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3/13/13 - Update
The results for the race are out. My time of 52:25 got me 14th place of 21 males and 21st place of 45 overall racers. This rank wasn't as high as I would have expected, seeing everyone in my heat, but the first and third heat must have had some studs! I did beat the race's average time, which was a little over 55 minutes (55.06 min). The top time was 43:23, or about 9 minutes faster than me. My swim was "awesome" and my bike was about as good as it could get (120 RPM max), so these guys must have had great runs. I would place better in an event with a longer swim, as that seems to be my strongest discipline. My wife's time was 53:03, putting her 8th of 24 females and 24th of 45 overall racers.
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Today was the 5th year for the JCC Indoor Triathlon, I think. Either 4th or 5th. My wife and I signed up for the race last week, and it is the first "real" triathlon either of us have ever done. The race has three consecutive parts, a swim, bike, then run. The swim is in their 4-lane indoor lap pool, covering 200 yards (8 total laps). They had about 20 Spinning bikes in the hall outside of the pool for the 10 mile bike section. Then, you had to run through their fitness center and up some stairs to get to their indoor track for the 3 mile run (1/8th mile loops, 24 total loops).
The race had 43 total entrants as of Saturday morning, and we were both in the 9:15am wave. There was a walk through at 8:45am and numbering at 9:00am. My wife was #32 and I was #33. Not known to us at the time, but the order we checked in was the order we were numbered and the order we entered the water. Someone started the swim every 30 seconds, until everyone was on their way. Our wave was 18 to 34, so I was near the end. People were swimming serpentine style, so down half of the first lane, then back on the other side of that lane, then down lane two, and so on until the end.
I wore my goggles, ear plugs, and running shorts for the swim. I wore my Timex watch so I could keep my own time for each split (event). They told me to go and I got going. I tried to go about 90% of my 100m effort. My last 100m was 1:40 about a month ago, but it's probably down to 1:30 or 1:35 by now. At the end of the first lane, I turned and headed back to finish my 2nd lap. About halfway through lap 3 I caught up to my wife. I actually stood up and just sort of walked behind her. How was I going to pass her in such a small space? I figured I would do it at the wall. Once she hit the wall to turn around, I took off with a great push and passed her on lap 4. The last guy behind me was pretty far back, so I just used his lane for half of it. At the start of the 5th lap, the lady in front of my wife (#31) came and went for pass number two. By the second half of the swim, people were really struggling, but I felt fine. I wasn't pushing it and could have come a little faster, but I needed to save energy for the bike and run. I finished the 200 yard swim in 3:38.
I dried off with a towel as I jogged out to the bikes in the hallway. During our morning walk through, we adjusted the stationary bikes height and everything. So, when I got to the bike I struggled to put on my socks with wet feet. By the time I had my shoes and socks on and got going my transition time was 2:02. I put on my shirt while I was biking, ate a Gu pack and drank some Gatorade. The Spinning brand bikes have a resistance knob but the harder you make it doesn't let you travel further. Also, the bike computer maxes out at 120 rpm. So, if you are biking 125 rpm, you only see 120 and are wasting energy. I tried to keep the rpm at 118-120. I was 120 about the whole time, and I had to set the resistance up a little to keep me from hopping out of the seat. There was a lot of chit chat with everyone on the bikes, my wife even snapped a photo of me with her phone. Everyone was enjoying themselves, though a few people seemed to really be struggling on the bike. The guy everyone was sort of kissing up to was #18, a couple bikes away. The bikes were along the wall, facing each other, about 10 on each side. He looked young, maybe 25, thin and fast. He must be the favorite, I thought. My 10 mile bike time was 20:37.
I ran off and headed through the fitness center, up the stairs and then walked around for about 10 seconds looking for the track door. By the time I found it, my bike to run transition time was 1:01. I've never ran on the JCC track before, it's pretty nice. I overlooks their basketball courts, the hall the bikes were in, and the water park (lap pool, hot tub, lazy river, kids water park, and the big water slide - great indoor water park!). Here are my thoughts on the run: I suck at running fast. I made up some good time on the swim and bike, but T1 hurt me a little. The track is cushioned, there are fans along the wall to help try to keep it cool, the pool and basketball court overlook helped to break up the monotony, there were windows outside too. They had the track closed for only us, and there were about 17 people scattered througout the 1/8th mile route, so pacing was the hardest part for me. This would actually wind up helping me, as I ran faster than normal and finished the 3 miles in 25:05. By far my fastest run ever! I have previously run 3.1 miles in about 27:30 (about 8:52m/m). 25:05 over 3 miles is about 8:21m/m, way faster than I've ever run. This is encouraging though, as I'll have more confidence for future runs.
Total time today for me was roughly 52:25. While on the bike, I heard that the fastest time in the first wave was "just under an hour". I kept thinking that on my run and was feeling pretty good. Maybe I'll get second place to #18? But then in the hot tub after, I was talking to some other guys, and rumors are there was a 46 minute time. So, I definitely did not win the free 50 minute massage (top male and top female win this), but I think my race went pretty well. My two trouble spots are a bad lower back and my big toes, but both held up perfectly today. No foot pain at all, and my normally sore lower back was fine. I still can't believe I beat my fastest run time by so much, and that previous run time was just a solo run, not after swimming and biking. That's the power of race adrenaline and my competitive side coming out. For anyone keeping track, I crossed the finish line with my wife. Because she started 30 seconds before me, I beat her by 30 seconds. The first time I've ever beat her! What a great day! I will probably do the race again next year and try to do even better in all areas. I'll probably spend a week over analyzing this week's data, which will be replaced by over analyzing next weekend's half marathon race data (Mini Heart half marathon!).
Blurry photo of us after the race:
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