sunglasses and worry about getting those on after I’m on the bike.
Results
- Total Participants: 17 Elite, 22 Collegiate, 238 Age Groupers = 277
- Age Group Ranking: 4
- Overall Age Group Ranking: 25
- Overall Ranking 40
Time Overall Place Event Place Swim 27:39.7 54 54 T1 4:37.3 117 269 Bike 1:09:56.5 49 33 T2 1:32.8 ?? 100 Run 47:05.8 40 38 Overall 2:30:52.1
The overall place and event place include the relay results as well. However I do not consider those who participated in the relay to be in the same event as myself, and USAT rules state that Age Groupers have to factor in Elites, but they don’t say anything about relay teams. I tried to adjust the placements in the above table by removing any times from the relay teams that were faster then mine.
Final Thoughts
Aside from a disastrous T1, I was pretty happy with everything else. I feel like I stayed well hydrated on the run (pretty easy to do so on the bike), although for a half-ironman, and in warmer weather I will need more fluids. The only other thing I can do is maybe be a very tiny bit more aggressive on the bike. I held back from passing a couple of times, and I was way to passive coming back into the park (trying to be a nice guy), and probably lost a minute or two.
Next up
My next race is the Spirit of Race half iron man distance event on July 19th. This gives me 4 weeks to ramp up to the half iron distances, and fix that embarrassing T1 time. As of right now, I’m looking to do the event in 5 hours or better.