Race Report: JCC Triathlon by the Sea

JCC Triathlon by the Sea

250 yard swim / 10 mile bike / 3.5 mile run
May 19, 2013
Marblehead MA
Start time 8am
Total time 1:25:14

First triathlon of the season, and after a few weeks of feeling "meh" about all this triathlon business, I was totally ready for this to happen today. My alarm was set for 5am, but I woke up naturally at 4:45am raring to go. I had packed all of my stuff the night before, so I only had to get dressed and load up the car. There is a lot of "stuff" involved for triathlons. My friend Connie, who raced today as well (her first triathlon ever!), texted me last night to say, "It was less work to pack for our London trip." I agreed, texting her back saying I had 4 different bags and 3 pairs of shoes. All this for a race that would take less than 2 hours.

I loaded up my bags and my bike and then picked Connie up. We got to the race site at 6:30am. Even though we were there an hour and a half early, we had no time to waste. By the time we picked up our numbers, got body marked, figured out how & where to put the numbers on our bikes and our helmets, pumped up our bike tires, and brought all of our transition gear and bikes to the transition area, we had less than 30 minutes to do some practice laps in the pool before the race started. I wanted to do some practice laps for a few reasons. 1) I was trying out a new tri top that I had never worn before. Actually, I've never worn any tri top ever, so I had no idea what it was like to swim with one on. Since the tri shorts I tested a few days before ended up between my knees, I figured that doing a test lap or two with a new shirt was a must-do. I also wanted to get into the pool just to become familiar with it. I think it was a salt-water pool instead of a chlorinated pool (or else it was just filled with lots and lots of sweaty people. Ugh, I think I just made myself gag.) It was also really hot. I'm glad I knew these things ahead of time, not because it really changed anything, but the less amount of surprises I need to manage during the race, the better. My tri top felt fine, so I decided to keep it on for the swim, then I could also just wear it on the bike instead of putting another shirt on when I was soaking wet. So far, everything was falling into place. 

The swim
250 yard pool swim, 4:39
It is very rare for a triathlon to include a pool swim. Most are open water swims, and the shortest distance I've seen is 1/4 mile, but 1/3 or 1/2 mile swims are the most common for a sprint distance triathlon. This was 1/8 mile, and in a pool. Participants were seeded by bib number, based on your projected swim time that you entered when you signed up for the race. I was number 79 and was scheduled to start 19.5 minutes after the first swimmer. Participants gathered around the pool and in the hallway overlooking the pool. The first swimmer was given the "go" sign and jumped in the water and started swimming. Sure enough, he was fast! He was also a cheater, or dumb, or both. The pool was 6 lanes, with lanes 1 & 6 being one way, and the middle lanes all being two-way, meaning swimmers would swim up & back in those lanes, ducking under the lane lines at the far end of the pool. This was explained in pre-race emails, and I assumed it was communicated to the runners as they stood in the queue waiting to go in the pool. But unfortunately, this fast #1 swimmer was ducking under every lane line, meaning he did 6 lengths of the pool instead of 10. No one stopped him to tell him otherwise, and in a minute and 46 seconds, he was out of the pool and running to his bike. I can only assume that he did the rest of the triathlon course before learning that he was disqualified. Better luck next time, buddy! 

After the shortest 19.5 minutes of my life, it was my turn to go. When they say go, you walk about 5 steps along the side of the pool, over the timing mats that record your chip, and then jump into the shallow end. I had been watching the 78 people before me to see what they did. Most of them, surprisingly, jumped in a few feet away from the wall and started swimming. Only a few jumped in very close to the wall and used the wall to push off. I knew that's what I wanted to do. While you might think that jumping out as far into the lane as possible will be in your best interest, it is quite hard to get any speed going when you start to swim with no momentum. I wish I had known this is what the start would look like, because I would have practiced that during the swim warm up. It turned out ok though. I dropped myself into the lane as close to the wall as possible, and while still underwater, pushed off the wall as hard as I could and started swimming. I wasn't focused on form at all, just whether the guy behind me would catch up to me. He didn't, but the girl behind him passed him and caught up to me at the very end of the last lane. I had also just caught up to the girl ahead of me at the same time, so 3 of us arrived at the wall simultaneously. The girl ahead of me used the ladder to get out, so I had to get out via hoisting myself onto the pool deck, which I had total confidence in after Friday's swim when I nailed it! The training is really paying off! Then it was a quick run through the community center to get back outside and down the driveway to where the bikes were.

The bike
10 mile bike, 38:59
Whatever head start I had because of my swim, I knew I would lose quickly on the bike. A few people did pass me at first, but after the first mile, the course looped 3 times around a neighborhood. On my first loop, I was passed a lot, but it was hard to tell if it was by participants who were on their 2nd or 3rd lap, or who started in the swim behind me and were just catching up now. I tried to read race numbers off of people's calves which was helpful for that reason. Basically any number lower than me meant they were at least one loop ahead of me already, and any number higher than me meant that they were just catching up. The bike portion of the race was difficult for me because I just don't have my bike legs yet. My quad muscles were burning and I was being passed by people who looked like they were just out for a summer cruise. I was also a little paranoid that I'd screw up the 3 loops. "I know this is my first loop because I know I haven't come to the end yet... I know I've done one loop already, but is this is my 2nd loop, or did I already have a 2nd loop and this is my 3rd loop?....I think this is my 3rd loop, but what if it's only my 2nd one? Should I do another loop? I AM NOT DOING FOUR LOOPS!" The ride back to the start seemed quick, probably because I was so happy to stop thinking about what loop I was on. Even though the bike was tough, I was really happy with my time. It was the first time I've ever ridden more than 15mph. I look forward to making that pace feel easier as time goes on.

The run
3.5 miles, 35:49
In the bike to run transition, I decided to put on another shirt that I brought with me, which I was going to put on for the bike portion when I expected I'd just be wearing my bathing suit and not also my tri top. The purpose of this shirt was to "hide" my gut that I didn't want to be on display during the 3.5 mile run in my skin tight clothes. I'm ok with spending extra time in transition for the purpose of modesty, but not with spending time to take off the tri top, so I just threw the t-shirt on over my clothes. So now I'm wearing a sports bra, a bathing suit, a tri top, and a t-shirt. 4 layers on the top half of my body! 

Newbie mistake, but that's what this tri was good for. Apparently lessons learned during winter long runs don't translate to triathlon, because I'm pretty sure I've already learned this lesson. I think for next time, I'll ditch the bathing suit and just wear the sports bra and the tri top. And if my gut bounces up and down, well, then my gut bounces up and down. Nobody cares, and if they do, then I don't care. What other people think of me is none of my business. The run itself felt ok. I was definitely feeling sluggish when I got off the bike, and that lasted for the first mile and a half or so. By the end of the 3.5 miles, I actually felt like I had more energy than when I started the run, so that gives me hope for some of these longer triathlons I have on my schedule. Although, factor in a longer bike ride and who knows what will happen. I guess we'll see in the next couple of months!

According to the final results, I finished 130th out of 200, and 11th of 17 in my division (35-39 year old females). I am happy with that. The biggest kicker of the day is that I missed out on a first place award for the Athena division, which is the 150+ pound female division, and the division I usually choose if given the option. The winner of this division finished 15 minutes behind me, so it would have been a sweet win! As far as stupid mistakes go, I'm ok with making that one. It's not like I forgot to swim 4 lengths of the pool and disqualified myself less than two minutes into the event. Derp.

The three friends who also did this tri today were all first time triathletes. Congrats to Connie, Judy, and Brian! (Psst, next one is June 8th. You know you want to....)