Another Race Done - FitCity Triathlon Recap

Yesterday was the FitCity Triathlon at Herb Parsons Lake. I'm not sure exactly where it is though. Everything I saw said it was just north of Collierville, TN. But there were paramedics and sheriffs on hand from Fayette County (they always have paramedics at these races just as a precaution). After thinking it over, I think we spent part of the race in Shelby County and part in Fayette County.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun, except the hills on the bike were killer. I have been working on my biking and it still whooped me...ok, it flat kicked my ass. They advertised the race as a 1/2 mile swim, 23 mile bike ride (road), and 4 mile trail run. Let me tell you when I hit that 23rd mile on the bike and didn't see the park or anyone else, I thought I was lost. Turns out it was a 24 mile bike ride, and after I went so hard and fast on miles 22 and 23, I had hardly any energy left for mile 24. It was brutal and mostly uphill. I was about to turn around when I came around a corner in the woods and saw a family there. They cheered me on and said the park was around the next corner. I don't know how I kept going, but I did. Now I forgot my ankle brace so I didn't really run much on the trails which is good because I almost rolled my left ankle twice.

Here's the breakdown of my times:

First there was the half mile swim in the lake where you jumped in with a 5 second stagger start from a dock. Very weird but very fun. You had the option of diving or jumping. It was at a weird angle, but I dove anyway and passed the two in front of me in no time. My time was 17:09 which placed me 4th out of my bracket, Male Clydesdales all ages (Clydesdales are men who weigh over 200 lbs). There were 14 Male Clydesdales overall.

I had the longest transition 1 time out of my bracket with 4:55, but that's fine because that's better than what I did in the last one where I was 8:18.

On the bike I was 13th out of my group with 1:26:31 with a 16.78 average mph. That's good for me because in my last race, my average was 13.3 for a shorter distance. So my bike training has really worked for me lately.

My transition 2 time was 5:03. I still need to take off a few minutes, but I did take a hammergel nutrition pack and had to chug a bunch of water with it. By the way, the Banana flavored Hammer Gel tastes like monkey butt (the chocolate tastes bad too). I would have gone with my standard strawberry-banana flavored GU Gel which I like, but I went to the Ptolemy Prospective Member Party Friday night and had a few beers instead of being responsible and replenishing my stock of GU and electrolyte pills that I used up in bike training. Wow that was a long sentence that said probably nothing you cared about. If you don't like it, bite me.

On the run, I really walked a bunch because I was exhausted and every time I came to a water station they were out of water mostly. Plus my legs were killing me from the bike for the first two miles of the run. I was only able to start jogging again in the third and fourth miles. My time was 48:14 which I think is pathetic. I need to do a few things so I can start running a lot. I need to get some new damn custom inserts to prevent my shin splints from flairing up whenever I try to run. Anyway, I was 12th in my bracket in the run.

I like to look at my triathlons as a competition against myself. I tend to start competing during the race with people around me, but that's stupid. So I'm looking at a similar race for comparison from last year when I weighed less and was (supposedly) in better shape than I am now: the 2007 Tupelo King of the Hill. The King of the Hill was 1/2 mile swim, 22 mile bike ride, and 3.6 mile road run. I'm not really looking at the run as much because my legs cramped up bad last year due to dehydration. Anyway, here's the comparison
SWIM FC 17:09 / KH 15:55
T1 FC 4:55 / KH 6:58
BIKE FC 1:26:31 (16.78 avg mph) / KH 1:42:04 (12.94 avg mph)
T2 FC 5:03 / KH 2:49
RUN FC 48:14 / KH 45:19

It really looks like I have improved a lot. Especially on the bike where I was faster while covering more miles than the King of the Hill (and the Mighty Mite which was only 13 miles). So here are my goals to work on before next season starts:
1. Improve transition time
2. Improve running ability (i.e. get shoe inserts to prevent shin splints)
3. Continue to improve biking performance
Unfortunately this is really the end of triathlon season for me. I may do a few bike races or run races throughout the rest of the year, but football season is almost upon us and that means my weekends are about to be filled with partying. Then it hunting season and xmas party season. So it's going to be a while until the spring races start.

Have a good one and get off your lazy ass.