Pre-race nutrition! The kids were awesome. We bought cow bells and duck quackers. Thankfully i also had a few layers of clothing because it was a rather chilly start to the day. I was thankful that it was Rich entering the water! :)
Early morning at the lake
From: Richard Lander
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 9:49 PM
To: Small Business Reports Team
Subject: Oly Tri Report -- Black Diamond
I did the Olympic Tri at Black Diamond yesterday. Although most folks post of the longer distances, I’m taking the opportunity to post on my first Tri.
I had originally registered for the Sprint, but became disillusioned by how short the non-swim distances were, so decided to face up to the 1500M swim, even though I’ve only ever swum ~ half that distance before. I also knew that swim leg would eventually end, at which point I would move on to my standby sports of running and cycling ;) So, I upgrade to Olympic. Olympic was also to be my goal for next year, so why wait.
Finishers: 303
Males: 179
Females: 124
*Swim* 1500M
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Group start for swim
It was clear from about 3M in that I was in real trouble. I had no experience with a group start, and no amount of pool and lake swimming can prepare you for that. I’ve had plenty of advice on this, but I think you kind of have to experience the mayhem to understand what it is all about. After 200M of more experienced guys passing over me, and me taking on lots of water, I found myself in calmer water. After another 200M, I realized that my usual 3 strokes/breath approach wasn’t working. I switched to 2 strokes/breath and was able to get a groove, to the point of being able to return to 3 strokes/breath. Other than some pretty bad sighting (or non-sighting) mistakes, the rest of the swim was pretty non-descript. I had no trouble with the distance and the water temp was actually quite pleasant (with my Blue Seventy on). The last 400M were finished with power, so I felt good about that. Next time will be a whole different story. Still, 1500M blows through my longest swim, so I’m quite pleased with that.
I have been taking “Swim for a Tri” at Samena over the last 2-3 months and that helped immensely. I would have had no business doing even a Sprint w/o that time put in the pool.
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Place: 140th
Time: 30m
Watching the swim/throwing rocks in the lake
*Bike* 40KM
Rich heading out of transition onto the bike course
This is where the fun started. Passed a ton of folks. My left calf cramped up nicely at about half-way, but a lot of rubbing (while on the bike) and growling at it did the trick. I rode at high cadence (for me), for average speed of 32 KM/H. I was able to pass folks and avoid being passed provided that I stayed above 30 KM/H. When I hit 35 and 40KM/H, I was able to pick up anybody that I ran into. I was also able to pass folks on most of the hills. The caveat is that these folks probably didn’t do well on the swim either. If I’d done better on the swim, the field that I was passing probably would have provided much more challenge. I’ll hopefully get to see that next year. The 2 or 3 women, however, that passed me (from the following swim wave) flew by. Wow!
One interesting aspect was passing. I took me two passings of the same person to sometimes get past them for good. I also found that I would slowly come up behind other folks. I would be at the point where I was about to be drafting, but didn’t really want to jump up my speed to pass. So, I had to choose between dropping back or passing. I would always pass, but by going into the uncomfortable zone until the person was well behind. These cyclists tended to be better than me, and a couple did eventually catch up with me much later. I would say, however, that it pays to be gutsy. Sometimes the gutsy riders w/nothing left in their legs win out over better cyclists who keep to a steadier pace.
This was all on my 8 year old “Jake the Snake” cyclocross bike. Sure is fun to pass folks on TT/Tri bikes ;) Next year, I’ll have a different bike too, but probably just a nice road bike. I’m sure my time will drop, as a result. I also will do some bike training, beyond my daily 8KM commute to work.
Place: 80th
Time: 74m
*Run* 10km
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Rich looking strong on the run!
I’m a runner, so this part was easy and familiar. I haven’t really trained since last year’s Seattle Half, so shame on me for that. It took me at ~1KM to find my legs. Once I did that, I started picking up folks. There was one woman who started with me, and I just kept my eye on her. Unfortunately, she continued to get farther away, but it kept me running at a good pace and picking up the same folks she was passing. I eventually lost sight of her, but I was in a strong rhythm by then. The course wasn’t that great. We had to run over a very rocky (grapefruit size) road meant for tractors. Oh well. I started to lose steam in the last KM (this is clearly a mental thing), and was passed by two guys (one 57), but was able to finish strong. If I had trained for the run, I could have probably taken another 4 or 5mins off of my time w/o trouble.
Place: 72nd
Time: 48:38
*Overall*
I finished in 2:38 in 76th place, 9th in my AG. I’m thrilled with that. Tons of areas for improvement throughout, and a whole winter to feel good about it and think about next season. I think that I’ll stick with Olympic next season, however I want to pick up a Sprint and a Duathlon. I’m also booked for the Seattle Half again this November, but want to do some more of those, as a Half IM is my final goal, sometime later.
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OVERALL RESULTS FOR SINGLES
BIKE RUN OVERALL
OVERALL DIV SWIM TRAN BIKE TRAN PL AFTER RUN
NAME AGE SEX TIME PLACE TIME PLACE TIME TIME PLACE TIME BIKE TIME PLACE CITY & STATE
1. Michael Gordon 31 M 2:05:38 1 0:23:22 15 1:40 1:02:21 3 1:20 2 0:36:54 1 Walla Walla, WA
76. Richard Lander 33 M 2:37:59 9 0:30:00 140 3:14 1:13:58 80 2:08 101 0:48:38 72 Bellevue, WA
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Congratulating Pappa. Miles enjoying a free sample.
*Take-Aways*
Being new to this sport, I took away some learnings:
- Bring flip-flops to stand on if your Tri is in September. Leave them for your family to pick up from the shore after you’ve gone.
- Remember to take off your Road-ID bracelet, or else it will end up in the bottom of the lake.
- Make sure to bring energy bars that you like. I brought Cliff bars (which I really dislike, and knew this), and couldn’t eat them, when I needed one. Dumb move.
- Be prepared for some minor nausea at the end when all you’ve got left in your stomach is enduro-aid and the remnants of GU. If you don’t train with this stuff (like me), it is a little odd. I was glad I took it, however. Still not planning on training with it, however.
- Be prepared to be sore, pretty much everywhere.
- Be prepared for the car ride home to be pretty uncomfortable, even after stretching. Lying flat at home in bed and closing your eyes is the trick.
- Don’t stand anywhere near the front of a group swim if you’ve never done it before, unless you are suicidal.
- Transition time is huge. I could have picked up 4 more places by just shaving off 1m, which would have been easy.
- Leave it all on the course. This I did.
- I’m hooked ;)
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Leaving the event
After the race, we went to the famous Black Diamond Bakery for a hearty lunch. This is the home of killer cinnamon rolls, breads and other delightful baked goods!
So proud of Rich!
