Today was the Tri for Joe, a sprint distance triathlon at Coney Island. Sprint means short. 500 meter swim, 20 kilometer bike (12.4 mile), and a 5 kilometer run (3.1 mile). Race started at 7am, so we got to Coney Island at 5:30 and started setting up our gear in the transition area. I ran into a couple Cincy Express guys and my Wednesday swim partner signed up also. And, we had a few friends show up to cheer us on.
My wife and I were wearing our wetsuits, and the swim had us arrange ourselves based on our 500m estimated swim time. I joined the 9:30 to 10:00 minute group and worked my way to the water. They let us go about every 10 seconds. I jumped in and went way too hard, so at the end of the first lane, I was gasping for breath. I blew up, like an amateur. About halfway through the swim I found my groove and then got cruising. The wetsuit held me up great and I really enjoyed the last half of the swim. Getting out of the water, the distance from the pool to the transition area was about 1/10th of a mile (which they count in your swim time). My swim time was 12:00 flat, ranking me 222 of 306. Pretty weak, but the first half killed me. I was literally treading water or holding the wall trying to calm my nerves and find a groove. It sucked.
When I got to the transition area for T1, I was light headed but stripped off the wetsuit and started throwing on clothes for the bike. It was 72 degrees in the pool, but only 45 degrees outside, so I wore a light windbreaker jacket on the bike. A tip I heard at Sunday's Cincy Express lake swim and bike ride was to roll my socks up like condoms, making them easier to roll on with wet feet. It worked like a charm. I grabbed my bike and headed out of transition for the bike course. My T1 time was 4:27 - pretty slow.
The bike course was pretty much flat, out and back. Because I was with the slower swimmers, I didn't get a chance to see the hot shot bikers - like I wanted to do. I think I was passed by 5 people on the bike. Three of which were stud triathlete types and two were hardcore biker types (no tri bikes). At times on the bike, I looked down and saw my speedometer saying things like 15.6 mph. What the heck was this? What about all those miles I biked over the last couple weeks? Then, I got even harder on myself and thought, "Why don't I just walk!" "Wimp!" But my bike time was 42:02, with an average speed of 17.7 mph, which surprised me. I now realize that I ramped up my training too much in the last couple weeks, and it actually hurt me here. So, a weak swim and bike so far. I was not enjoying this race at all. My bike rank was 159 out of 306. They didn't separate the second transition time, and I think it was added to the run time because my bike time was higher than expected and my run time was slower than expected.
The run was a flat out and back through Coney Island, and I fell into a groove that felt like my recent 8:30mm runs. Nothing exciting here except when I passed my awesome wife. I passed my buddy James (Wed swim partner) on my way back, and we high fived and then about 30 yards behind him was my wife. Before I could say a word she said, "I'm going to get James!" Sure enough, she ran him down shortly after that. No surprise here, she's a great runner. I finished the run in 28:43, for an average pace of 9:15mm. I think I was really doing 8:30mm, so I think they added about 2 minutes for my T2 to my run. My run ranked 182 of 306.
My overall time was 1:27:11, finishing 164 of 306, or 130 of 200 males. My wife's time was 1:30:20, which is amazing because she did almost no training at all. She's tough, what can I say. I train fairly hard and just beat her by 3 minutes. Some areas of improvement would be a steady, easy swim and not increasing my bike miles so much before the race. I might not do anything between now and the Little Miami Triathlon, which is Sunday, June 2nd.
Here are some photos from Rosi (thanks Rosi & Andy!):
You guys are badasses!
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