2011 Kemah Triathlon Race Recap

Sunday morning I woke up at 4am, ate a Clif Bar, hopped in the shower and got dressed. For some reason my legs usually feel tired the morning of a race, but today they didnt. Maybe I've finally figured out how to do this whole taper thing. The Passport Inn I was staying at was right next door to the finish line and transition area, so I grabbed my prepacked transition bag and bike and headed out.

It hit me as soon as I opened the door to my hotel room. For someone who's never raced in really humid weather (80%+), I never really appreciated how much it affects the body. I asked myself "If it feels like this at 5am, what's it going to feel like in 4 hours on the run?" Nerves started settling in and I more or less reminded myself I know how to swim, bike, and run. My training program hadn't let me down yet. What was I getting so worked up about?



Chris Lieto's transition area

 The transition area was buzzing at 5am. The boat taking us out to the swim start would be leaving in 30 minutes, so everyone had to get set up quicker than usual. I had a great rack location, 2 rows from the bike in/out and about 20 feet from the pro rack. I walked over to check out Chris Lieto and Terenzo Bozzone's set ups. Right then it was easy to see one of the differences between a pro and a beginning age grouper. Yes, the bike probably costs 5x as much, but what surprised me the most was the lack of "stuff" in a pro's transition. It was practically empty. Mine on the other hand had a towel on the ground, extra towel to wipe off my feet, water bottle, bike shoes, running shoes, hat, race belt, etc. Lesson learned: stick to what you need. Dump the rest.

View from the beach

The boat ride out was about 35 minutes once we got going. Pro men led off first, followed by the pro women, then elite age groupers before the rest of us started our time trial starts. 3x3 we jumped the 5 feet into the murky bay and began our mile swim. We had about 1-11/2ft chop and a slight cross current. The water tasted like a mix of salt water and diesel fuel, and for my first open water swim in about 6 months, I think I handled myself ok. I had forgotten my Body Glide at home, but a trip to Target for some Aquaphor Healing Ointment saved my neck from any wetsuit chafing. I climbed up the ramp and was out of the water in 29:57 with the 2nd fastest swim in my division.

It was about a quarter mile run from the beach to transition and I ran past the wetsuit strippers. T1 time was longer than I'd like at 4:06 probably because I took my time catching my breath, putting on my socks and shoes, grabbing a drink, and making sure I wasn't forgetting anything. Eh, this will improve with practice.

The bike ride was nice and flat with a couple out and back sections. The outs tended to be into a headwind and the backs were rewarded with a strong tailwind. It took me a little bit to settle into a comfortable cadence but I started passing people from the waves that took off before me. On the last 6 mile stretch with the wind at my back I got up to the fastest I'd ever gone on a flat road before. I'm still not 100% comfortable with my road handling ability at high(ish) speeds, but I felt good getting up to 27.5mph. It's all about achieving small goals. I dropped into a smaller gear about 5 minutes from the bike finish just to get my legs ready to run, had an uneventful dismount, and finished my bike 3rd in my division with a 1:14:52. My average pace over the 24.85 mile course was 19.9mph.

T2 was short and sweet. Drop the bike and helmet, switch out the shoes, pick up the hat and race number and run out. I was out in 49 seconds including 5 seconds of running the wrong way because I didnt check earlier where the Run Out gate was located. Another newbie mistake.

I've always had a pace/heart rate monitor when I ran, but I didnt bring it with me for some reason this race. Instead I just wore my trusty timex digital watch and ran the stopwatch function beginning at mile marker 1. Right out of transition I felt tired. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe I pushed too hard on the bike. Maybe I didnt hydrate enough earlier in the race. Whatever the reason, I eased up a little and found a perceived effort that I could sustain. As the miles ticked by, I checked the lap function on my watch and was usually around the 9:00 mark. It was a little upsetting considering I was running 7:30's a couple weeks earlier, but if I tried to run that at this point, I never would've finished.



Kemah bridge



Around mile 4, we had to go over a 10% grade bridge. Slow and steady, I picked out guys ahead of me that were walking and challenged myself to beat them to the top. Eased down the other side, turned around at the bottom and went right back up picking off more walkers. Nothing helps you forget your own pains more than out-toughing the guy next to you. Mental toughness is a key aspect in triathlon training and it shows itself at the end of every race.  

At the bottom of the bridge I knew I had less than a quarter mile left so I kicked into a higher gear and pushed as much as I could. Making the final turn into the finish chute, I saw that it was about 100 yards long and there was a guy about halfway down ahead of me. I am going to beat this guy. I used whatever I had left, probably even borrowing some from the crowd as they started cheering for me, and outsprinted him to the finish. When I looked at my run splits later, the last 0.2 miles was run at a 6:00 pace and I've never gone that fast before. Totally pumped and exhausted and covered in sweat, my race was over in 2:44:05. Beat my goal of 2:45:00, so I considered today a success no matter how the results ended up.

I grabbed a bottle of water and some HoneyMilk (which is now my favorite protein drink) and headed next door to my hotel for a shower before checking out the results. With a time trial start, you don't really know how you finish until more people cross the line, so I was in no hurry. When I got back, I looked at the board...Clydesdales Under 40...2nd place. Wait...WHAT?!? There were 16 guys racing in my division. Surely my slow T1 time, my inexperience on the bike, or my slow run had me finishing in the middle of the pack. I had to check this out. Ran over to the awards table and found out there was a timing mistake in my category. Oh, ok...that makes sense. And then:

"Sir, you're 3rd place. Here's your award."

To see the race from the eyes of the pros, Terenzo Bozzone (2nd place) posted this vid: