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Nathan Smith: In an attempt to prepare myself for the wonders of doing Ironman Lake
Placid, I decided to do something "fun". I entered two tris this past
weekend...both of which ended in some positive results and some things
to learn from.
I got to the race about 2 hours before the 10:30AM start. (Thank
goodness for late starting races...) I managed to get myself situated
fairly well, while looking around to see what other folks were doing
with their stuff and how they had set up their transition area. This
being my first triathlon ever, I was kinda unsure about a few things.
The kicker was that it was a split transition. Meaning that the
swim/bike transition was at a different location than the bike/run
transition. So...after getting all my stuff set up, I headed to the
beach to put on my wetsuit and get ready for the swim start in 58F
water.
The gun goes off the mass swim start was a little crazy. I do not wish a
mass swim start on my worst enemy. I got pushed around a little bit but
managed to finish the swim without digesting too much pond water. It
took me about 2 minutes to take off my two piece wetsuit since this was
the first time I ever swam in it. There's definitely a trick to taking
it off that I perfected in the shower later on after the race :-)
Immediately after the swim there was a pretty intense 2 mile climb. And
it will make EVERYONE happy to know that I actually used my inner chain
ring!!! Yes, you heard it hear first, I actually didn't use my big or
middle chain ring!
At any rate, the bike was pretty much an all uphill race. A lot of
short/steep hills mixed in with some open fire road climbs. This was
intermixed with some 1-2 miles of singletrack. All of these played in my
favor as I scortched through the bike and had passed about 10 or so
people. I came into T2 in 8th place I think.
Hopping off the bike, I hit the run and was soon caught by some kid who
runs cross-country. His run split was crazy fast and there was no way I
was going to keep up with him. With about 3 miles left, another person
came up on me during the run. I had let him slip by me during an open
fire road section, but managed to dig out a second wind and droped him
big time when we hit the technical singletrack porition of the run.
Since that's the terrain I train on, I flew over the stuff and
eventually opened up well over a minute lead by the finish line.
So I came 9th overall (out of 80+) I think, with a 1st place in my AG. Not too
shabby for my 1st tri!
So, the next day, I drove out to Penn Yan with a clean CR jersey and
a somewhat beat up body. I got there only about 35min before the start
of the race so I was a little frazzled trying to get registered and set
up my transition area. Got all my gear set up and was ready to go.
The open water swimg was two laps to equal about a 1mile swim. This
time, the open water swim was much more controlled. No kicking, clawing,
or scratching. The water was again cold, but crystal clear as I was able
to watch the underwater plant and wildlife during the swim. Very cool!!
Not to mention all the other junk, tires, cement shoes at the bottom of
the pond.
Getting out of the water, my practice with my wetsuit showed and I
didn't look like an idiot floudering around trying to get my wetsuit
off. It popped off, and I was prep'ing myself for the bike.
Using my skills from 'cross season I got a round of applause as I 'cross
mounted my bike (yes, I was showing off, but what can you do :-)) And
off I road. I passed a bunch of people on the open straight-away and was
preparing myself for an "uphill like none others" as some of the locals
called it. Um, yeah, the hill nearly killed me. Using my granny gear
(yes, you must be wondering if you're reading this right) I ended up
traversing the hill (an old roadie trick to cut down on the steepness of
the hill) riding back and forth up the hill. It actually worked as I
passed three more people on the climb.
The rest of the bike was a pretty long out and back. I didn't notice the
tail wind, but I certainly did on the way back after the turnaround.
Funny thing was on the way towards T2, some guy biked up to me, asked me
if I was a member of a relay team. His reasoning: I was wearing socks.
"What right minded triathlete would take the time to put on socks during
T1?" He asked. I told him I'm still learning as yesterday was my first
tri. He kinda shut up after that as I was doing as well as he was and I
had just done a race yesterday.
Taking my feet out of the shoes before I hit T2 was a huge help as I had
the 3rd or 4th fastest T2 time (:30) of the entire field. Hitting the
run, I kinda kept the run pace of a slug as two or three people passed
me. I was doing fine and manged to add a little kick towards the end of
the run. I came in 12th overall (out of 110+), and again, 1st in my AG.
So, in the end, I swam 1.6 miles, biked 38 miles, and ran 11 miles to
take two 1st place AG titles :-) Now I have to get ready for the 24
Hours of Adrenaline...
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