The Dam Triathlon

The Dam Triathlon
Amesbury, MA
July 10, 2010

Race Overview
Swim – ½ mile
Bike – 12.3 miles
Run – 3.2 miles

Results
Swim – 10:56, 1:14/100 yds (7th)
T1 – 55 seconds
Bike – 32:41, 22.58 mph (7th)
T2 – 46 seconds
Run – 22:28, 7:01 min/mi (17th)
OVERALL – 1:07:44
PLACE – 7th overall, 2nd overall AG, 1st M25-29
Official Results: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/ma/Jul10_DamTri_set1.shtml

Pre-race
The Dam Triathlon, formally the Powow Sprint Triathlon, was my first-ever multisport event back in 2007. For that reason, I try to make this race every year if it fits into my schedule. Though it certainly wasn’t ever a highlight of my race calendar, I’m happy I was able to fit it in once again. With my sights set on a handful of later season races, I went into today’s event without any sort of taper. I’m in a build phase so the week leading up to the race left me fairly tired and not feeling particularly excited about the possible outcome. But I knew I’d have a chance to compete against a quality field of athletes and that races like this one would ultimately be beneficial when I peak again late in the season.

The field at Powow was always relatively strong and attracted some of the better athletes from the area, including a handful of professionals. I figured that would be no different as the only thing that was really changed about the race for 2010 was the RD and name. The option of racing Elite was on the table, but I left it there as I wasn’t sure of the pro turnout and didn’t want to embarrass myself too badly.

Swim
One of the reasons I enjoy this race is that I always seem to find myself in the first age group wave. This year was no different in that respect and I was off at 8:03 with just 10-12 athletes from the Elite wave already in the water. The other thing I enjoyed, and this was specific to today and really not any fault or product (depending on your outlook, of course) of the RD, was NOT a wetsuit legal swim. Awesome! Serious competitive advantage to those like me with a strong swimming background. And on top of that, the swim was long relative to the rest of the course. I pretty much hit the swimming jackpot this morning.

By the first turn buoy, I found myself out front, but with two guys catching a draft. Behind them there was a significant gap, though, one of 50 yards or so. Just to test the two guys I was with and see how they’d react, I put on a short surge of 30 seconds or so as soon as we made the turn. To my surprise, the elastic snapped and I wouldn’t see them again on the swim. Actually, even in transition I only saw one person from my wave enter from the water just as I headed out on the bike course. Overall I was thrilled with my swim today. A perfectly executed effort as far as I'm concerned.

Bike
I’ve struggled with this bike course in the past so I wasn’t sure what to expect today. It isn’t terribly difficult, though there are a few short hills to deal with, but I’ve always seemed to find it tougher than other, more challenging courses. I have no explanation as to why that might be true, but it is. Fortunately, I got off to a decent start and was buzzing along quickly. About 10 minutes in I was feeling quite comfortable and feeling pretty good about the upcoming run. Twenty five minutes, or thereabouts, I was passed for the first (and only) time. We were near transition, so I did my best to hang in a few bike lengths back. By now we had hit the hillier section of the course and I climb fairly well, so I didn’t have much trouble keeping the guy in my sights. As we came around the final few corners I got the feet out of the shoes and prepared for the flying dismount, thinking all along how great I was feeling for the run.

Run
The second transition, much like the first, passed very quickly and without incident. I tore out of there a few seconds back of the guy now leading the AG race. Two and a half minutes in I caught and passed him. I really felt like I was flying. I kept putting one foot in front of the other as I approached the steady, yet shallow, climb to the turnaround. And somewhere in there, somewhere between 1.25 miles and 1.5 miles, I felt myself slow a bit. I happened to be passing the Elites who were all grouped together and I realized I wasn’t all that far back. Guessing the time to the turnaround and back, I estimated that I was just 4 minutes back of one pack – meaning that I was only a minute or so down to many of the leaders. That kept me going for awhile and I made it to the turnaround without much trouble. I wasn’t feeling good anymore, but I thought I had a decent run in me. It was a few minutes before I saw any chasers, but when I did I had begun to suffer. My legs were just dying from a tough week of training and I wasn’t sure if I had what it would take to hold on. Slowly, my pace started to fall off. I have no official mile splits for myself, but I’d slowed from a something in the 6:15/mile ballpark to over 7:00/mile. Stuff like that doesn’t make me happy, regardless of the intent behind the race or the importance I’d placed on it beforehand. With less than a mile to go, I was caught by the guy I’d seen tearing down the road just minutes before. I held on for a minute, but my legs just didn’t have the extra gear to stay with him today, even though it only needed to be for a few short minutes. I did my best to consolidate my losses and hung on for the best run I could salvage at that point.


Post-race
At the finish I just kind of rolled my eyes and thought to myself “fantastic, I’ve managed to throw another race away on the run, despite working so hard on it this year”. But those thoughts passed, momentarily at least, as I chatted with a few of the elites at the finish. I spent awhile talking to Stephen Wright, one of the top juniors in the country and an all-around nice guy who I’ve gotten to know a bit over the past few years. He too had blown up on the run, so at least I had some company in that department. After comparing race schedules to see where we’d be meeting throughout the rest of the summer I headed off to find my dad who’d made the trip with me. We compared notes on how the race had gone. He’d seen what I had in that my swim, transitions and bike were all strong, but that my run was a (relative) weakness. Then he vowed to do the race next year, which will be fun. He’s typically done 2 races a year, but I think he wants to expand a bit now and it’s cool when we race together and this event provides a great opportunity to do just that. After that, there wasn’t much else to do after this other than wait for the awards and head home.

My thoughts/critiques a few hours after the race
Overall it was a good experience and I put together a solid effort. Not everything fell into place, but it rarely does, especially when you don’t prepare specifically for an event. That said, I remain frustrated with my run – not just here, but in general. I understand that it isn’t poor and that I often string together races where I race at a 6:20-6:30 pace. But to make the next leap, to take this to the next level, I need a stronger run. The most frustrating part is that I’m working very hard to make that a reality. I’ve sacrificed a lot of time on the bike and in the pool to make improvements to my run. That being true, I think there is some hope for my late season races because my training is actually going quite well. Realistically, though, it’s probably going to take another winter of serious work to get where I want to be (at which point I’ll want to be at another level and we’ll be having this conversation again about one of the three sports!)

Next up: Gloucester Fisherman Sprint on August 8.