Race Report: Athens Sprint Triathlon

The 2011 triathlon season began for me on March 5 in Athens, TX. Ironhead Race Productions hosted the 26th Annual Athens Sprint Triathlon. This was not an "A" race for me as I've been focusing on distance training as I prep for Ironman Texas in May. Although, I have been doing some speed work in my runs and interval sessions on the bike trainer. One of my favorite run workouts has been doing embedded 5k's within my longer runs. It helps make the run go by quicker and I can tell it's making me stronger.

I was excited for this race for 4 reasons:
1) My brother-in-law, Jake, decided to do his first triathlon
2) Planned to spend the night with my Papa and get to catch up with him
3) Anxious to do a race to break up the monotony of training and test myself
4) It's the 1st race of 2011

Jake and I headed down to my Papa's, and his wife Glenda fixed a wonderful spaghetti and meatball dinner for us. It was fun catching up with them a bit, but we got to bed well before 10pm.

Weather forecast was 20+mph winds with 40-50% chance of rain...with a windchill down in the 40's. This had us a bit concerned about the bike portion since we'd be hopping on to ride after coming straight out of the pool. I came prepared with a couple race day options depending on the weather and opted for a full long sleeve dry-fit shirt and tri shorts. This proved to be just right as I was slightly cold on sections of the bike, but perfect for the run.

Swim: 300 meters
This was a time trial start for the swim so athletes were seeded based on their expected swim times from fastest to slowest and another swimmer entered the water every 10 seconds. I was seeded 20th. I've been working hard with the unofficial Masters swim group at the TI activity center. The coach, Beth, has really been working with me on my pacing and just taught me to flip turn. I was excited to use what I had been practicing. I took off pretty easy, fighting the urge to go all out. After 100yds I felt great and kicked it up a little. Somewhere in there at one of the turns, some dude was just hanging onto the wall...not sure what happened but I just did an open turn and went around him. I finished up the swim strong and was happy that I didn't get passed...although the guy behind me was coming right up on my feet. I knew I swam the right pace because I was winded but everything wasn't spinning and I was able to move quickly through transition. The energy I would have had to expend to save 10-15 seconds on the swim would not have been worth it at all because I wouldn't have been functioning well afterward.

Swim time = 4:57 (1:39 / 100 meters), 12th overall
*this included getting out of the pool and a quick jog out the aquatic center

Bike: 13.8 miles
I felt like I had a great transition and mount, but struggled to get my feet in my shoes once on the bike. There were 3 quick turns and the road surface was pretty bad right at the beginning, so I just waited until almost 3/4 of a mile in to finish getting my feet in my shoes. Once I got situated I rode hard and just kept pushing through the wind. I never felt like I was expending too much energy and probably could have pushed it harder, but knew the wind was a beast this morning. Once I hit the turnaround I increased my effort a bit. The bike course was situated so that at least half the ride was with a crosswind. There were a few moments where I got blown around a bit and had to refocus. The last 3 miles were dead into the wind and slightly uphill. I just did what I could to keep a steady pace but not kill my legs. I passed several folks on the bike and only got passed twice.

Bike time = 42:04, 19.7mph, 17th overall

Run: 5k
I felt great and very fresh coming into T2 and had a decent transition...I know I passed the guy who was right in front of me headed into T2. I went out on the run and the legs felt pretty good under me...except I realized shortly that I could not actually feel my feet! My vented tri shoes on the bike caused my feet to get cold and slowed circulation. It was a good 1.5 miles into the run before I regained feeling. I went into the run hoping for a sub 7:30/mile effort. At 1 mile I checked the watch and I was at 7:14. Awesome! I felt great so I decided to hold that pace. Turns out mile 1 to the turnaround was almost all downhill so I ended up doing like 6:45 pace. Then mile 1.5 to mile 2 was uphill and into the wind so that slowed me down a bit, but I still held a 7:04 mile split. At this point I was feeling awesome so figured what the heck, I kicked it in gear and gave it all I had for the last mile+. I got caught with about 1/2 a mile to go. Turns out it was actually the 1st swimmer in the water so I was ahead of him in overall time. He was very talkative, but a fast runner, so I just tried to carry his pace into the finish line. About 200 yards out he kicked it to another gear and I followed. I stayed with him stride for stride and we hit the last 100 yards in an all out sprint through the finish line. We finished side by side and shook hands afterward knowing we both pushed each other quite a bit.

Run time = 22:00, 7:04/mile, 18th overall

Overall result: 1:11:23, 14th place

I was giddy right after the race because I couldn't believe how well I ran the 5k. I was happy to see Rachel's grandparents, Aubrie (Jake's wife), and Luke (Rachel's other brother) and celebrate with them as we waited for Jake to come across the finish. Rachel didn't get to come to this race due to a work conference, but I know she would have been proud. Aubrie sent her a virtual fist bump from me so she could be a part of it!

I figured surely I had a chance to be in the top 3 for my age group, but apparently all the fast people were my age! I took 7th in the age group and 14th overall. That's crazy!

All in all, great race for me. Definitely a PR. I was very proud of the performance and it was great validation that the training I've been putting in is paying off.

Click here for full race results