[daphne]

The '05 race season has began!! Whether you are a tri newbie or a veteran it would be great to post your race reports. I am racing a sprint tri this sunday in preparation for wildflower. I think it will be great for all triweek members to read about your experience, lessons learned, and some funny and out loud outrageous incidents. So..spike10, fittotri, rhino, annie, julian, crazylegs, psychosyd, audrey, chuckyfister..and all of you I missed (not intentionally)..oh yes..our admin robert G. share your race experience..

Happy Racing!

:bannana:

[pyschosyd]

SOunds like a good idea daphne. I don't have my first race for another month or so (still warming up here) so I look forward to reading yours and others reports!
cheers
syd

[fittotri]

St. Anthony's here in two weeks. Will post about it. Love to read first hand experiences from athletes. Enjoy the season and tri hard. Later.

[Spike10]

Daphne, Good luck on the sprint and of course Wildflower (the one that almost got away) Im a stat geek so this thread will be a lot of fun! Good luck to all and happy racing.
Spike.

[julian]

Great idea, have my fist sprint Sunday will let you know how i get on.Look forward to reading about all your race experiences, good luck to everyone this season.
Cheers.

Julian.

[crazylegs]

I will be doing my first tri Memorial Day Weekend (May 30th) in Austin, Tx. I am thinking about doing the Pat Tillman Memorial Tri Sprint in Phoenix on May 8th as a warmup, and to see how things actually work at a tri event. Right now my only problem is still my swim, where I suspect bad technique has led to shoulder soreness.
This thread sounds like a great idea. I would love to hear what works and doesn't work from other tri newbies. I'm always open to suggestions and comments.

[julian]

Finished my first sprint yesterday, not sure on times yet but here's a short report on how i felt during the race. Turned up with my mate who is a seasoned campaigner at tri and to my horror found out my swim time had been mixed up with his so he was the fastest in his start group and of course I was the snail in mine. Oh well i'll catch them on the bike and run i thought. (yeah right!) But to my suprise I didnt do to bad and caught a fair few.Whilst cycling I was thinking " must be bloody mad" on the run I was thinking "never again" as I crossed th finish line my missus said to me "did you enjoy it" and I replyied "loved it can't wait for the next one"
Hope all you other triathletes had a good one.
Cheers.
Julian

[KEAU]

Reverse Super sprint in Hemet,CA

no complaints about organization.

5k run moderate climbs
9 mile bike with one switchback 2 miles into ride
75 m swim

note swim: t2 has a 100 yd run on gravel to the pool where some sort of footwear.
its in december, good race to knock some rust off

[KEAU]

Be your own judge, IMO save your $45. I pre-reg 2 years in a row and didnt get a tee. this past time they didnt have me in pre-reg. Not well organized and number of participants are falling fast from this race. I would say the year before it was cut in half. They also had a duathlon this year that didnt pan out, the dualathletes that raced were pissed. This was the first race I made top 3, Its really dissapointing that Im gonna have to turn my back on it.

[KEAU]

One of the best Reverse Sprints ive done yet.

By far superior organization, excellent cause (challenged atheletes foundation) and good course.

Run fairly flat 5k with 2 bridge climbs
Bike 3 climbs that start with downhill sprints
Swim pool 100 m with a 30 yd run to the finish

its 1 of 4 races in their series. Ive heard all 4 races are very well planned, plus you get to race with ITU hopefuls and Top Elite racers. Michelle Jones to name one raced in 3 of the 4 with exception to the race that fell on the same week as Ralphs.

[daphne]

Fitting triathlon in an already fully busy life can be quite a challenge. My race was this past Sunday. As always I tried to pack my weekend with all the things that I had to do including flying to Los Angeles to put an offer to my first house. (somehow tri races are the same time as significant life events..last year there was graduation the day before escape, doctoral defence just after WF..on and on). My plan was to fly to LA on Friday, sign an offer, fly back to San Francisco on Saturday afternoon, drive 2 hours to sacramento, and race on Sunday. things did not go as planned.

I had to stay in LA until Sunday morning because we had a change of plans wiht the offer and had to stay there until sunday morning. I got in flight at noon, I was at home in SF by 2:30pm. Earlier I e-mailed my coach and with the change of plans..and got a new workout..a race simulation. If you can't make it to the race..the race will come to you.

Here I am at 3:30 jumping in the cold water of the SF Bay (for those who don't know it is very cold, can't see a thing, and there are plenty of friendly sea lions). The first 5 min I wanted OUT! The next 10 min I though to myself "shut up and swim". I was a tourist attraction too.."Oh look at her..she is going IN the water". The acquatic park is next to Chiradeli Square and next to the end of the cable car=LOTS of tourists. T1 went OK. I was freezing. Then I got into my bike to experience the most intense headwind I ever had. I cycled home..a convenient hilly route inside the presidio, down hwy 1 and then back into the city. Hated every minute of it..damn wind. The run though was truly the best part.

Overall, I am happy with just the fact that I managed to do the race simulation. Totally bumbed out for not racing on Sunday morning. On Sat. night I had to make a decision..should I go ahead and leave and jeapardize loosing a house I loved or compromise some of my training. I went for the house..with no regret. At the end of the day we all make decisions and follow our priorities. If we can sleep well at night its fine.

11 days to Wildflower and counting...

[pjdr]

A belated report from my tri debut on the 17th (belated due to some very late nights at work, rather than an adverse reaction to tri's and their websites...). The race was the BRW Corporate triathlon in Sydney, with over 4000 competitors - a number I only really appreciated when I tried to find my assigned bike spot in T1. Luckily I made it there early enough to ditch my bike and then figure the route to it from the swim exit! As for the race itself, I had a good go at being last out of the 400m swim (almost successful!), as I kept stopping whenever I came to close to other swimmers. I think I need practice there, although I did make up some ground on the unexpectedly long 400m run to my bike. Like Julian I spent much of the swim wondering what the hell I was doing, thrashing around in Sydney harbour at 7.30am.
Bike leg was 8k, which went pretty well once I'd spat out all the jellies (sweets/candies) I'd started munching partly for energy and partly to get the harbour taste out of my mouth. Mental note to get more easily digestable sweets next time...
Finished with a 4k run, at last something I'm good at! Though not as good as my 11.07 split suggests...I think the course was a bit short!
All in all I had great fun, and as the summers over I'm looking forward to plenty of duathlon races (no swimming!). As for tris next summer - it depends how often I can drag myself to an outdoor pool at 5am in the coming months :O)

[pyschosyd]

Good day all!
Just completed the first race of our season here in ontario. Victoria's Duathlon in Waterloo.
Great event, could have planned the 12C weather abit better. :bannana:

Just a short one 4km run 25km bike 4km run
Pretty run through a conservation area followed by an extremely hilly 25 km through mennonite country. Many friendly mennonites wishing us well.

Very fast run start. I got caught up in the excitment of it all and ran a 15min 4km which is too fast for me. Payed for it on the bike with a 47 min. split, 31.9km average speed) and on the final run which was a dismal 18min. 4 km.

The cold played a bit of havoc on my calves which were wanting to cramp severely halfway through the bike. The power gell I popped at the 13k bike mark helped alot. I'm more of a hot weather performer.

All in all a fun race. Good judge of fitness. Met a lot of great people and some seldom seen friends.

Can't wait for Muskoka in June. Should be fun racing with SImon Whitfield. Or atleast watch him pass going the other direction at some point!

Thats my report!
Lets hear some more guys!
Syd :p

[ethanmac]

Well this was not only my first race of the season but my first Tri every. And I experienced trouble in every phase of the race.

For the swim. I had someone accidently push off of my head about ten meters into the start of the swim. No harm done from the actual blow, but when he pushed off my goggles went with him and are resting at the bottom of the lake. I was also not prepared for open water swimming and my time showed it.

For the bike. The course was nothing but hills and I had one of only three mountain bikes on the course. We all finished near the back of the pack. It took me a little over an hour to finish the bike, and I was spent.

Fot the run. It started out well. I ran about 1/2 mile before both of my legs cramped up and I could not walk. So I got some water and some of the other rece participants stretched my legs out, and I started off again. My pace after the race was somewhere north of 11 minutes a mile which is 3 minutes off the pace that I thought I would run.

I finished a dismal 458 out of 474, BUT I LOVE EVERY MOMENT OF IT.

Since I started training four months ago, I have lost 20 lbs, gone from run/walking 1/2 mile to being able to run 5 miles with out walking. And started swimming laps for the first time in my life. I feel great. And someday my results will improve.

I signed up for my next race the day I got back, and can't wait to do it again. But this time will be better prepared.

Charles

[pjdr]

Quote

I finished a dismal 458 out of 474, BUT I LOVE EVERY MOMENT OF IT.

Since I started training four months ago, I have lost 20 lbs, gone from run/walking 1/2 mile to being able to run 5 miles with out walking. And started swimming laps for the first time in my life. I feel great. And someday my results will improve.

I signed up for my next race the day I got back, and can't wait to do it again. But this time will be better prepared.

Charles

Great effort Charles and a great spirit too! good luck on the next one...

Paul

[daphne]

Amazing report Ethanmac and what a great accomplishment! You know..you will always remember your first one. You will see yourself getting better, faster, and recover quicker from now on. Keep us posted!!

Psychosyd - great post. Yuky weather indeed! I've never raced a duathlon. I suspect it will be a bit of a shock for my body getting used to run bike run. btw-let us know about your upcoming race.