Mayo Lake Sprint 2010 Triathlon Race Report

Pre-Race:

I did the Mayo Lake Sprint Triathlon on August 7, 2010. My friend, Ginger, aka “Aquaphor Chic” came down on Friday evening to spend the night. We went to Chipotle for dinner – Ginger’s idea!   It was yummy and I ate way too much for a pre-race dinner.   I think Ginger was trying to fatten me up for race day.

Later, we had some red wine and just chilled at my house.   We sat at my kitchen table surfing the internet with identical Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop computers.  I think it is funny that we had the exact same computer.  Great minds think alike!    My laptop is cooler tho, because I have a bumper sticker of a bicycle chainring on it :-P.    After a while, we did a  facebook chat with each other while sitting side by side.  Haha, what a couple of nerds!    I wish I had thought to take a picture of that.

We got up at the crack of dawn and drove to the race in Roxboro, NC, which is about an hour from my house. I followed her car as we wound our way thourgh back country roads. Luckily, she had a GPS navigation system, and we made it in plenty of time to get our race packets and set up our gear.

Results:

The race played out in the usual way:  Ginger came out of the water first.  I was 2 minutes behind her going out onto the bike.  I caught her on the bike and passed her at mile 10.    She was less than a minute behind me going out to the run.   She caught me just past mile 1 and passed me.    It was a fun day and I was pleased with my performance and time, even tho I am bummed to once again get beat by Ginger!   This was probably the last chance for me to beat her,  because next year she ages up.  Well, I guess I can still beat her, it just won’t count in the results.

Swim 750m: 15:14, 2nd Age group.  Guess who got 1st?
T1: 1:01
Bike 17 miles: 46:12, 20.8 average speed, 1st Age group, 2nd overall female bike split 🙂
T2: 0:55
Run 3 miles (rugged hilly trail): 28:01, about 9:30 min/mile pace, 5th Age group.
Overall Time: 1:31:21  2nd Age group, 6th female.

Average heart rate:  165 for bike and 171 for run.  I was going balls to the wall the entire race!   It was exhausting!

Ginger got 1st Age group, 4th female.  She was just a few seconds behind a 40 year old who got third overall female award.

Swim

The race took place at Mayo lake – a small man made lake in Roxboro, NC.   The water was murky as NC lakes tend to be, and there was no chop whatsover.  I scoped out the swim course, and noted that the exit was very muddy and steep. I was pretty sure they’d have volunteers to help folks climb out of the water.  I planned on using them.

I started out swimming pretty hard to get in front of the pack.   I did not find any feet to draft off of, as it was a small race field, and what little pack there was, thinned out quickly. I held a good straight line and f I swam strong.  I pushed hard at end to pass some slower folks, as I wanted to beat them to the volunteers helping swimmers out of that muddy spot.   Once out of the water, there was a steep bank to scramble up.  They did a good job putting carpet on that to protect my feet.  Thank you, FS Series!

I ran as hard as I could all the way to my bike spot.    I looked at my watch in transition, and it said 15 minutes and change. I felt good really about that, given my lack of swim training and pitiful times at the pool!

Bike:

I hopped on my bike, and immediately started going hard.  I pushed it hard the whole time.   The course was 17 miles of rollers. Nothing too steep, not much flat.   Just nice rollers which suits me well.

Ever since replacing my chain last week, I have been having trouble shifting. During the last IOS training ride, I could not shift up to big ring and the whole ride ended up being a super spin in the small ring!  For this race, I decided to put it in my big ring and stay there. I was afraid if I shifted down, I would not be able to shift back up. That was a good call, as there were lots of false flat downs where I was glad to have the big ring. And there were not any climbs where I felt I really needed the small ring. I did do some standing on climbs, but it felt good.

I kept looking for Ginger but did not see her.   I am a little nearsighted, so it was hard to see details of the tri tops as I approached each rider. I saw a few white shirts in the distance.  But as I closed in each time,  I could tell by the body position that it was not Ginger. I knew she would have good riding position, stable upper body and solid cadence.

At mile 5, I saw a white shirt rider with good solid riding position. I was pretty sure that was Ginger. I had to work really hard to gain on her. I kept wondering if I wasn’t biking up to par, but then I’d look at my average speed which showed 21 mph. That is a great speed, so then I wondered if she was pushing harder than normal. It took me a few miles before I could make out the aquaphor on her shirt.  At mile 10 I finally passed her. I pushed it as hard as I could until the end, because I knew I needed to put distance on her for the run.

I yelled at alot of folks who were blocking on the left side of the road, taking their time to pass, or just plain lollygagging on the left side. I felt bad yelling, but I could not afford to lose time on the bike. Balls to the wall is what it takes in a sprint race.

I used Gu Brew in my bike aero bottle for my sprint tri. That stuff is great – good energy and more electrolytes than the Gu gels.

Run:

Once again, I tried to run fast through the transition.   I am not fast at putting on my shoes, tho, so I  need to practice that more.   I think I just need to work on putting my shoes on fast every time I go for a run.

I grabbed a small water bottle and a Gu gel.  I started running hard.   As I ran around the loop near transition, I saw Ginger also heading out of T2. Crap, I was not far enough ahead of her. My only hope was that her bad knee would not let her run fast on the trails.   I ran as hard as my legs would go.  It was hard, hard, hard.    I was staying pace with a few folks ahead of me.  I was actually afraid to lose sight of them, for fear of getting lost in the woods on the trails.  That would suck to lose your way in a race!

After what seemed like an eternity of running as hard as I could, I passed the 1 mile marker sign.  I was devastated, and I said “Oh fudge, I thought we were almost done”.   Only I did not say Fudge.  The guy in front of me laughed as well as he could through his hard breath.  I could not hold that pace for 2 more miles.    I had to ease up, just a little.    The trail ran out of the woods through a little green clearing. There, I glanced over my shoulder. Ginger was not far behind, and soon after that, she passed me.   I tried to match her pace, but could not.  Oh how I wish I could find some kind of magic speed at those moments.

I kept up a very hard pace the rest of the 2 miles, because I knew there were other fast chicks out there and I did not want to let them pass.  It was so so so hard and I was breathing heavy and just wanted it to be over.    I felt the same sense of devastation as I passed the two mile marker.    The last half mile was a struggle to keep up my pace  on those twisty knotty trails.    I was doing well not letting any females pass me.    Then I tripped and fell hard.  A woman stopped and asked if I was okay.  I thanked her, waved her on and said ” just Go, go go!”.     I did not want to ruin her race!     Lucky for me, she was not in my age group!   She ran on and I got up, shook my knees out, and keep on going.      A little bit later, I tripped again.   Another female passed me, this time with 40 on her leg. Phew, not my age group.     Lucky for me, I have a knack to fall “well”, i.e., without serious injury.    I got up and kept running hard all the way to the finish.

It would have been a fantastically fun run had I not been going so hard.    I love running on trails, but not so much when I have to run at race pace!   Ginger got 1st place, I got 2nd, and a Facebook friend named Suzy got third.  It was Suzy’s first podium finish.    It was also  Jennifer’s first podium finish – she is another Facebook friend.   It was fun watching their excitement as they made their first trip to the podium.  Congrats to all!

Garmin Data:

Swim: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43527820
Bike: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43527830 avg 20.8 mph. avg hr 165
Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43527839 avg hr 171 max pace 9:30. don’t know why this felt so hard to do a mediocre pace. it was a bit hilly, but not like Bandits!!

Candid Photos: