The stats:
- Race Name: Broadlands Infinitive Sprint
- Race Date: June 5, 2011
- Race Location: Ashburn, VA
- Race Distance: Sprint (400m pool swim, 12.1 mi bike, 5k run)
- Division: F 30-34
- Total Time: 1:26:41
- Time Breakdown: Swim – 9:21, T1 – 3:15, Bike – 42:49, T2 – 2:08, Run – 29:11
- Age Group Placing: 5/14
- Overall Placing: 29/75 (women only)
Pre-race:
Race registration was online only and was fine. The race was $85. The course maps were available online and at packet pick-up. I wish they told us where parking was going to be before packet pick-up, it would’ve been one less thing to worry about. Packet pick-up for this race was pretty good. Kind of annoying because you had to bring your bike & helmet to pick-up to be checked, so everyone’s standing around with their bikes & helmets trying to walk through the line to get their packets. Also, the first table, where they checked your id and USAT membership, they had divided into 2 lines, alphabetically… except, none of us knew that! You only figured it out once you got to the table. The swag was ok, t-shirt, hat, a fizz tablet, and a lot of paper.
The race was pretty well organized. There were plenty of volunteers and officers on the course, which was great. The bathrooms at the start/transition/finish were in the pool house, which seemed to be fine. There weren’t really any pre-race activities, which was fine.
The race was at the Broadlands pool. The only thing that was a bit odd to me was the long run from the pool into transition – which was in the pool parking lot. The bike course was local roads and the run was on a neighborhood trail.
Race morning, I got up around 4:20, got dressed, ate breakfast, put everything in the car, and headed out. We got to the parking area at around 5:20. We started the walk to the transition area and then hung out until they handed out the chips, did body marking, and opened transition. I got in, set up my bike and all of the other stuff, and had plenty of time to relax. I helped our friend RH get set up as well since it was his first tri. The weather was perfect for the race – mid 60s and no rain! YEA!
There were about 200 people there, which turned out to be a nice size.
The only thing I found a little weird was that this race didn’t have the National Anthem at the start. I don’t know that I’ve ever done a race without it.
Swim:
Today’s swim was a 400m snake swim in a 50m pool. The pool water wasn’t bathwater warm, but it definitely wasn’t cold either. Obviously, no wetsuits for this swim. I probably should’ve done a warm-up in the pool since they were allowing it, but oh well. I wore clear goggles for this race. My tinted goggles seem to fog faster than any other pair I own, so I don’t know how much I’ll wear them. I did get passed by one person. The fact that it was only one person meant that those of us in that time estimation seeded ourselves correctly. Go us! I was a little disoriented coming out of the water, mostly because I couldn’t find the stairs to get out of the pool. It was a long run into transition and I got reoriented pretty quickly.
I need to concentrate on moving faster through the water in general. I’m starting to consider swim lessons or reading books about swim technique to become more efficient as well.
Bike
The course was a double loop, some hills course – and was set up much better than the one at Annapolis. When we turned the corner to come back, you didn’t have to pick your lane as you turned the corner, which was great! There weren’t any potholes to note, no food/water stops (given that it was 12 miles), and was basically a full lane of the road that was closed to traffic.
I had a car pull into the bike lane in front of me. I was glad that he was in front of me and not behind me – at least I could see what he was doing.
I need to work on tackling hills on my bike. I feel like if I can get stronger on hills, then I’ll be in a much better position. Also, I need to get more confident in my bike handling skills. It’s obvious to me that I’m not confident with my bike. I’ve got some drills I need to give a try.
Run
After making it out of T2, they had us cross over a timing mat. At some point shortly after, I realized that our run started literally as soon as you cleared the transition area where the mat was. At least this time I remembered to put on my watch! Since it was only a 5k, I didn’t bring any fuel with me. They had water on the way out to the rest of the course and then twice on the course. They also had a sports drink mix on the course too. I didn’t wear a hat – I never do, so that wasn’t an issue for this run. There was a good bit of crowd support. One mom and daughter duo even sat on swings at a playground on the trails and cheered everyone on!
It took me about 2.5 miles to feel my legs again. I obviously have been slacking on my BRICK workouts. All of my BRICKs that I’ve done up to this point, I’ve cycled at a 14-15 mph pace before hand. Being race day and having done 17 mph pace, my legs were definitely more tired this time. The hills in this race weren’t too bad, but there were a lot of them. You’d go down one and up another almost immediately. Pretty short, not too steep, but ever present.
I need to do a more BRICKs and also make sure I’m getting my longer runs in. Speed work is great, but will only get you so far.
Transitions
The transitions went pretty well. I managed to cut some time off of T1, partly due to not dealing with the wetsuit, I’m sure. T2 went well – I need to throw the watch on as I’m running out of T1. A simpler watch with pace only would be good, the whole “locating satellites” thing takes too long.
Post-Race
I felt really good after the race. My left calf (upper part of it) was a bit tense, but overall, everything felt good.
As soon as I was finished the race, I was handed a bottle of water and a smoothie. I found the table of bananas and assorted carbs. Seemed like a good spread. They were posting the results every 15 minutes or so, so that was nice. Once I figured out that I wasn’t placing in my age group (small race = possibility), then I decided we could leave. The distances were all accurate. The race officials were fair; two DQs because they only did one loop on the bike course and two time penalties for race equipment being incorrect/inappropriate.
Official race results were posted that night. No word of when the race photos will be out.
Summary and Lessons Learned
Overall it was a good race. I’m happy with my overall performance and was able to tell where my weaknesses are. I need to work on my swims (duh!) and overall confidence on the bike. Once my confidence on my bike is higher, that part of the race should be a lot smoother. I think my run was pretty strong, although I probably could’ve pushed harder.
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