Jun 20, 2006

Race Report: Binbrook Triathlon

            Place   Time      Pace        Transition
Swim(750m) 10 14:58 2:00/100m 2:51
Bike(27k) 37 52:45 30.7 km/h 1:33
Run(6.5k) 61 36:30 5:37 min/k
Final 38/116 1:48:35
Age Group 7/13
Binbrook Triathlon-02It was a hot and hazy morning in the village of Binbrook on Father's Day. I arrived there at dawn to run my second triathlon. By the time the running portion of the race started it was already 27 (but smoggy and "felt like 34"). Race time was 8:30 AM, so I had left Toronto at 6:00. Annette, another TTC member doing her first triathlon, car-pooled with me and we listened to the Get Your Geek On triathlon podcast on the drive there. It was good to have company and motivation on the way. There were four other club members at the race, but we only managed to meet up with two of them after the race.

The race was a "sprint" and consisted of a 750m swim, a 27km bike, and a 6.5km run. The winning time was 1:25:34, my time was 1:48:35. I was 38/116 overall, and 12/31 in my age group. There are way too many guys in their forties racing!

Swim: 14:58, 10th overall. The lake was warm enough to make wet-suits optional, but I wore mine for the speed (lovely speed...). First leg was straight into the sun, second leg was a bit choppy. I actually led most of the first leg(!), but in the end came out of the water tenth. I found it a bit hard to breathe in my wet-suit under race conditions and wandered a bit off course (I was pulling to the left most of the time). There was a fairly long run from the beach to the transition area, which I mostly walked.

Transition 1: 2:51. That sucked! I peeled off my wet-suit OK, but spent way too much time rinsing my feet and pulling cycling gloves onto wet fingers. That extra minute probably cost me five places in the end. Next time I'll go without the gloves.

Bike: 52:45, 37th overall. Didn't feel really good on my new triathlon bike until the turn-around. It was quite windy too. I spent way too long trying to get past a beast of a guy with huge calves on a mountain bike (racing the duathlon I think). I made good use of my bottle of eLoad. Poor Annette, doing valiant work on her mountain bike, apparently dropped her water bottle 10K into the ride and arrived at T1 parched.

Transition 2: 1:33. Spent some precious time helping a guy fix our rack, which fell apart as he racked his bike. Coming out onto the run course my ass hurt like hell. Never expected that! Pinched nerve maybe? I got back to normal pretty quickly though, and was running after 50M.

Run. 36:30, 61st overall. See a trend? I faded big time here, walking about 10% of the run. The ground was fairly rough and mostly grass, so I never really trusted my footing. There was even a grass snake coiled up in the middle of the path at about the 5 K mark! The course wound around quite a lot too, sometimes you couldn't see more than 20 ft ahead. The hot sun and haze really knocked the stuffing out of me. Maybe I need to run outdoors more too. I did remember to straighten my race number, pull up my zipper, take off my glasses and smile as I crossed the finish line.

Transition 3: The finish line was right beside the beach. I dumped my shoes and dove back into the water. Man that felt nice. The Give-It-A-Tri's were milling around getting ready for their start at that point. Everything from wet-suits to windsurfing gear to bikinis and board shorts! Being a sage from my two race experience I dispensed advice freely. I managed to catch up with most of my team mates at the food area, which was well stocked, to re-hydrate and replenish my glycogen.

No wet-suit rash this time (praise be to Bodyglide) but I did get a mild sunburn in spite of a pre-race sunscreen application. I guess it must have sweated off along with my race number.

Listening to: Pressure Drop by The Specials from Today's Specials.

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