Tri-Forces Sprint Triathlon Race Report
- Race Name: Tri-Forces Sprint Triathlon turned Aquathon
- Race Date: June 18, 2011
- Race Location: North Beach, MD
- Race Distance: Sprint (planned to be 750m swim,12.35 mi bike, 5k run – turned into 5k run, 750m swim, 5k run)
- Division: F 30-39
- Total Time: 1:22:50
- Time Breakdown: weren’t given for this race
- Age Group Placing: 4/9
- Overall Placing: 35/59 (overall) 15/29 (female)
Pre-race
Registration was online and went just fine and the fees were reasonable. The race was definitely not organized well. Before the race, the race organizers really needed to pass along information in a timely manner. Also, the website should’ve been updated with the most current information so that the few links they posted just a few days before the race and the rest of the website matched up. There was a lot of conflicting information. Thankfully, the course maps were provided online and updated as needed.
The night before the race, there were two sets of storms that came through that ended up putting trees and debris all over the roads of Calvert County. Because of this, the bike leg was in danger of being canceled. Instead of just making the call Friday night, many people worked through the night trying to clean up as much of the course as they could. At 2:30am, we got an email stating that they were still working on everything. By 5:30, they should’ve have had a definite answer, but they were still up in the air. I know no one wants to make a call like that, but then that left them scrambling to figure out the set up for a run-swim-run when they finally did make the call.
In the latest pre-race updates, packet pick-up was supposed to start at 5:30am. It still wasn’t ready by 6:15. That was super annoying. I understand that many of the race officials had been up prior to the race dealing with the presents that were left by the weather, but things like “do you have the race bibs?!” shouldn’t have been an issue. There was also no direction about the bike racks (which were being used for our wetsuits instead of our bikes) and where people should be setting up. When I finally did check in, no one checked my ID or my USAT card. The swag bag was “eh”, nothing special. They have lots of small things to fix. I’m not sure if I’ll race it again or not.
There were a good number of volunteers. They probably could’ve used a few more, but it was good. There were two port-a-potties, but that seemed to be enough. It was a REALLY small race, only 59 people finished. There were so many people who didn’t start or chose not to finish, so I’m not sure what the actual number of people who were registered and probably would’ve done the race had it stayed a triathlon.
Setting up transition was odd since there was no bike to set up. The weather was great, nice and sunny. The humidity was a little high, but nothing horrible. They did the pre-race warm-up (I find these pretty useless, so I didn’t participate). We had our last briefing before the race and then lined up. This was the second race this year that there was no National Anthem. Weird, very weird.
Run 1
Run 1 (aka: the start of the race) was great! I wasn’t sure how to approach the run since I haven’t run 10k since October 2009, right as I was injured. I decided just to take it easy and let the run happen as it was going to. I think my average pace was about 9:42, which wasn’t too bad. It was a pretty flat course, so that helped a lot!
There was one water station about half-way through, which was good. They even had COLD water! No hat today, though it might have been nice to have a visor.
Swim
When they measured the water temperature in the Chesapeake Bay in the morning, it said 78 degrees. I think that was the surface temperature. It was probably more like 74. The swim was definitely wetsuit legal, but we were STRONGLY encouraged to not use it since we’d be swimming after the run and it might lead us to dehydration. I wouldn’t have been able to put on a wetsuit after a run if I had tried. Thankfully, getting in the water was a bit refreshing!
The water was super calm, which was nice since it gave everyone time to calm their breathing down from the run. My goggles fogged up, which made it difficult to see… especially the green turn-around bouy. It was sunny, but I’m glad I didn’t wear my tinted goggles, as I’m not sure I would’ve been able to see the green bouy at all.
I was actually really happy with this swim. I’m sure there’s tons of room for improvement, but it was 750m, open water, with no wetsuit. I finished it, and it was great!
Right before we reached shore, there was a bulkhead under water. Guess who ran into it?! I did… along with several others (according to my family). That made my knee a bit sore and distracted me a little from how I was feeling otherwise. I was just glad to be done and on land again!
Run 2
Run 2 was pretty good too. Again, I wasn’t too sure how to approach it since it was basically the second half of a 10k. That being said, after the swim and hitting my knee, I knew my first mile was going to be a bit slower than I wanted it to be since my knee was sore. Other than that, my legs actually felt pretty good! I averaged about 9:45 for the second 5k, which is only a minute slower than my stand-alone 5k time, so that’s good in my book!
The transitions for this race were a little odd given that it wasn’t at all the race I thought I was doing. Both went well – it was just weird! I could’ve probably sped it up a bit, but it wasn’t really a race I was doing for time, so it didn’t matter all that much.
Post-Race
I felt great at the finish line! I probably could’ve run the second run harder, but that’s ok. This event was all about showing my family what it is that I do. There were plenty of food and drinks (especially since Vita-Coco was sponsoring the event). The awards sucked (quite frankly). The race director flat out admitted that they ran out of funding for the awards and that was why they lumped the age groups the way they did. The race results didn’t get to us until Tuesday, June 21, 3 days after the race. The distances were off a little bit, but not by anything worth really noting (.1 on the run, not sure about the swim).
Summary and Lessons Learned
I was glad that I was flexible enough to stay and do the race. While the race coordinator was pretty disorganized, the run course was nice and the swim wasn’t bad either! I need to remember to dip my goggles before the swim. They almost always fog up. Who knows if I’ll do this race again, but I’m glad that I did it this time.
No comments:
Post a Comment