I wish there was a better way to find consistency in the triathlon distances from year to year - specifically the swim. The last time I did this swim in 2011, it took me 14:26. Compare that to 2013, which was 8:16...and it becomes difficult to measure progress - I know that I improved a lot thanks to my time in the pool this winter, but that's a big jump.
Regardless, my overall results improved across the board - and this is the first race in quite awhile that I'm happy with the results.
The swim wasn't nearly as cold as I expected it to be, nor as crowded. I was also able to continuously swim freestyle, while weathering a handful of kicks and gulps of seawater. My only spot for improvement that I can think of would be to continue swimming until I see the ocean floor clearly. Simmers right next to me were standing up, and I thought I was able to stand up on two occasions just feet from the shore, but there were big differences in depth along the shore line and that cost me some time.
As usual, my first transition sucked. I waste too much time getting the sand off my feet and putting on socks - and I always seem to have small issues getting out of my wetsuit. Making it a priority to practice for just an hour a day or two beforehand would probably see a drop from 2:20 to 1:20...
The bike was shortened from 10 miles to 8.5 due to flooding from downpours the previous night, but the course was in excellent condition and the race director's made a great choice delaying the start an hour and a half. I felt pretty good throughout, but I think I would be well served to get in ~2hrs a week on the bike as part of a XTing routine. I hadn't biked in quite awhile (certainly not a quality 20m session), but this was still a very solid improvement over my races last year. I can thank that to the countless hours on the bike over the winter while nursing my stress fracture.
....the 2nd transition also sucked. I took 1:21 to basically put on running shoes, which isn't terrible - but my transition during my fall triathlon was 56 seconds...that's about where it should be. That 25 seconds is way too much time to waste.
The run was also a huge improvement over last year. I went from 19:13 to 18:22 this year, and had the 8th fastest run split out of 500+ competitors - I'm very happy with that. Within the first mile I had passed probably 10 runners when someone finally passed me. I stayed on his shoulder until I found a good rhythm. After about a half mile later, my legs felt very strong and I re-passed him. He helped me, so I told him to stick with me so we could pass a few runners and feed off each other. We passed probably 20 people from that point to the finish. He stayed right behind me up until the last quarter mile. I made a very strong push at that point and opened it up a little more as I turned to the final ~300 meters and he was probably a good 10 seconds behind me.
| Escape the Cape
2013 |
0:08:16 |
0:02:19 |
0:26:41 |
0:01:20 |
0:18:22 |
|
0:56:58 |
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/Jun8_Escape_set1.shtml
I came in 69th out of 512. If I could have improved ONLY my transition times, I would have been ~30 spots higher. That doesn't really take away from what I consider a good race, but it is encouraging to know that with a few adjustments in training I will inch closer to a top 20 finish.
