Spirit of Racine

On Saturday, 7/21, I did the Spirit of Racine Sprint Triathlon. It was a .75k swim, 20k bike, and a 5k run. I ended up winning my age group. Talk about good day.

I arrived at the race site way early on Saturday morning after waking up at 4am and driving down. It was real chilly out, and I was nearly the first, but that meant rock star parking for me. Racked my bike, set everything up and then walked around for two hours. Note to self: Racine is only half an hour away. Whole waiting for the race to begin, all I could do was notice that EVERY single person had a wet suit on. Many with full wet suits and neoprene hats. Me? I just had on my little tri suit. Apparently everyone else was aware that Lake Michigan was a steam 62 degrees. It was a real confidence booster.

The swim was rough. There were 3ft swells the entire swim. It was a three legged swim, each leg about 250 meters. East, then south, then West back to the beach. The first leg going east was straight into the swells, plus the wind was pushing you south, so not only did you have to fight the waves and the cold, but you also had to swim at a diagonal just to go straight. I'm a very strong swimmer, but i really struggled. I think that a wet suit for buoyancy would have been a great help. The second two legs were much better, but I was already very fatigued. Made it to the beach, waded in the last 25 yds b/c it was so shallow and then ran the 1/8 mile of beach to T1.

T1 was fine.

The bike rocked. I had borrowed some aerobars (still haven't installed mine) and an aero helmet. I was really rocking, averaged 23mph on the course. There was some head wind on the first leg. The swim really challenged my shoulders and it was difficult to stay in the aero bars the entire ride.

T2 was also fine.

The run was just a 5k, but it went on forever. It had just started to get hot and there were some challenging hills. I really should learn how to run.

Anyway, crossed the finish and some guy tell me I'm the age group winner. I had now idea I was ahead in my heat. During the swim we all had green caps on, but once you hit the bike and run you had no idea who was who. Made my day.

The conclusion from this race is that I need to get back to swimming consistently. I realize that the only good time for this is before work in the morning, so I just need to start getting into the habit. Second, I need to keep running. I think some intervals would also be helpful. I don't have any trouble endurance-wise running, Its getting the speed. If I swim and run consistenly from now until 9/8 I will finish that 70.3 like a champ.