Pirate Triathlon Race Report (2011)

Pirate Triathlon
Point Sebago Resort

Race
1/3 mile swim
14 mile bike
3 mile run

Results
Swim - 6:26 (2nd)
T1 - :43
Bike - 39:05 / 21.5mph (5th)
T2 - :38
Run - 19:16 / 6:26/mi (6th)

My Thoughts
The build up to the 2011 season has been nearly perfect. Beside a setback in the form of a recent groin injury, my training has gone exceptionally well. Training under the direction of my new coach, Stephen Wright, has accelerated my progress and and given me huge expectations for the season. This morning at the Pirate Triathlon I was able to test myself in competition for the first time in approximately nine months. Though my run training has been limited for about a month, I was anxious to see what kind of shape I was in early in the season.

Having grown up a swimmer, I've always had an advantage in the swim leg of triathlons. But this year I'm swimming faster than ever. I've worked hard in the pool throughout the offseason and want to turn that advantage into a weapon. Nobody ever wins a race during the swim, but this year I should be able to give myself plenty of opportunities by setting myself up nicely out of the water. Today I took the swim out pretty hard right from the start. It was a short swim, just a third of a mile, so I got to the front immediately and pulled away from there. No need to mess around. As is the case in any open water swim, judging the distance and pace is tough, but I must have been swimming around 1:10/100yds. Everything went perfectly and I set myself up well coming out of the water.

The bike leg, weather-wise, was miserable. It was about 50 degrees and wet. Add that to being cold out of the water and it just makes for an unpleasant mile or two at the start. But everyone was riding in the same situation so there's really no point in dwelling on the conditions. I felt good throughout the entire ride. Last year I'd pushed things too hard over the hills in the midsection of the course and suffered on the run. Having learned from that mistake, I dialed the effort back slightly in an attempt to put together a more complete race. It all worked out, because I felt great heading into the second transition.

After a 38 second pitstop to exchange the bike and helmet for racing flats, I headed out on the run course. By this point I had worked myself toward the front of the field, even though I had started three minutes back of everyone in front of me. I thought I had a chance to improve upon last year's second place finish if I could put together a solid run. But more importantly, I just wanted to run well. In mid-May I injured my groin and hip and have seriously dialed back the run training since then. Overall it will be a minor setback in the 2011 season as I was running exceptionally well leading up to the injury, but I had doubts about how fast I'd be this morning. I hadn't done any speed work in weeks and I was just beginning to rebuild my milage. But I figured I'd go out hard and see how long I could hold on before things fell apart. I was shocked to be running completely pain-free at the first mile. By the second mile I was still feeling good and moving along a a decent clip. My lungs started to go in mile 3, but my legs still felt good and I finished well. I think the overall split is a bit misleading as the course was probably closer to a true 5k than 3 mile. But either way it was a solid run and gives me an idea of just how fast I might be when things come together later in the season.

After the race, during my 3 mile cooldown run, I was disappointed and frustrated as I reflected on last year's finish and compared it to this year's result. I planned to win today and wasn't happy to be off the overall podium, But by the time I'd finished and exchanged texts with my coach, I'd put things in perspective and realized that a lot of good things came out of the race today. This wasn't the highlight race of my season and it served exactly the purposes I intended. It was an opportunity to compete, a chance to push myself, and a look at the speed I hope to experience when everything comes together later this sumer. At the end of the day, it was just nice to race again.