Sharkboy's First Race

I had my first race with the new "Sharkboy" wheel cover stickers yesterday in Sugar Land, Texas, at the Tejas Triathlon.

What can I say about that race other than the fact that it was a FAST course . . . pancake flat bike and run with a warm water swim. Below is my race report in standard format (quick results first).

The skinny:

600-m swim: 11 min. 14.3 sec. (56th overall/13th age group)
Transition 1: 57.7 sec. (3rd overall/1st age group)
11-mile bike: 25 min. 52.7 sec. (15th overall/4th age group)
Transition 2: 50.3 sec. (83rd overall/6th age group)
3.1-mile run: 19 min. 24.6 sec. (26th overall/9th age group)
Total time: 58 min. 19.7 sec. (11th overall/5th age group)

Overall results
Age group results


FULL RACE REPORT:

I wasn't going to do this race. I signed up for it a month and a half ago, and then decided that since it was only two weeks out from the Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3, I didn't want to risk injury or give up any long training days for it. Then, Hao called and wanted to hang out this weekend! He was off work on Friday, June 8, and wanted to get in some good riding this weekend. Who am I to say "no?" So . . . Lisa and I chatted about it and she said "go on!" So, I packed up my stuff on Friday morning, loaded up the two bikes, and drove to Houston.

Preamble:

I had decided that, since Hao and I would be doing some riding on Friday and Saturday, I wouldn't go out hard in the triathlon and would just use it as a nice training day. Those of you who know me, though, know I can't resist the competition, so that idea ended up going out the window on race day. But, that didn't stop Hao and me from doing two 53-mile bike rides -- one Friday and one Saturday -- before race day.

On Friday, when I got to Hao's house, we got our bikes (I took my Colnago), hopped in his car, and drove out to West Oaks Mall to do Hao's usual Saturday morning route. We took it pretty easy on the ride, only averaging about 17-18 mph over the course of the entire ride. Turns out that was a good idea because it was HOTTTT! Although I was tired from the sun and heat after that ride, Hao was pretty torn up. He just doesn't do well in the heat and humidity. Plus, he'd been stuck at work the previous two weeks and hadn't gotten much riding in. Of course, that didn't stop us from going out again the next day!

On Saturday, we got up early and went back out to West Oaks Mall for the group ride. They were supposed to leave at 7:30, but only about 10 guys were there by then. We waited around until 8:00 AM, and that's when about 25 more folks rolled in. Before they arrived, Hao and I passed the time by chatting with a couple of Cat 3 racers that were hanging around for the ride. They were good guys.

Well . . . the ride took off and we eased out at about 20 mph for warm-up. After about 3-5 miles, they ramped up to about 24-25 mph. It was a fun ride, but I stayed near the back with Hao because he wasn't sure he was going to be able to stay up with the group for long. Sure enough, at about mile 15, he fell off the back. I slowed down and just rode with him for about 8 more miles before we ran into about 8 guys from the group. Apparently, there had been a crash and a couple of guys went down. Nobody looked too bad, but some of the guys were ticked off and had turned around and started home. We caught two other people from the group and just did a nice 4-man pace line for the rest of the way into the turn around where we hooked back up with the main group.

On the way home, the group was going pretty fast. Hao told me he wasn't feeling great and said to just go on with the group since he knew the way home. So . . . I did. Great ride! We averaged about 26 mph on the way back. I waited at the car for Hao for about 45 minutes and was about to go back out and get him when he rolled up. Good thing, too, because the last time I left him on a group ride, he ended up in a car/bike accident that totalled his Cannondale! Turns out, he stopped off and got some water to pour down his back to cool off and just relaxed for a while. Smart guy! Anyhoo . . . he was toast after that ride, and while I was tired, I felt okay, but thought my legs would be jello the next day.

Pre-Race:

So, I went through my whole pre-race ritual Saturday night . . . laid out the clothes, packed up, went through my check list of things I needed . . . all was well. I wanted to get up at 4:40 am to get out and get to Sugar Land quickly. Transition opened at 5:30 am, and I hate being late. So . . . the alarm went off fine. I had my usual toast and peanut butter for breakfast . . . all fine. Grabbed my bags (except my transition bag) and headed out to the car to load up. Well . . . I didn't check the back door to make sure I'd left it unlocked. You guessed it . . . . I locked myself out. I was still able to get into the garage and get my bikes and wheels, but once I was all loaded up, I knew I'd left my transition bag in the house. I had no choice but to ring the doorbell. Luckily, Hao was up quickly. I apologized profusely, but he was cool about it. I just hope I didn't wake Mari and the boys. Mari had been out of town all week and NEEDED to get good sleep. I still feel so badly about that!

Anyway . . . I got on the road by 5:05 am and was headed to Sugar Land. I made it into the parking lot by 5:35 am and was walking Sharkboy to the transition area in no time. The rest of the pre-race was pretty uneventful. I was in the first wave to go and the gun went off just about right at 7:00 am.

The Swim:

Not much to say about the swim. The water was very warm and the course a bit convoluted, but it was a nice venue in a very decent subdivision lake. Not as gritty as Silverlake. I was pleased. My only gripe was that I spent too much time talking to another Texas Iron guy I saw before the race and got a bad place in the swim start. I had to swim through a few guys and cut to the outside to avoid the crowd. We had 100 guys in our age group, so it was a big start. As for the swim itself, I felt pretty good about it. I always get tired early on, but I managed to settle in and not get too concerned about the guys ahead of me pulling away. I came out of the water in 13th place.

Swim time: 11:14.3


T1:

I rocked the first transition! Fastest split in my age group. I know that sounds corny, but races can be won or lost on good/bad transitions. My set up was perfect. Since I was already wearing my tri top when I came out of the water, all I had to do was put on my glasses and helmet, and I was out of there! This was probably my best transition ever.

T1 time: 0:57.7


The Bike:

Oh, what can I say about the bike? I always have at least ONE problem on it. At Silverlake, it was getting into my shoes. Same thing at the Rookie. Today, no such trouble. I got my flying mount down pat and took off. Got up to speed, slipped the feet in the shoes and I was rockin'! Took a while for my heart rate to settle in, but I was moving pretty fast. I rocketed by a number of guys . . . turns out I passed 10 of them. At the bike finish, I was in 3rd place, but THAT is where my bike trouble manifested itself this time . . . .

The course was pretty well marked, but as I came screaming in towards the finish, there were no markers for where to go. Two guys with red flags were sitting there near the bike start, but they just watched as I rocketed past them. All of a sudden, I figured I had missed something, so I quickly turned around and went back and some people (not the two flaggers) were screaming at me to go back into the bike entrance . . . Turns out it was BOTH the entrance and exit. I'm still not sure why the flaggers didn't wave me in, but who knows? It cost me about 15-20 seconds. So, I roll into T2, do my rolling dismount, and run into the transition area.

Bike time: 25:52.7 (25.5 mph)


T2:

I thought I had a really good T2. If you look at how others did overall, it's average. It was 8th fastest in my age group. I think, however, that the overall comparison may have to do with the fact that the M35-39 age groupers were a long way from the run exit, so it took longer for us to get to the timing mat. Anyhoo . . . it wasn't a bad T2 time for me.

T2 time: 0:50.3


The Run:

My running times are definitely getting better. Granted, this was a flat course, so it wasn't TOO difficult, but still . . . I think I'm getting better. I came out of T2 in 3rd place in my age group, and the guy in 2nd place wasn't too far ahead of me. I could see him only about 20-30 meters ahead. I ran pretty smoothely with decent turnover and was closing some ground on him after the first mile and a half. Right before Mile 2, I got passed by a guy running really fast. It was the guy that won the Silverlake Triathlon a couple weeks ago. At least I managed to get well into the run before he caught me. I quickened my pace as he went by, but there was no way I was going to keep up. I got to within about 10 meters of the other guy in front of me, but I just couldn't keep up that pace, so I had to let him go.

The end of the race was just across a small foot bridge in the park. I could hear another guy right behind me as I got to the bridge, and he passed me just after it. That was about 100 meters from the end of the run. So, I finished up in 5th place in my age group. I finished 2 seconds behind the guy that caught me at the end. So . . . my little mix up on the bike cost me a 4th place finish. Oh well . . . at least I ran it well, and did VERY well considering how much riding I'd done the previous 2 days. I am very pleased with this result.

Run time: 19:24.6 (6:28 per mile)

Overall: 58:19.7 (11th place)

I had a great time!