Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Lake in the Hills Tri Race, Running In California


Last weekend I had another sprint tri race, to say it rained would not be doing it justice, it absolutely hammered it down. You know that feeling its 5am, you've had 2 hours sleep and when you step out of the car, you are soaked in seconds and you really wonder what the hell am I doing here" Well I totally had that feeling before the race. There was still thunder and lightning in the air when I arrived so it looked like the swim would be cancelled, however that passed and the swim start was only delayed 15mins.

Lake in the hills sprint tri is a point to point race, so dropped off my running shoes (wrapped in multiple plastic
bags) in T2 and cycled the mile to T1, getting wetter and wetter in the process. Setup T2, again putting everything in multiple plastic bags. This season I have started wearing my cycle kit under my wetsuit (they couldn't get any wetter) so only my cycle shoes in T1.

I was off in wave 2 as I predicted 15-17 mins for the half mile swim, started nicely and now I am alot more confident in my swim I pushed myself harder and stayed with the leaders. As in my last race why do people seem so incapable of estimating their swim times?
To go in wave one you would of estimated a swim time of faster than 15mins. With each wave going off at 3 min intervals I couldn't believe it when I caught people doing breastroke in the first half of the swim. Swim went well despite getting weed caught in my braces (very off putting!).

Finished without expending much energy in a time of 15.55, 3rd in my age group.
Into T2 and it was still raining heavily, and quickly headed out (well it felt like quickly but 2.36 T1 is not that quick!)

It was a 16 mile rolling bike course, and seemed to suit me, I really enjoyed it, maybe it was because I was actually having to fight the conditions as well. For the first time I felt like I was actually racing rather than just surviving. Throughout the cycle I was pushing myself, trying to catch each person in front of me, and not letting people catch me. Few hairy moments on the standing water but overall a great ride. Finished with a time of 48.31 (again 3rd overall in
my age group and at this point 3rd overall in my age group in the race).

A fairly quick change over in T2 and out on the run, finally it had stopped raining and was brightning up. Felt really good out of T2 and got quickly into what felt like a nice stride. The 3.5 miles came and went pretty quickly and I finished the run with a 34.18. This slow run dropped me in the overall standings from a 3rd place overall to a 5th. This was way better than I ever expected anyway so was really happy.

overall place: 70 out of 272
division place: 5 out of 19
gender place: 62 out of 167
time: 1:42:58
swim: 15:55
trans 1: 2:36
bike: 48:31
trans 2: 1:40
run: 34:18
This week I am in Sunnyvale california, and went running at the Sunnyvale Baylands Salt Planes. It was really beautiful, lovely scenary and perfect temperatures. Ended up running 7.5 miles and really enjoyed it. This is a real change to most business trips of mine where I take sports kit to run etc while I am away but end up, just going out for dinner and not getting back until late.
Gemma has a friend helping us with baby duty while I am away, and I am making the most of catching up on some sleep.

This was my view on the run. (Picture on the left not the right! :-) )

Not much of an update on the babies this week, since I have gone away I am told they are sleeping longer, see when I get a good nights sleep they get a good nights sleep. I will be suggesting I go away more!

4 comments:

LBTEPA said...

Sounds like a tough race! Good on you!

SWTrigal said...

Great job and being a new dad and all-you deserve a special award!

Iain said...

Nice race Tim.

PS - 100 days and counting.

Unknown said...

Great job on the race - 5th place is awesome!!! I second Iain when he sayd 100 days and counting. Doesn't seem possible does it?