Sheriff Sprint Triathlon Race Report

May 1st I was originally planning on racing at the Greenwich Biathlon.  However, after the other 2 Tri Guys could not make it, the 7am start time way down South in Greenwich became a lot less appealing.  Instead I made the decision to try something new and head North to Ludlow, MA for a pool triathlon.  Since I registered the day of, the entire pack of pre-registered people went first since they had submitted swim time estimates with their registration.  The day of registration group went after.  While waiting, the 15 of us spoke to each other and got ourselves into order so we wouldn’t have to pass each other once underway.  We did a great job with the seeding and I actually probably had an easier, less congested swim by starting with this smaller group.

Getting underway, heading toward the first wall.

I forecasted a time of 5min flat for the 300 yard swim (1:40/100), as I had the intention of trying to put in a good bike and run split.  I could have swum faster but I wanted to stay nice and controlled, well under the red zone.

 

The best part of the pool swim is the opportunity for close-up swim pictures!

Exiting the pool, I was right on track with my estimated time – hitting 4:56 for the swim.  This was 33/135 (top 24%) overall and 4/9 (top 44%) in my age group. 

  

The race did not do time splits for transition, including T1 with the bike and T2 with the run so the following times are from my Garmin.  T1 was literally right outside the door of the pool.  Although nice and sunny the temperatures were only in the low 60’s so I took the time to dry off quickly and add some arm warmers before heading out on the bike.  That surely cost me a bit of time, but I was out of T1 in 1:50.

The bike course was advertised as 9 miles, but I knew it was about 0.4 mile shorter based on prerace reconnaissance on Google.  The course also featured nearly 300 feet of climbing, working its way up and then a short steep downhill with flatter roads at the start and finish.

With the short course, I was really able to push hard on the bike.  I was pretty pleased, and since we started after the slower preregistered  swimmers I was passing a lot of riders.

 

Here are some shots approaching T2:

I finished the 8.61 mile bike in 25:19 which works out to an average speed of 20.6mph.  This put me 34/135 (top 25%) overall and 5/9 (top 56%) in my age group.

 

T2 was a lot faster, in about 42 seconds.  It was getting warmer on the run, so I threw my arm warmers off to my support crew as I ran out.

Unlike the bike course, the run was actually slightly long – advertised for 3 miles but clocking in at 3.25 miles.  The course was flat, with the exception of a short hill at the 2 mile mark.  I wasn’t feeling great starting the run and had to slow down to bring the heart rate under control.  Once I accomplished that about 3 minutes in I tried to settle into a good pace and pick off some runners ahead. 

 

My effort level was pretty consistent, with the first mile in 7:57 then a little slower to the top of the hill and the two mile mark, crossing in 8:25.  The third mile was 8:11 and the push to the finish was at 7:23 pace for the last quarter mile.  Final run time was 26:07 which was 50/135 (top 37%) overall and 5/9 (top 56%) in my age group.

 

Just before the finish:

 

I crossed the line in 58:51 which was ahead of my goal of 1 hour flat.  I was pretty happy with the race, although clearly I need to see some more sun to work on my pasty arms and legs.

 

After looking at the results, I was only 11 seconds out of 4th place.  So on one hand I got in a smooth swim starting after the main group of competitors, but I lost the ability to see if I was close to someone in my age group out on the road.  This was a fun race, and hopefully it will fit into the schedule for next year.

 

	Time	Distance	Pace	AG Place	%	Overall Place	%
# Entries				9		135
Swim	4:56	300 yards	1:39/100 yd	4	44%	33	24%
T1	1:50
Bike	25:19	8.61 miles	20.6 mph	5	56%	34	25%
T2	0:42
Run	26:07	3.25 miles	8:08/mile	5	56%	50	37%
Total	58:51			5	56%	40	30%

 

Also here is another chart that I am shamelessly stealing from a blog I read.  The idea is to show where I gained or lost time.  Since the field was small, here are all my fellow M30-34.  The baseline is the winner, and the chart represents how far behind everyone was after each discipline.  I am the red dashed line – notice how similar my splits are to 4th place – the lines are almost on top of each other.  This also tells me that I lost a lot of time on the run against the green line, but passed the orange line during the run.  Relative to 1st and 2nd, I still am losing the most time on the run (as expected). 

 

Thanks to my support crew for keeping me company on the long wait to start, and for the awesome pictures!