River Cities Triathlon - Shreveport, LA 8/3

Sorry it's been a while since posting. I went out to San Diego for a volleyball tournament, then spent two days at work trying to recover from time away. Then it was off to Shreveport this weekend for the triathlon. It's been a busy month, so I'm glad it's all finally over and behind me.

This was my second triathon and I was excited to experience this one with highly trained athletes and men as well. This is in comparison to the Danskin Tri back in June, where it was all women, many of which were doing a tri for the first time. It was a great warmup experience to get to the race this past weekend.

I didn't do much training again for this one, honestly. I've been biking a lot, but it's been about distance, not speed. Outside of that I swam once or twice and only ran at the Afton Trail run in early July. It's sad, but true. Next year will be a different story, though.

Based on my time and knowledge of what I did at the Danskin Tri in Austin, I figured I could do this one in under 2:15, with a decent chance of doing it in 2:00 even. The difference was that the ride was 18+ miles as opposed to 12 in Austin. With those resonable goal times in mind, I set out.

There were 4 other people in this race I knew - Yvette, Rob, Jennifer and Jeff. Yvette, Rob and I came with a posse to cheer us on - April, Becky, Mike and Martha. It was great having them there to help cheer us on! All but Martha had also signed up for the race, but dropped because they weren't ready.

The swag on this race is pretty incredible, so there is a reason even the dropped folks came out for it. We got 2 shirts (1 was tech, the other cotton), a cap, race poster, sunglasses, beach towel, socks and an awesome tri backpack to carry all the stuff in. Wow! It was worth the $100 entry fee for sure.

The race started at 8am with the first wave of fast males. There were about 11 waves after that, each going out in 4 minute intervals. I was in the 3rd from the last wave, so there were plenty of opportunities for catching people ahead of me.

The gun...or cannon really...for my wave went off at 8:32. I'd set up in a direct line with the first bouy, but paused for a moment, lettting some of the faster chicks get started (a trick learned at Danskin). I kept a good even pace, not panicking this time, and managed to pass quite a few people on the first leg. By the time I turned the corner, I was starting to see caps for the wave in front of me. I passed quite a few from the wave in front of me and even quite a few from my own. I pulled out of the water and noticed that I'd done the swim in about :18, which blew me away. I'd planned on close to :25! Whee!

I ran up the ramp and passed Yvette, who was in the wave in front of me. Little did I know it, but I was only about 90 seconds behind Jennifer, who's a serious triathlete!

I changed as quickly as I could and headed out on the bike. The bike portion is mostly flat with a few minor hills thrown in. I stayed in my big chain ring for most of the race, only dropping down to the middle chain ring twice for hills. The wind was tough on occasion, but I managed. I eyeballed some of the aero bars as faster people passed me. Hmmm...

I've been reading a Triathon Training Blog with some frequency lately (see it to the right?). This lady has some great ideas and thoughts around her training. I'll never get to her level of analysis and training, but there are some interesting reads. One of her blogs recently talked about how many cyclists tuck their knees in as they ride, I suppose to cut down on wind resistance. I noticed a few who passed me were riding like this and made a mental note to at least give it a shot someday.

For the most part, I hustled on the bike, but I did hold back just a little so I had some leg strength leftover for the run. In hindsight (and with Di's suggestion), I should've probably gone out a little harder to make up more time. In the end, I did the bike in 1:04. I think I can cut that closer to 1:00 or less next year without much difficulty (and maybe with new aero bars!).

The run just sucked the life out of me, unfortunately. It was mostly flat and even a bit was on trail. The heat was really starting to kick in and make its affects known to me. I struggled a bit the first 1/2 mile or so, then seemed to kick it in gear okay. But by about 1.5 miles, I was struggling again. I walked and jogged the remaining 1.5 miles, though I knew I was very close and capable of finishing in under 2:00 if I'd have jogged the whole thing. Finished the run in :35 and wish I'd have pushed that a bit harder.

All in all, I came up with a 2:02 overall. I have no doubt that next year with a little training and perserverence, I could get under 2:00 and maybe even under 1:55 if I push it. Of course, you'll have to remind me of this next year!