July 20, 2014 - TriRock Olympic Triathlon
I did it! On Sunday I completed my first Olympic Distance Triathlon. TriRock was held at Aurora Reservoir in Aurora Colorado and included a 1500 meter swim, 24.8 mile bike ride and a 10 kilometer run. This is my biggest accomplishment since the marathon in January and I'm feeling quite happy with myself!
On July 1st, I visited Endurance House for their weekly group run. They were giving a free entry to TriRock away and I was hoping to win. Unfortunately I didn't win, but did receive a nice discount and a free TriRock technical shirt, so signed up for the event. While at Endurance House, I also won the raffle for one of their technical shirts. Normally, to earn the shirt, you have to attend ten of their group runs, so I was quite fortunate winning on my first visit.
On Saturday, my wife and I drove to Aurora to pick up my race packet at the Expo. There were a handful of vendors there but nothing like typical Rock-n-roll race events. The race packet included a nice red swag bag from TYR as well as the typical race necessities (swim cap, race bib, bike stickers, timing chip). There was also a very thorough pre-race meeting that answered all my questions about the event.
On race morning I arrived at the reservoir about 540am. There was plenty of parking real close to transition. The transition spots were pre-assigned. I wasn't totally thrilled with my spot but did my best to memorize where it was. I think the spots were assigned by age group as there were at least 2 other folks in my age group right next to me. I recognized one of the guys from a previous triathlon, so we chatted a bit about what to expect on the course. Once I setup my transition, I surveyed the area and figured out the logistics. About 630am I put my wetsuit on and headed down to the water. Transition closed at 645am.
The weather was in the high 60's and the water temperature was about 68 degrees at the start. The water temperature felt great to me as I worked on getting my heartbeat up before the race started. About 645am, the announcer gave some last minute instructions and then they played the national anthem. I really appreciate it when events start with the national anthem. I think overall US patriotism is kinda low these days and we should work on raising it back up.
After the national anthem, I downed a Powergel and some water. At about 7am the Olympic distance women were off and my wave entered the water. Around 703am my wave took off. It was kinda crazy at first but I found a lane pretty quickly and just paced myself for the long swim. We were swimming into the sun but I was still able to see the buoys. The other really cool think is the buoys were clearly marked with the number of meters (100, 200, ..700, etc.) traveled so we knew how far we had swam. There was someone drafting off me for the first 500 meters or so. I was kinda getting irritated as he kept smacking my foot. When I took a wrong turn at 500 meters, he was gone (LOL). I thought I saw everyone turning and realized quickly that I went the wrong way so corrected. This probably cost me 30 seconds or so. After the wrong turn, the swim went great. I passed several folks in my wave as well as several women. With about 300 meters to go the water got pretty congested as we merged in with the Sprint Triathlon folks. With around 200 meters to go I started kicking real hard and this really helped when I stood up out of the water at the finish.
As I exited the water I pulled my goggles onto my swim cap and pulled the top of my wetsuit down to my waist while running up the steep hill to transition. The Skin Strong Slik I sprayed on my arms and legs before putting on my wetsuit really helped in removing the wetsuit. I felt really good coming into T1 and my swim time was right about where I expected it would be. Once I got to transition, everything went fine until I went to put my bike shoes on. When I setup transition, I had mistakenly left the latches and velcro closed on my bike shoes. When I tried to open the latch on my right shoe, I discovered it was jammed! I tried everything I could think of but couldn't free it and couldn't get the shoe on. This was so very frustrating and it took me several minutes to free it. I finally (out of utter frustration) smacked my shoe as hard as I could on the bike rack and it freed. If this hadn't worked I'm not sure what I would have done. I was so relieved that I could finally put my shoe on! My T1 time was horrendous but I decided not to let it ruin my day and to be grateful that I was able to solve the problem.
My nutrition plan was to drink both water bottles on the bike ride and to consume 2-3 Powergels. I knew the run was gonna be tough due to the high temps so tried to prepare. My plan went great and I really felt terrific on the entire bike ride. I passed several folks including a couple Tri-bikes. It's a good feeling when you pass a Tri bike while riding your road bike! The course was really tough with rolling hills one after the other, but I finished and my time was right about where I expected it to be. When I finished the ride and entered T2, I felt great and was hoping for a 10K run under 1 hour. T2 was kinda slow but not horrible.
The temps at the start of the run were mid 80's. Pretty warm but I was hoping for the best. For the first four miles, the run went great, I averaged about 9:45 per mile and felt like I had plenty of energy. Around 12 minutes into the run, I ate a Powergel and still felt great at the 3.1 mile turnaround. Somewhere after mile 4, I hit some sort of a wall. The run course was rolling hills the whole way but for some reason I reached a point where I needed to walk. I wasn't winded and my legs felt fine but I just couldn't run. The last 2 miles I walked quite a bit and averaged about 11.5 minutes per mile. This was frustrating and the only thing I can attribute it to is the heat. I did finish the run strong and ended up being only 5 minutes over my goal.
Overall I was very happy with my time and thrilled to discover I was 4th out of 7 guys in my age group. It was also nice to see Phil Wang at the finish. He did the Sprint. It was fun to discuss our accomplishments and we also got a picture!
My splits were:
Total time: 3:16:55.30
Swim: 33:43.84
T1: 8:50.78
Bike: 1:27:32.53
T2: 1:44.92
Run: 1:05:03.24
4th out of 7 in the Male 55-59 category
62nd out of 104 Men
95th out of 187 Overall
Next up for me:
16 August - Tour de Cure Century ride
On July 1st, I visited Endurance House for their weekly group run. They were giving a free entry to TriRock away and I was hoping to win. Unfortunately I didn't win, but did receive a nice discount and a free TriRock technical shirt, so signed up for the event. While at Endurance House, I also won the raffle for one of their technical shirts. Normally, to earn the shirt, you have to attend ten of their group runs, so I was quite fortunate winning on my first visit.
On Saturday, my wife and I drove to Aurora to pick up my race packet at the Expo. There were a handful of vendors there but nothing like typical Rock-n-roll race events. The race packet included a nice red swag bag from TYR as well as the typical race necessities (swim cap, race bib, bike stickers, timing chip). There was also a very thorough pre-race meeting that answered all my questions about the event.
On race morning I arrived at the reservoir about 540am. There was plenty of parking real close to transition. The transition spots were pre-assigned. I wasn't totally thrilled with my spot but did my best to memorize where it was. I think the spots were assigned by age group as there were at least 2 other folks in my age group right next to me. I recognized one of the guys from a previous triathlon, so we chatted a bit about what to expect on the course. Once I setup my transition, I surveyed the area and figured out the logistics. About 630am I put my wetsuit on and headed down to the water. Transition closed at 645am.
The weather was in the high 60's and the water temperature was about 68 degrees at the start. The water temperature felt great to me as I worked on getting my heartbeat up before the race started. About 645am, the announcer gave some last minute instructions and then they played the national anthem. I really appreciate it when events start with the national anthem. I think overall US patriotism is kinda low these days and we should work on raising it back up.
After the national anthem, I downed a Powergel and some water. At about 7am the Olympic distance women were off and my wave entered the water. Around 703am my wave took off. It was kinda crazy at first but I found a lane pretty quickly and just paced myself for the long swim. We were swimming into the sun but I was still able to see the buoys. The other really cool think is the buoys were clearly marked with the number of meters (100, 200, ..700, etc.) traveled so we knew how far we had swam. There was someone drafting off me for the first 500 meters or so. I was kinda getting irritated as he kept smacking my foot. When I took a wrong turn at 500 meters, he was gone (LOL). I thought I saw everyone turning and realized quickly that I went the wrong way so corrected. This probably cost me 30 seconds or so. After the wrong turn, the swim went great. I passed several folks in my wave as well as several women. With about 300 meters to go the water got pretty congested as we merged in with the Sprint Triathlon folks. With around 200 meters to go I started kicking real hard and this really helped when I stood up out of the water at the finish.
As I exited the water I pulled my goggles onto my swim cap and pulled the top of my wetsuit down to my waist while running up the steep hill to transition. The Skin Strong Slik I sprayed on my arms and legs before putting on my wetsuit really helped in removing the wetsuit. I felt really good coming into T1 and my swim time was right about where I expected it would be. Once I got to transition, everything went fine until I went to put my bike shoes on. When I setup transition, I had mistakenly left the latches and velcro closed on my bike shoes. When I tried to open the latch on my right shoe, I discovered it was jammed! I tried everything I could think of but couldn't free it and couldn't get the shoe on. This was so very frustrating and it took me several minutes to free it. I finally (out of utter frustration) smacked my shoe as hard as I could on the bike rack and it freed. If this hadn't worked I'm not sure what I would have done. I was so relieved that I could finally put my shoe on! My T1 time was horrendous but I decided not to let it ruin my day and to be grateful that I was able to solve the problem.
My nutrition plan was to drink both water bottles on the bike ride and to consume 2-3 Powergels. I knew the run was gonna be tough due to the high temps so tried to prepare. My plan went great and I really felt terrific on the entire bike ride. I passed several folks including a couple Tri-bikes. It's a good feeling when you pass a Tri bike while riding your road bike! The course was really tough with rolling hills one after the other, but I finished and my time was right about where I expected it to be. When I finished the ride and entered T2, I felt great and was hoping for a 10K run under 1 hour. T2 was kinda slow but not horrible.
The temps at the start of the run were mid 80's. Pretty warm but I was hoping for the best. For the first four miles, the run went great, I averaged about 9:45 per mile and felt like I had plenty of energy. Around 12 minutes into the run, I ate a Powergel and still felt great at the 3.1 mile turnaround. Somewhere after mile 4, I hit some sort of a wall. The run course was rolling hills the whole way but for some reason I reached a point where I needed to walk. I wasn't winded and my legs felt fine but I just couldn't run. The last 2 miles I walked quite a bit and averaged about 11.5 minutes per mile. This was frustrating and the only thing I can attribute it to is the heat. I did finish the run strong and ended up being only 5 minutes over my goal.
Overall I was very happy with my time and thrilled to discover I was 4th out of 7 guys in my age group. It was also nice to see Phil Wang at the finish. He did the Sprint. It was fun to discuss our accomplishments and we also got a picture!
My splits were:
Total time: 3:16:55.30
Swim: 33:43.84
T1: 8:50.78
Bike: 1:27:32.53
T2: 1:44.92
Run: 1:05:03.24
4th out of 7 in the Male 55-59 category
62nd out of 104 Men
95th out of 187 Overall
Next up for me:
16 August - Tour de Cure Century ride
Comments
Post a Comment