Tri Ridgefield Sprint Race Report; I won my Age Group!

Today was simply a great day. Some people might scoff at a sprint distance race, but I am telling you, they hurt a LOT more than a Half Ironman. Why? Because a sprint is just that: a sprint from beginning to end! If you aren't redlining it, you aren't going hard enough!

Well, in time that is what should be done, but I certainly wasn't doing this at my first sprint race, which happened to be exactly 3 years ago. I still remember just surviving the swim, having a fun bike, then wanting to just be able to run the entire run without needing to walk. Finishing was the goal that day. I was a different athlete back then!

Back to today, the weather was perfect! Low 60's and NO humidity. Just perfect. I also won my age group today! It was a REALLY great day!

So here we go:

Overall Time: 1:10:48, 17th/364 overall (top 5%!!!), 1st/19 in age group.

Pre Race:
The shorter the race, the longer the warmup. Get it? Race started @ 7AM, so I made sure to get in a 2 mile easy easy run, then a 10-15 min swim and arm stretch to get as loose as I could. This race was going to hurt no matter what, so whatever the warmup did, I guess helped?

Swim, 880 yards: 13:24 / 1:31 avg
They lumped all males 44 and under into one swim wave. Out of 300 or so folks, that is one HUGE swim wave. Well, time to put on the big boy pants and realize that I will be sharing a small pool with 3,000 of my newest closests friends at Lake Placid, so what did I do? I lined myself up directly in front and to the right. Basically I made sure I got mowed over and kicked and punched. It was awesome!!!

The swim itself thinned out by the first turn and it was just autopilot from there on. Because of the huge swim wave that was mixed with all ages, it was impossible to tell who was who.

T1: 2:03
Proportionally to your overall time in a sprint, your transitions actually make a difference. I am a terrible TERRIBLE transitioner. In a sprint, to do it right, you gotta have your shoes on the bike. Me? Nope. Wetsuit removal? Oh yeah, I am a spoiled little princess and I have had my suit stripped off of me at the past 5 races. Fortunately I remember how to do it myself ;) Unfortunately my cappucino machine was broken on my bike :(.....bad joke, I know.

Bike: 12.5 miles, 34:00, 22:08 mph avg
This HURT. Because the water basically ices your legs and the fact that you are gunning it from the get go, there is no time for the blood to get into your quads, so they basically seized up from the get go. Sooooo, I pushed through the pain and it hurt even more :)

Eventually there was nobody in front of me, nor behind me. Was this a good thing? I guess. I knew I passed some folks in my age group, but there was no way to know if some fish who could also bike was ahead of me. I didn't worry about it and just hammered it home. Turns out I wound up passing 3 or 4 others in my age group early on and put in the fastest bike split for my age group.

T2: 1:18
Remember how I am a terrible transitioner? The way to do it right is to remove your shoes on the bike and do a flying dismount. I know how to do this! I just haven't practiced this in 2 years. Bummer. Also, I should have not worn socks on the run and had shoes with Yanks style laces. Time saved in transitions is money in the bank. Overall, I really didn't care since Lake Placid is the big picture this season and transition times are meaningless. But it is still good to know there are other things to improve.

Run: 3 miles, 20:05, 6:41 pace
The first 1.5 miles of this run course is all uphill. It blows and it HURTS. Good thing everyone has to do these same 1.5 miles of uphill. I survived as best I could, elevated my heart rate to ridiculous, and hung on until the half way point when you go back down hill. I hit the gas on the downhill and hung on for dear life.

Around mile 2, I passed my buddy, Rudy, who is a Lance Armstrong clone on the bike, who passed everyone including three elites from the first wave. When I passed him he said that there was only one guy in front of me who was under 30. What I heard was, "You are winning your age group!"

THAT went straight to my head and I picked up the tempo even more. I never looked back to see if anyone was right behind me, I just kept looking forward and just gunned it as hard as I could. I actually elevated my heart rate running downhill!

Post race:
Crossed the line in 1:10:48, ~6 minutes faster than two years ago (told yah I was a different athlete back then!). When Rudy caught back up to me, he said, "Yeah, there was one other guy in front of you who was under 30." DAMN!!!! So I (im)patiently waited for them to post the results. I found my name, 20th overall, and then 1/19. WHAT?!?!?!? SWEET!....guess there wasn't another under 30 guy afterall? Or it was part of a relay?


So the race turned out like this: I was in 4th or so coming out of the water, I tracked them down early in the bike, and it was game over from there. See kids, its fun data-picking the results!


So it was a good day! Got not only my first podium, but also my first big W all at the same time!...actually its the first race I have EVER took first place in in in my whole life. And one final braggadocio (since this might be the only time I ever win a race since I am age grouping up to the uber competitive M30-34 next year): Apparently they take the top 20 from the previous year and stick them into the 'elite' wave for the next year. Daunting? YEP! I gotta get a LOT faster!!!! (more on this in a future post about my future in triathlon)

I'd like to thank Heinz

After the race, I treated myself to a McDonald's breakfast and hit the road for Quassy, CT to spectate for some awesome people @ Rev3. Stay tuned for my spectator report!!!