Lake Compounce Triathlon Race Report

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. While I kept waking up to eye the clock, each time, I reset the alarm later and later. I had already set my bike up in the rack and laid out my triathlon stuff so all I needed to do was shower, dress, grab a coke and a cliff bar and be on my way.

As I grew near the highway exit for the race, I kept seeing cars with bikes on them whip by me. Not a good sign.

It was a beautiful morning. The race was held at a closed to the public amusement park. The transition area was near the parking lot and the swim took place in the lake about .4 miles away. I decided to bring my socks, shoes and towel to the swim, and change when I got out of the water rather than running barefoot to the transition area. I knew this would hurt my swim time, which was measured on arrival at the transition area (swim plus run .4 mile time), but my plan this time was to pace myself with the goal and being able to run the entire run park without having to walk.

I was in the second of two waves (the second wave was for first timers and Clydesdales and Athenas). I was one of very few without a wet suit and was worried the water would be frigid, but it was quite pleasant. The course was a rectangular out past two buoys, turn right go past another buoy and then come in passing another buoy. I lined up wide to the right, which meant a bit of a longer swim, but an unimpeded one. I swam easy – the swim version of a jog, and had no contact with any other swimmer until the final turn in where I got into some good bumping. I enjoyed the swim. I didn’t swim great, but I was just trying to go easy. The homestretch was looking right into the morning sun glaring off the lake, which was beautiful, but a little disorienting as far as being able to gage how far away the beach was.

I came out of the water and sat down to dry my feet and put my socks and sneakers on, and numerous people went running by me, so my swim time will be higher than many of the people I outswam, but that’s okay. Now sneakered I ran through the park, through the tunnel to the transition area, and there only had to put on my helmet, gloves and sunglasses, and take a quick swig of my HEET drink.

The bike had one steep hill coming out of transition, so I had to switch down to the first gear – I made it up it, and then only a brief twenty second period of being unable to switch back up to second gear.

Riding the course in advance helped a lot. I kept it in second gear and only rarely went up to the higher numbers on the right hand gear. More people passed me than I passed (including a couple mountain bikers), but I did pretty well, and even passed a few people. The roads were virtually free of traffic and I only had one point where I swore under my breath going up a small hill because I didn’t get to the lower right hand gear in time. Since it was a loping course with bike traffic on both sides of the road, I was able to see there were a fair number of people behind me so I didn’t have to worry about being last.

At the next transition, I racked my bike, grabbed a small water bottle and took off on the run. I made it the whole way without walking. I was passed by a few people, but I passed a few people too and even managed a good kick on the end.

As soon as I crossed the finish, they handed me a medal with a red ribbon to go around my neck and said you can stop running now. In the post race area they had water and more HEET drink, bananas, cookies sandwiches, etc. I chatted some with a friend from my triathlon class and another guy I know from the hospital before heading home because I am working this afternoon.

I felt very good after the race. I finally can say I did a complete triathlon without having to walk any and I wasn’t pathetic on the bike. I’m looking forward to to an off-season of training and racing again next year.

Triathlete.

***

They finally posted the final race results.

I came in 167th out of 204 with a time of 144.12.

My swim/run to transition was 13:37 (108th)
My transition/bike was 59.25 (164th)
My transition/run was 31:10 (161st)

Its a shame you can't get straight swim/bike/run times.

The cool thing is my transition/run time was better than my first 5K run time back in April even after swimming and biking.

Race Results