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Mighty Hamptons Triathlon

All in all, a good race. I finished about 45 seconds slower than last year’s time. While I know that my fitness is better this year than last year, as I expected, I struggled to find that extra/”fast” gear. For example, I was able to ride at 20mph, but couldn’t get to 21, let alone 22. And on the run, I averaged right about a 7:00/mile pace, but could not get it to 6:40, which is about where I would ideally hope to be. I ended up 39th overall, and just a couple minutes away from top three in my age group. Coach John did make the point that I nearly matched last year’s time without any speed training at all. And I do have to remember that I ran 20 miles on Thursday. And, it was fun to get out there and race!

Here’s a long report, without pictures for now.

Pre-race:
Unfortunately, the hours before the race were pretty stressful. Race mornings are nearly always stressful for me, but I think Sunday’s stress was exacerbated by the fact that I just didn’t give myself enough time to get everything done. I got up and took Charlie outside, then had breakfast, then had to get dressed and get our stuff together and get the rack on the car and the bikes on the rack. Finally, we left the house about 25 minutes later than I’d planned. It also didn’t help that I was exhausted. I didn’t sleep enough this week and I honestly feel that by Sunday I still hadn’t fully recovered from the shenanigans of last Saturday night (how lame is that!). Elizabeth was also totally beat – in addition to having a busy week, she didn’t sleep very much Saturday night. So we finally get to the race site and we’re both stressed and tired. It was still mostly dark out and friggin’ cold (in the mid-40’s, I think). At that point, given all the above factors, Elizabeth made the call to sit this one out. She dropped me off near transition and drove to go find coffee and a paper.

I got to my transition area and still had enough time, but not nearly as much as I would have liked to have. I went to the bathroom, got my transition area set up and starting putting on my wetsuit. Unfortunately, as I was putting on the suit, I noticed that the seam near my left shoulder is starting to split a little and there was a nice inch-long hole. Oh, well, nothing to be done about that at T-minus 5 minutes! At this point Elizabeth re-appeared just in time to zip up my wetsuit and kiss me good luck.

Swim:
I was in the first wave. I got into the water with a couple minutes to spare, but was feeling a little discombobulated. The water was a little choppy, but not too bad. The water temp was probably in the high-60’s, but felt warmer because the air temperature was cold. The Mighty Hamptons swim course seems a bit strange. It’s a there-and-back that follows along the shore, but from the starting point, the buoys are hard to see and seem to blend together. It also slightly curves (along the path of the shore), which makes it harder to orient yourself from the starting line. The gun sounded and we were off. I started off feeling smooth and solid. I could feel the water sloshing around my left arm with every stroke (from the hole in the suit) and a gel that I’d stuffed in my shorts pocket had popped out and was sliding around my back, but neither seemed to affect my stroke. About 2/3 of the way out (maybe 500 meters in), I started feeling less comfortable. I wasn’t “struggling”, but I just didn’t feel like I was moving as smoothly or as efficiently as I’m used to. I tried finding someone to draft off of (no dice), tried concentrating on breathing or on kicking, but nothing was really helping. Just before the turn-around buoys, one of the woman from the wave behind me passed me – that means that she made up four minutes in a half mile, damn! – and then she was gone. The second half of the swim seemed to go by more quickly and I fell into a little more of a rhythm, but it still wasn’t the swim that I’d hoped to have and I was absolutely ecstatic to get out of the water.

T1:
This was not my best transition ever. I ran out of the water and through the transition to my bike pretty quickly. But when I got to my transition area, I wasn’t efficient in getting ready to jump on the bike. Before the race, I had had to set up quickly; my things were generally in the same order and place that I’m used to, but I hadn’t mentally run through it all. Because it was cold out, I had thought about putting on socks, but at the last second, decided not to – I know I shouldn’t make any decisions during transitions; it all should have been pre-determined and fluid. Anyway. Live and learn. In all, it probably only cost me 15 or 20 seconds, but more importantly, it was another little source of unnecessary stress.

Bike:
I felt good when I started on the bike. In the first few miles I was really cruising and passed a bunch of people right away. My heart race was racing from trying to get through transition quickly, but it settled down relatively quickly. The bike course is fun and fair. There are a few short climbs and some pretty tight turns that require a lot of brakes, but nothing scary. It should be a really fast course. My problem, as I mentioned above, was that I couldn’t sustain that extra gear that would allow my legs to push harder. My legs just aren’t used to pushing like that. I could keep it up for a few seconds at a time, but then had to drop back a little. It was a little cold on the bike (nothing like Harriman, of course!) and pretty windy at times. When I was in the sun it was great, but I could really feel the temperature drop and the wind blow in the shade. The cold didn’t bother me too much except that my feet were pretty frozen. I can try to blame my “struggles” on the wind, but that wouldn’t be totally honest. I passed a few more people on the bike and only got passed myself by a couple, so I must have made up at least a few spots on the bike.

T2:
I had given thought to running without socks, but my feet were freezing cold and I was hopeful that socks would provide a little insulation and help them thaw more quickly. I had had to pee for most of the time on the bike, and even though I didn’t want to waste the time, I knew that if I didn’t pee now, I would be in pain for the entire run. I had a pretty quick transition and headed out of the transition area. The port-a-potties were on the other side of the timing mat, so the time to pee was added to my run instead of my transition.

Run:
After I got out of the bathroom, the run started fine. I was moving along and except for the fact that my feet felt a little like blocks of ice, I felt good. The sun was bright, but it wasn’t hot. It had turned into a great day. There were a few people in front of me within striking distance. I was hopeful that I would catch at least two of the ones that I could see. Unlike the Ironman, I didn’t feel any need to “pace” myself here. Obviously, I couldn’t sprint the whole way, but I didn’t need to watch my heart rate monitor to ensure that I was keeping within myself. BUT, in the end, it didn’t really matter – I didn’t have it in me to push outside myself! I was running 7:00/mile-or-so, but try as I might, I couldn’t convince my legs to move faster. The two guys that I’d wanted to catch stayed a pretty consistent distance in front of me. I didn’t record my splits, but I did check my watch at each mile, and my pace seemed to stay pretty consistent throughout. I think that miles 1, 5 and 6 were my fastest. In the end, I did not pass either of those guys. I made it really close and was probably only five or six seconds behind them, but I just couldn’t get make up those last few extra yards.

I crossed the finish line feeling good. I was happy to be done, of course, and was also happy that I didn’t ruin myself or push so hard that this week’s training would suffer. I ran into cousins Dan and Emma just as Dan was finishing. It was nice to hang out with them for a little bit while we re-hydrated and filled our bellies with some post-race snacks.

It’s been a long season and I’m pretty tired from it. I’m a little less convinced that doing the San Diego Triathlon Challenge is such a great idea. We have our plane tickets, so we’re definitely making the trip, and I’m sure that as race-day approaches I’ll be excited to race, but… Hopefully I’m learning something about sustaining energy and drive for a long season and will apply that to next year.

Mighty Hamptons Olympic Distance Triathlon – September 16
Overall time: 2:26:23
Overall place: 39/733
Age Group place: not sure, but definitely in top 8
Swim:
Time: 30:50
Rank: 98
Average heart rate: 134
T1: 2:12
Bike:
Time: 1:08:20
Rank: 49
Average speed: 20.2 mph
Average heart rate: 142
T2: 1:38
Run: 156
Time: 43:26
Rank: 57
Pace: 7:01
Average heart rate:
Conditions: Sunny and cool, beautiful day

Swim – September 17
Distance: 3,100 yards
Time: 1:00

Run – September 18
Distance: 3.2 miles
Time: 25 minutes
Average heart rate: 143
Course: Village, Soho
Conditions: Sunny, nice (60 degrees)