Oly Race 8-17-08

Last weekend I returned to North East, MD, the scene of my first road tri in 2001, then known as the Riverwatch Tri, a sprint distance race.

A few moments from '01 come to mind, in particular being extremely pumped up coming out of the water, (king of the world!) simply having finished the damn swim. Dropping my chain on an uphill. Feeling like I wasn't taking in oxygen on the run. It was warm, overcast and very humid. Rained a bit but the humidity didn't break just hung in the air like, yes, a wet blanket. Seemed like my shirt was superglued to my torso restricting my breathing, highly annoying. So annoying it was memorable. A guy running in a red sleeveless cycling jersey who would speed up every time I tried to pass, finally dropping me like a hot greasy bowling ball.

Post race, a nice meal courtesy of M&D at a seafood joint where a T-shirt and shorts were a bit out of place. (Shove off people, I'm a triathlete! I was thinking. Oy.) Physically, I recall being smoked for nearly a week. Smoked but stoked. Waaaaaaay too high on the whole thing. As soon as race pics were available I ordered three 8x10 shots. Like I had conquered Everest.

Today - more fitness, perhaps less ego. (Now, more about me racing... :).
Run by different folks, the race is now the North East Tri, with sprint and olympic distance options. It was the latter for me. Great weather this time around. No wind to speak of, no clouds, 70's. The brown water was 78F so no wetsuits - or, wear it but your result isn't official. No wetsuit for me.

No injury and 3rd out of 32 finishers in my AG, 25th out of 193 men, 27th out of 286 finishers overall.
Swim is still slower the Dubya doing a crossword, but I've crawled (ha) closer to the top half of the field from the bottom quarter. Happy with my bike, and happier yet with a sub 40min 10K. Not much run training, no speed work, and overall carrying some fatigue from the Savage weekend 7 days prior.

Data Highlights:
Stat of the day - I spotted my two AG betters 9 and 13 mins in the water. Ouch. One had the fastest swim in the entire field (23:45), the other 17th (27:00). Me? 186th.

• 8th fastest run overall, 1st of 32 in my AG.
• 16th fastest bike overall, 2nd in my AG And...
• 186th in the swim overall, 14th in my AG.
  

Full results here.

Swim 1500 36:31 (35:xx coming out of water)
T1 2:01
Bike 1:05:27
T2 1:11
Run 39:09 (6:19)

Total 2:24:19

Place by element:

Overall - Men - 35-39
Sw 140/286 103/193 14/32
T1 186 130 22
B 16 16 2
T2 112 76 11
R 8 8 1

Final 27th 25th 3rd

Bike Geek Data

Ride time pre-dismount:
Duration: 1:04:11
Work: 836 kJ
TSS: 104.9 (intensity factor 0.991)
Norm Power: 228
VI: 1.05
Pw:HR: 0.75%
Pa:HR: 1.11%
Distance: 23.009 mi

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 394 217 watts
Heart Rate: 133 188 156 bpm
Cadence: 34 111 86 rpm
Speed: 2.9 39.3 21.5 mph

Peak 1min 290w
Peak 2mins 267
Peak 5min 230
Peak 10min 234
Peak 20min 228
Peak 30min 224
Peak 60min 221

For phenomenal video of the Beijing Men's Triathlon, click here.
As good as it gets for tri spectating.

You'll be prompted to download a small bit of software and provide zipcode. There is no commentary just the sounds of the race. A little weird at first but, then, nice. Great camera work, esp for the swim. Camera at water level, water sounds of swimmers. Excellent angles to see how these guys line up to draft, the beauty of their long smooth strokes, how fast they're moving. The race finish (10K run) came down to a 4 man battle, undecided down to the final stretch. Again, as good as it gets for tri drama.