Race Report: Towamencin Triathlon

They should just rename this race "Let's host a race that is always 95 degress with no shade and watch John wither on the run."

Having said that, I keep going back year after year to receive my punishment. The only nice thing about going to a race like this on an annual basis is that I get to see if my training is improving over the long haul.

The race set-up is somewhat unorthodox, since it’s local and they don’t use chip-timing. The 400m swim is separately timed, and the rest of the race is a run-bike-run (the first run is only a mile, just to get some separation between competitors so that we aren’t all in the transition area at the same time). Because of this format, the swim is basically a time trial. And because it’s hosted at a swim club, it’s generally a drag race between lanes.

My goal for the swim was to break my PR of 7:22. I felt fast in the water, and I knew I was in much better swimming shape than previous years, so I expected to dip under 7 minutes. There is no doubt in my mind I would have pulled it off, if I had remembered to tie my swimsuit before I started swimming. After about 4 laps, my suit threatened to come flying off every time I pushed off the wall. The last thing I needed was my anchor dragging on the bottom of the pool, so I had to ease up at the turns, losing valuable time. Nevertheless, I ended the swim in 7:06, so if I had actually used my brain, I’d have been well within my targeted time.

I got my swim finished early, so I had nearly 30 minutes to relax before the race started. Pete and I hopped on our bikes and used this time to pre-ride the bike course. At 9am, we lined up to the start, and headed off on the first 1-mile run. My goal was to stay with the lead pack into T1, and I managed to stay on the heels of the first group, coming into the transition area in just under 6 minutes. I was on my bike and out of T1 in less than 20 seconds.

The bike course is pretty straight forward: 4 loops on a reasonably flat 2.5 mile circuit. The difficulty lies in the fact that there are about fifteen 90 degree turns in that 2.5 mile stretch, so it’s really hard to open it up. I rode a pretty steady average of 22 mph, and came into T2 feeling decent, although a little winded. Based on the 94+ degree temperatures, and a complete lack of shade on the final 3.1 mile run, I knew I would be in the hurt box. I tried to ignore the sense of impending destruction brewing in my stomach, and pushed forward out of the transition area onto the run course.

I made it about a mile before the physical pain caught up with the mental dread. Let me reinforce how much I HATE this 5k course. Three very long straight-aways of ¾ mile each make the run extremely monotonous, and I’ve always hated seeing how much farther I have to go before the finish line. I struggled through the second mile, as several people passed me on the run. This is another reason I hate the course…there are a large number of relay racers, where each team member only has to complete one of the three disciplines. So some of the people passing me are only running the 5k, and they look like they haven’t even broken a sweat. By the time I was in the last half-mile, I’d been passed by 10 people, and I was pretty sure I could walk a faster 5k. The only positive was that I got the dry-heaves out of the way early enough that I could kick in the last 500 meters, at least giving anyone watching the impression that I had a strong race.

Coming across the finish line, I was about a minute slower than the first time I raced the course 3 years ago (but over a minute faster than last year). I know my swim and bike times were both faster this year, so that meant I lost the time in the run. Big surprise.

Results:
14/65 overall
2 place, age group