Lake Murray Triathlon

I was pretty excited to do this race as it was a) only my second triathlon, b) guaranteed to be less of a suffer fest than New Orleans because it was 'only' a sprint, and c) racing is just plain fun...

750m swim (in Lake Murray)
16mi bike
5.1mi run

14th overall, 1st in 25-29


Swim: 12:21 (23rd overall, 4th in age group)
The swim felt pretty rough at first. I didn't warm up before the race (smart of me...keep making these rookie mistakes) so the first 100-150m felt pretty awful. I got a claustrophobic feeling which was a little weird. It was a little chilly with a light breeze in the morning and everyone was wearing wetsuits so I decided to go ahead and wear mine. I was in a front pack of ~5 from my wave from the best that I could tell but apparently I didn't even have a top 20 swim time. According to my watch, my swim was 11:58 and my T1 was longer than setup is saying it is. Oh well. Arms were a little tired towards the end. I was surprised that I was this slow given the amount of work I felt I was doing. I'm going to put that on the number of yards I've swam this week and the tough workout Friday.

Transition 1: 1:50
Couldn't get my wetsuit off and my timing chip was falling off so I had to take off the timing chip; struggle to get the wetsuit off; put the timing chip back on and get on my way. I was pretty pissed.

Bike: 40:41 (20th, 1st)
Got going on the bike with a nice flying mount and my legs didn't feel too great. Tight and not really responding well to the work I wanted them to do. I had lost so much time in T1 that I was pushing pretty hard from the get-go to make up time. People in front of me were pretty spread out but there were a couple of groups clumped together. My legs finally started coming around at about mile 10 and I pushed well to the finish. Unstrapped the shoes 200 yds before T2 and made my way back into transition. Went through maybe half a bottle of water on the bike, but it wasn't hot yet.

T2: 1:04
I have my T2 at :40 so I guess something was wrong somewhere. Not sure how it can be inaccurate with the chips but oh well. Threw on my shoes (no socks) - I was going with the Piranhas today, it's been about a year since I've worn those - and got underway.

Run: 17:19 (3rd, 1st)
Had a really fast transition (at least compared to my first one) and got going on the run feeling pretty good. My stride was nice and loose and my breathing was totally under control. I found a rhythm almost immediately and started picking off people in front of me and went through the mile at 5:30. Kept going and grabbed some water at the first aid station then hit the first turnaround. My legs felt great on the flats and downhills but fairly useless on the uphills; I tried to counteract this with shorter strides and that seemed to help a bit (more hill repeats?). My right calf started getting a little tight and I went through mile 2 in 11:45 (I think mile 1 was short). I finished pretty strong and felt like I had a good amount left in the tank as far as the run went. My legs definitely felt good today; I was pleased with that. According to my watch, my run time was 17:38; sadly I don't think I PR'd in the 5k today but I still felt strong.



All in all I'm pretty pleased with this race. Yes, my bike wasn't that fast considering the amount of work I've been doing but it's all about exercising patience when it comes to getting faster. I'll begin to see the effects of my base training and good work sometime (maybe not soon, but someday it'll happen). Yes, my transitions could have been faster but that comes with inexperience. Like I said before, it was only my second triathlon and placing 14th overall isn't a bad thing.

White Lake Half (Ironman) this Saturday. It's basically the Charlotte Half Championship as virtually every triathlete is doing it, so we'll see how it turns out. All I'm looking for is going under 4:49 and maybe running a little better. Luckily for me, those two things probably go hand in hand...