Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon - Race Report

First Olympic distance triathlon, first wetsuit race, first race on my triathlon bike.

Things have changed a lot since I entered the world of triathlons at the Patriot Sprint last September. I finished that race feeling OKAY, but beat. I didn't pace myself well: I came out of the water light-headed, and then pushed too hard on the bike. The Monticelloman Olympic was completely different. I had a race plan and I executed it perfectly. Here are the important numbers, in case you want the short version:

Swim: 34:52 (2:24/100m)
T1: 3:24
Bike: 1:21:53 (3:29/mile)
T2: 1:36
Run: 58:00 (9:20/mile)
Total: 2:59:45

My swim time was significantly slower than predicted, my bike was right where I predicted, and I far-exceeded my run predictions, squeezing under the 3 hour mark.

For those of you who want to read the boring details, here's the full race report.

PRE-RACE

The race had an unusually late 9:10 start, so I got to sleep in later than normal: my alarm got me up at 4:00am. Showered, forced down a fried egg sandwich and coffee, and sipped on gatorade. We left the house at 6:00, encountered almost no traffic, and arrived at the race at 7:30. I ate a cliff bar in the car and then unpacked my stuff.

Packet pick-up was quick, and then I set up all my gear in transition. Despite getting there early most of the racks were already filled, but I found a spot somewhere near the front of my assigned section. 

We had lots of time to kill. By the time I had set up my gear and put on my wetsuit we had an hour to wait. The half-ironman race was starting at 8:30 but we opted to wait in the clubhouse instead of the cold beach. Did I mention it was overcast and windy? I was already dreading the swim and cold bike ride.

20 minutes before the start we headed down to the beach and waited. After some announcements from the race director the first wave (men 18-49) lined up on the beach. One young racer declared to everyone around him: "Okay, let's have a good clean fight, no punches below the belt, okay?" The race director counted down and then sounded the airhorn, and we were off!

SWIM

I'm in the very top-left

I ran in a few steps and then dolphin-dove under the water. It was so cold that it knocked the wind out of me. The first few strokes were painful as I tried to breathe, but after about 30 seconds the wetsuit did its job and warmed me up. I started near the back because I didn't want to get run over by faster swimmers behind me, but this just meant running into the people in front of me for the first 100 feet. After a few minutes I found some room in the water and managed to get into a good rhythm.

The course was a triangle: we were to swim out to a yellow buoy and turn right, swim down the lake to another buoy, and then swim back to the beach. Swimming in a straight line in a pool is easy because you have the tiles at the bottom of the pool to stare at, but in open water it's far more difficult. I have been practicing "sighting" at the pool, which means every 10 seconds or so looking forward out of the water to make sure you're still on course. I was doing this very well: every time I sighted I was still pointed directly at the yellow buoy. Plenty of other people were struggling with this and swimming diagonally or off-course.

I had clear room around me to swim for most of the first leg, but when we got to the first buoy things bunched up a bit. After swimming around it I positioned myself to the outside to make sure I had plenty of room again. It worked, and I never bumped into anyone for the entire second leg of the swim. However, halfway through this leg I started seeing green swim caps passing me: these were the 40+ men in the wave that started 4 minutes behind me. The first one passed me very fast, and I would later find out he was the overall winner.

I got to the 2nd buoy, and more people were bunched up here since more green caps had caught up to the first wave. I rounded it and started the final stretch still feeling good. My arms weren't tired, though my shoulders felt a little numb from the cold. At this point a woman in a pink cap (the third wave, women 18-40) was swimming next to me. I breathe to my left, and she was breathing to her right, and we swam alongside one-another for several minutes perfectly in sync, facing each other every time we breathed. She eventually pulled ahead and left me in the dust, and I considered pushing myself to keep up with her but decided to stay conservative. I popped out of the water feeling great, exactly on plan. However, I was not happy with my time: my watch said 34-ish minutes, much slower than I expected. Finishing under 3 hours would be tough.

Note the fast green caps from the 2nd wave that had caught up to me.

BIKE

I ran up the beach and into transition, stripping the wetsuit to my waist while running. I had no trouble finding my bike in the 200+ feet of transition area. The two bikes that were racked next to mine were already gone, so I had plenty of room to sit down and go through my transition routine: strip wetsuit, dry feet, put on socks/shoes, put on cycling jersey, put on helmet/sunglasses, grab bike and GO! 

The beginning of the bike was uneventful. There was a dangerously-steep hill in the first mile, which was a "no passing zone", so everyone coasted until then. Immediately after that was a big hill to climb, and that was the trend of the day: downhill, uphill, downhill, uphill. I was suddenly very glad that I do all of my long rides at the hilly Yorktown Battlefield Trail. 

The course was pretty crowded for the first few miles, and I passed a lot of people struggling up the hills. The nice thing about biking on hills is that your legs get a break when you coast down the other side, and this definitely helped keep my legs fresh. As one of the "larger" triathletes (195 lbs) I get a lot of momentum going downhill as well. There was one woman in a white jersey who leapfrogged with me for several miles: we seemed to pass one-another every few minutes. Some of the faster riders passed me, but in general I passed more people: at the start of the bike I was in 219th/351, and finished the bike 184/351.

20 minutes into the race I passed two guys with flat tires within 50 feet of one-another. I said a silent prayer to the tire gods, since I didn't bring the tools to fix a flat. I will be bringing them on longer races, but for something as short as an Olympic I didn't bother. The roads were also open to cars, and although they were infrequent it did add some extra danger to the race. The speed limit was 35 but several cars were FLYING by only one foot next to us, and we later heard that someone on a bike got hit by a car. Thankfully that didn't happen to me.

I was really enjoying the race. The course was on beautiful wooded back-roads, and the sun was starting to come out. I yelled words of encouragement at every person I passed, and every person who passed me. I executed my nutritional plan perfectly too: I drank gatorade every 5:00, and consumed a gel pack and some caffeine after 20:00 and 60:00 on the bike. I never felt thirsty, and had plenty of energy the entire ride.

Bre was waiting near the end of the bike to snap some pictures:

The end of the bike was a pain: we had to dismount and then run about 300 feet with our bike before entering transition. This isn't easy to do in bike cleats! There was no clock here to show us what time it was, but after that hilly bike course I knew I would have to run a fast 10K to end up under 3 hours. Not likely. 

RUN

Transition 2 was much easier than the first one: rack bike, remove helmet, take off shoes/socks, put on running shoes, put on race belt.

Right from the start on the run I felt fantastic. My legs felt fresh, as if I hadn't been swimming/biking for the previous 2 hours. Bre was positioned to see me right at the beginning of the run:

Please excuse my terrible, terrible running form here.

After passing Bre, I realized the run was going to be just like the bike: rolling hills for 6.2 miles. The first hill was demoralizing for many people, as I saw several racers forced to walk up it. Thankfully my legs felt fresh and I cruised along as if nothing was wrong.

A few minutes into the run, when I realized my legs were good-to-go, I pushed the pace. I didn't have my GPS on me, and there weren't any mile markers on the run course, but it felt like I was close to a 9:00/mile pace. While this is a great pace for me, most people are still faster: I started the run in 184th/351, and finished in 201/351. There were water/gatorade stops roughly every mile, but I felt so energetic that I only took water. 

At one point the woman in the white jersey from the bike course passed me and said "We're going to cross the finish line at the same time! We've been leap-frogging all day!" I laughed and told her I would catch up to her, but I never did: she was hauling ass. 

Sometime around the 40:00 mark an older guy (in his 40s?) tried to pass me. I pushed myself to keep up with him, and we ran side-by-side for a little while. "I thought I was going to be able to pass you, but I guess you've got a lot left in the tank," he said to me with a laugh. We ran with each other for a good 15 minutes, chatting the whole time: his name was Ben, and he lived in Charlottesville, working in the Army. Chatting helped keep my mind off the blister forming on my right foot, and we pushed each other. Finally I said "I'm going to try to surge at the end" and we split up. 

My watch said 55:00 when I left Ben, and I figured there was about 1/2 mile remaining until the finish line. I pushed myself but still left a little bit in reserve, wanting to finish strong. Suddenly I rounded a corner and the finish line was a hundred feet in front of me, sooner than I expected! I sprinted the final length, and the clock at the finish line said 2:59:30. I had given up on finishing under 3 hours, so seeing this pumped me up. I yelled "COME ON!" and fist-pumped when I passed my wife, and finished feeling pretty damn good.

Fist-pumping at the finish

Finish Time: 2:59:45

201 out of 351 (Overall)

153 out of 225 (Men)

17 out of 23 (25-29 Age Group)

Some take-aways from this race:

• I can swim faster. While I think the course was longer than 1500 meters, I was very conservative on the swim and my time was much slower than I expected. In the Jamestown Olympic on June 8 I want to push myself much harder and finish ahead of a lot of people. I hardly use my legs at all while swimming, so it's only my arms that I would be wearing out.
• I got a good feel for pacing in this race, and now it's time to tweak things a bit. In my next race I want to take it easy for the first 15 minutes on the bike, push myself for the middle 40-50 minutes, and then take it easy again for the final 15 minutes before the run. 
• 1 bottle of energy drink on my bike was perfect for this race: I sipped every 5 minutes and ran out only a mile before transition. It may not be enough in a hot, sweaty June race though. I may bring a second bottle with me in my next race.
• Hill training on the bike is important. I saw tons of people struggling with the hills, and I had no trouble with them at all.
• My run fitness is exactly where I want it to be. I wish I knew my mile splits, but I know I was consistent throughout the run. 
• I loved this race. I felt great in all three parts, and enjoyed myself. I will definitely be racing again next year. 
• Triathletes are friendly, supportive people. Most people who passed me (or got passed by me) said some words of encouragement, and I reciprocated. It feels good to be friendly to the people you're racing with/against, and makes the entire experience more enjoyable. Especially for someone like me who has no chance of making the podium any time soon.
• Although the Patriot Sprint was my first triathlon last September, finishing this race was the first time I truly felt like a triathlete. How you feel when you finish a race can be far more important than the race result itself.

Now that I've completed an Olympic distance triathlon, the next distance to tackle is the Half-Ironman: 1900meter swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. I'll be doing that in Williamsburg in June, and I feel confident and ready. Bring it on.