My first triathlon of the year was on NC State's Centennial Campus - the Triangle Orthopedic Sprint. This was a short little race: 750 meter lake swim, 10.5 mile bike and a 5K run. This is typically a time trial start; one person going every 5 seconds but this year they switched it up just a bit and had mini waves of 5 people every 15 seconds. The lake was chilly! 65 degrees, which no one could ever convince me that this is 'not bad.' I forced Marty to buy me neoprene arm sleeves since I have a sleeveless wetsuit and they were awesome. They stayed up, kept my arms warm, and were easy to come off.
We knew a bunch of people at the race so that's always a lot of fun. Several from our Master's swim group including my archnemesis Erik who would be starting :15 behind me. I started with another fellow master's swimmer, John, who took off way faster than I can, but I ended up exiting the lake just a bit behind him. I passed him running up the brutal hill to transition, where I then passed Erik (yup, he passed me in the water and I had no hope of even trying to draft off of him! archnemesis no more -- he'll have to find a new superhero to fight).
Off on the bike and I passed a few girls right away. There's really no way of knowing where you are in a race like this since people are starting all over the place. The bike was hard - it was hilly right at the beginning and difficult to find any sort of rhythm. Then it was rolling but before you knew it, it was over. I never felt all that comfortable or that I was pushing super hard, but that's what you get when you aren't doing a whole bunch of intensity at the moment.
Off on the run and I felt pretty good. Again, not much intensity in my training leads to semi-slow runs like this one. The course also had a fair number of hills, which I normally wouldn't mind when I'm in good shape, but right now so early on it was hard. So I backed off a bit :)
I ended up 2nd overall and had a really fun day out there. I do love racing! Pics to come if I get any sent to me from friends on the course. I debuted our new OSB one piece kit.
3 comments:
Great job Bri!! :)
Nice report! I feel you about those early season races and trying to go hard. Can't wait to see the new kit!
My first race may be mid 50's, so I'm thinking 65 sounds quite toasty.
Congrats on a good start to the season.
Post a Comment