Big Success at The Rookie Triathlon!!!

Hiya, family and friends! As the title suggests, my first race of the season, The Rookie, put on by Jack & Adam's Bicycles, was held yesterday, Saturday, May 12, 2007, and was an excellent success, especially for me. So, without further ado . . . on to the race report.

The Rookie is a local race that is put on mostly to encourage new triathletes. It's commonly the very first tri done by many. The race consists of a 300-meter swim, an 11.1-mile bike ride, and a 2-mile run. Given the name and the short length, it's not the most competitive race out there, but it does draw some pros to help support the local triathlon scene. This year, the pro field included James Bonney, who finished 8th or so overall at Ironman Arizona, local pro studs, Todd Gerlach, Jason McMillian, and Patrick Evoe. All these guys are well-known around Austin as some of the city's best. The big star at this year's race, though, was Desiree Ficker, who finished as the second overall women's finisher at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii in 2006. Also, our esteemed governor, Rick Perry was a participant. Needless to say, it was a star-studded affair.

Now, before I get into my actual race report, I need to set the stage. The race had your typical "age group" divisions, but it also had an "Open" division, which included all the pros and anyone else who wanted to race in that division. The Open Division was not counted in the overall age grouper results. So . . . on to the report:

The Short Report:

300-meter Swim: 5 min. 10 sec . (4th in age group, 48th overall)
Transition 1: 1 min. 9.7 sec.
11.1-mile Bike: 29 min. 37.5 sec. (1st in age group, 8th overall)
Transition 2: 1 min. 4.2 sec.
2-mile Run: 13 min. 4.4 sec. (4th in age group, 29th overall)
Final Time: 50 min. 6 sec. (1st in age group, 13th overall, 2nd overall male age grouper)

Here are the links to the actual results:

Overall Results
Age Group Results

The Long Report:

I didn't sleep well the night before the race. Friday, I was off work helping Lisa at the school with Field Day for the kids in her class. It was doubly difficult because, not only are they preschoolers, most of the kids in the class have disabilities and need extra assistance and patience. It was a wonderful experience, especially seeing all these kids having the time of their lives running through water sprinklers, climbing up inflatable slides, and rolling balls through tire hoops. They were having such a good time, I really enjoyed it. However, it was exhausting!!! I say again, that I don't know how Lisa does it day in and day out. Anyhoo, I was beat, so when I finished, I got home and napped for a few hours. That screwed up my sleep pattern and I couldn't fall asleep when it was time for bed!

So, after about 4 hours of fitful sleep, I got up at 4:15 AM and had some toast with peanut butter and a glass of orange juice before heading out to drive down to New Braunfels for the race. I left really early because I had to stop along the way and pick up my friend, Shelley, who was doing the race, too. Her house is pretty much on the way. I got to Shelley's house a little after 5:00 AM. We loaded up her bike and then headed down to the race.

The transition area opened at 6:00 AM, and we got there almost right on the hour. We got a great parking space and then unloaded the bikes and went through the pre-race rigamarole of body marking, transition set-up, and what-not. Needless to say, we were all finished with everything important by 6:30 and still had an hour and a half until race time. So, we milled around transition checking out the competition and talking shop for a while.

Around 7:45 AM, Adam Reiser, the announcer (and one of the founders of Jack & Adam's) gave the pre-race course talk and explained the course in great detail for all the new triathletes in the race (definitely more than half of the participants). Just after 8:00 AM, the "Open Division" wave started the swim. James Bonney, the eventual winner, swam the whole 300 meters in about 3 1/2 minutes. It was impressive!

My wave, Men 35-39 was the fourth wave to go. After the open wave, we had to wait for the Men 29 and under and Men 30-34 to go, too. Then, it was our turn.

The Swim

I actually had a decent swim. My time wasn't great based on my 100-meter splits, but it was good enough for fourth in my age group. I lined up on the very inside, next to a fellow Texas Iron group member, John Lewis. I mentioned John before in my Iron Star race report -- he was the guy I passed on the bike who gave me some encouragement. Well, John aged up since Iron Star, so we're in the same group now. When the gun went off (okay, it wasn't a gun, it was the spectators counting down from 10 and shouting "GO"), we all started swimming like mad. There was one guy inside me and John and he kept swimming over into me, forcing me into John. I kept whacking the backs of John's legs as I swam and he eventually knocked my goggles askew (all of this by accident). Anyway, we both let the other guy go ahead and then it was smoothe sailing from there.

I think a lot of the new folks went out WAAAAY too hard early in the swim. In the first 150 meters, I could see at least 10-15 pink caps (that was our color) ahead of me. After the turn around and about 15 strokes, the next time I sighted, I only saw one or two ahead of me. I know I caught at least one more guy before hitting the beach, but I had no idea how many guys were ahead of me. I later learned that three guys had faster swim splits. That's okay. It was such a short swim, they couldn't get more than a few seconds on me.

Swim Time: 5 minutes, 10 seconds (1:43 min/100-m), AG place: 4th.

T-1

First transition felt a lot faster than it was. Looking at all the other times, I guess it wasn't too bad, but I didn't think it took me that long to get out on the bike. I always try to start these things with my shoes clipped in. The Rookie was no exception. I got out pretty quickly and hopped on the bike to go.

T-1 Time: 1 minute 9.7 seconds.

The Bike

The bike is always my favorite leg. I had a little trouble on two parts, but other than those unexpected things, I hammered pretty well.

My first trouble on the bike was getting my feet in my shoes. It's been a while since I practiced this, and I just couldn't get going. I got on the bike just fine, but I had forgotten to make sure my shoe straps were open, so I had to get going and then work pretty hard to get my feet in the shoes. It took longer than I'd hoped and resulted in a slow bike start. One guy I'd passed as I was getting up speed before slipping into my shoes passed me back before I could get into the shoes and get going.

The shoe problem was exacerbated a bit by the fact that almost right out of transition there is a "hill" that is really the culmination of an exit ramp off of I-35 to the access road and a bridge crossing I-35. It's a short, steep climb, but it's a rude introduction to the course. Had I gotten into my shoes a little faster, I might have had a little more speed going before I hit that hill. As it was, I got up it fine, but my heart rate was pretty high before I finally settled into a good bike rhythm.

The rest of the bike was mostly long flats and rolling hills. It's MY kind of course. I hammered much of the course up near 27-30 mph in the flats and downhills. I was passing people from prior waves left and right. I do remember passing one guy with a 35 or 36 on his calf, so I know he was in my wave. I think I beat the other two, who had finished the swim ahead of me, out of transition, so I never saw them on the bike. Anyway . . . I was really motoring on the bike. It felt great to be out there.

As I neared the end of the backside of the course, right before turning back onto the I-35 access road for the home stretch, I encountered my second big problem on the bike. I was shifting gears going up a slight incline and dropped my chain. I was worried I'd have to get off and fix it, but I tried that trick of putting the bike in the big chain ring and small cog and slowly spinning the chain back on. It took a few seconds of coasting and trying, but I finally got it to work. The good news is that I didn't have to stop, but the bad news is that it cost me several seconds I'd like to have back. If I'd known then how close I'd come to finishing under 50 minutes, it might have totally screwed with my head!

Nevertheless, I did get the chain back on and got going fast again. The final mile and a half of the bike is all down hill, so I motored! About 400 meters from the finish, I came up on a guy who was riding way on the left. The rules don't allow us to pass on the right, so I yelled at him to get over. He didn't move. I yelled again, this time, I'm closing to within a bike length of him. Still nothing. Just then, a marshal on a bike pulled up beside me. It looked like he was writing down a penalty, but just then, the guy in front of me slowed and moved over and I took the moment to zoom past him. I cruised into T-2 with my feet out of the shoes and hopped off my bike right at the bike dismount line and ran into the transition area.

Bike Time: 29 minutes 27.5 seconds (22.5 mph pace), AG Place: 1st.

T-2:

Well, T-2 could have been disasterous for me. As it turns out, another Texas Iron person had her stuff on the rack directly in front of mine. (We had chatted pre-race.) Anyway, turns out, she uses a blue towel very much like mine and her running shoes are virtually the same color. So, I cruise into T-2, rack my bike and start to put on my running stuff. I look down and see the shoes with a pair of Texas Iron socks. Luckily, my brain was working and my first thought was "I didn't bring any socks!" That's when I realized I was in Lori's spot, not mine! So I grabbed my bike and moved one rack back to the right spot. Probably cost me at least 10 seconds in transition, but at least I got it right!

T-2 Time: 1 minute 4.4 seconds

The Run:

The run at the Rookie was pretty darn good. It was nice and flat and I felt great running it. It wasn't terribly exciting . . . just an out and back run, but I was in a good rhythm directly out of transition and never felt really tired. I just focused on the guys ahead of me and tried to catch them without blowing up. It seemed to work, too, because I ran at a 6:32 pace, my fastest ever. Granted, that's not hard to do when you know you only have 2 miles to run, but still . . . I think I may be faster than last year, and that's a good thing!

Run Time: 13 minutes 4.4 seconds (6:32 min./mile pace), AG Place: 4th.

The Finish:

Well . . . my finish was great, but I didn't know how great until about 45 minutes later. I crossed the line knowing I'd run well, but I was afraid I'd gotten a penalty on the bike. I was a bit ticked off, but knew that if I'd gotten one, it would have been my fault. But, 45 minutes after I crossed the line, they put up the first preliminary results.

Turns out, I won my age group!! I finished in 50 minutes, 6 seconds. Those lost seconds on the bike and in T-2 cost me a finish in the 40's! But, I couldn't be too upset because of the victory. I stuck around for a while to get my award (which was postponed because of a computer glitch by the company keeping the tally). In the end, my results were really good for me:

Time: 50 minutes, 6 seconds
1st place: M35-39
2nd overall male in age group division
13th overall for all participants

Perhaps the thing I take most pride in is that I finished only a minute and a half behind Desiree Ficker, and even had a faster bike split than she did! (Okay, I'm sure she wasn't going THAT hard, but still . . . I'll take it!!)

Anyway, The Rookie was a big success and helps ease my concern with my fitness. Plus, it gives me hope that I might place even higher next week at the Silverlake Sprint Triathlon in Pearland. I will say I think I have an outside shot (not a great one, but a possibility, depending on who shows up) of actually winning the thing. I won't expect it, but it would be cool if I did!

Well . . . there you have it . . . The Rookie is in the books and I am pleased! More to come next week after the Silverlake!