The trainer is collecting dust, the cold gear is shelved away, and the legs are shaved. That can only mean one thing; the triathlon season is officially here! After months of winter weather, and countless hours of indoor training, the sun is out, and the temperatures are finally over 60 degrees(well today a least). The Keuka Lake Triathlon was the first race of my tri season and I came into this race with both excitement and anticipation. Early season triathlons are a great way to assess your winter training along with an evaluation of what kind of form you’re in. Even though I have been racing for 4 years, I have yet to do an Olympic distance triathlon. I’ve done numerous sprints, three Ironman 70.3’s and an Ironman, but I was still an Olympic tri virgin. I knew from the get go this distance wouldn’t favor me because it has a fairly long swim compared to the bike and run portion, and as everyone knows swimming is not my strong suit. I am a good runner and an average cyclist. Therefore my expectations for this race were slightly on edge. I set out the simple goal of a sub 2:20 race. My goal for the swim was not to drown (sub 30 min), my goal for the bike was sub 1:10 (taking the slight difficulty of the course into consideration) and a sub 40minute run.
Saturday afternoon began our commute towards the Penn Yan area. Mike was my co-pilot for the ride, and decided to take on the journey this weekend with me. I explained to him that our accommodations would be about as nice as our hostel in San Francisco, but being the trooper and good friend he is, he wanted to tag along. After driving for two hours we hit our first detour, and we were directed through the dirt roads of Amish country. For the final twenty minutes it was nothing but farm land, horse dung, and carriages. Once we finally arrived to our Keuka Lake College we hit up the registration tent, checked into our dorm room, and headed on out for some Holly’s Red Rooster. After dinner we meet up with Pete Cerny, Joe Meyer and Joe and we began playing extreme Bocce. What is extreme Bocce one may ask? Extreme Bocce is no holds bar, anything goes, through the bushes, brush, against the concrete walls, down a ravine and up a hill. After two hours of game play, team Joe2 won. Playing Bocce the day before a race may have been the most fun and relaxing thing ever. I have a feeling this will become a Keuka Lake tradition.
Race morning began at 5:13 a.m. After my coffee pot decided to throw up all over the room I managed to mustard up half a cup, and washed it down with a bagel and peanut butter. After Mike complained for the next half hour about how early it is and blah blah blah, we headed down to transition area to set up and get ready for the race. Leading up to this race I had yet to swim in open water, wear my wetsuit, or swim a continuous mile. As I was running through my equipment my front bike wheel was rubbing the break pad so I decided to detach my front break and ride with just the back one. (I wouldn’t advise anyone to do that!) The water was a brisk 63 degrees so I opted to get in the water 15 minutes before the race and frolic around to get the body used to the water temperature. It was cold, but not unbearable. Once my wave was in the corral, the siren blew, and the race was underway. I started in the second row in hopes of getting a good line to the first buoy and possibly draft off of a faster swimmer. Unfortunately for me neither of these two things happened. I swam at what I thought was a decent pace. I wanted to finish between 25 minutes-29 minutes and I did that. 26:59, which is not good, not great, probably less than average. The good thing was I felt good, and I was ready to bike.
Throughout T1 I felt like the world had slowed down. It truly felt like I was in T1 for over ten minutes, and the first thing I said to Mike after the race was “MY first transition took forever.” Well after the results were posted I guess I didn’t do half bad because I had one of the faster T1 times at 1:04. Onto the bike, the newly paved 54 was glorious. It was smooth and pot hole free, just what a cyclist dreams of. The course isn’t the toughest course, but it isn’t the easiest either. It has some steady rollers and to reward your efforts it presents some fast down hills. On that first turn around I was really wishing I had those front breaks because I rolled about an extra ten yards past the turnaround point because I couldn’t slow down. I am pretty sure one of the volunteers said “Where is that kid going?” I felt pretty dumb at that moment but quickly kicked the tempo up for the mile climb back into town. Once we got to the back half of the course it was a gradual uphill climb and it was just constant grinding. I was playing a cat and mouse game with a few riders so that up(ed) the tempo quite a bit. Once we made the final turn around one of the riders took off and there was no way I was catching him so I settled down and drove the pace home. Once in T2 I got in and got out in 32 seconds, which was good enough for 1st overall. Hey transitions just may be my thing.
The run started off extremely ugly and I completely blew my pacing plan within the first mile. Ticking off a 5:42 first mile I knew I would be in a world of hurt, and that I was. I was dying by mile 2 and I thought a sub 40 10k was out of the question. I took in a GU and felt much better so I decided to pick the pace back up. Mile(s) 3 and 4 came easily then around mile 4.5 the leg cramps took their toll and although I wanted to stop and stretch it out, I knew that was not a pliable option so I ran through some of the worst cramps I’ve ever had. I was super bloated and not very happy. I did what I could for the last 1.5 miles and was happy to see that finish line. I came in with the fourth fastest run in 38:XX. I finished with a time of 2:16:59 and I was happy to finish 14th overall, and taking the AG crown was a nice perk also. I now know I need to perform a better nutrition plan and maybe I can eliminate those cramps, and even have a quicker run split.
If I had to give myself a grade for this race it would be as follows:
Swim: C
T1: B+
Bike: B
T2: A+
Run: A
Overall: B+
Needless to say I need to continue to work on my swim, and get out on mike bike more. Now it’s time to really put in the hours for Ironman Rhode Island 70.3 which is only 4 weeks away! Let’s get out there and train ya’ll!
