Sunday morning I got up at 5am and packed the car and drove to Biddeford, Maine to race in the Nor'easter Reverse Sprint Triathlon. This is one of only a few races in the US where competitors race the triathlon backwards; first run (5k), then bike (11 miles) then swim (150 yards), rather than the usual swim, bike, run. I entered this race as a prep for Alcatraz, to see where my fitness was at. I checked in at 8am where I received my race number, bike rack location (transition) and body markings. After I set my bike up in transition I always walk through the entry and exit locations to transition as I want to familiarize myself with the location of my bike. Sometimes, in the heat of the race, your brain will blank out on where your bike is among the hundreds of other bikes in transition. Think it this way have to ever walked out of Walmart and forgetting where you parked and you're already late to pick up the kids from school? It's like that. Same athletes panic in transition. I know, I've been one of them.
I warmed up with a slow jog for about ten minutes prior to the race. We all lined up and were off at 9am sharp for the beginning leg of the run. Not knowing how to pace myself in a reverse triathlon I decided to run a modest 5k race pace and fell into the middle of the pack. Knowing that long distance running is not my strength in triathlons I ran a 25:54 m/s which is OK for me. I was in 82 place out of 155 heading into transition 1.
In T1 I rocked. I quickly got out of my sneakers and with helmet on got through the transition and onto my bike in just 50 seconds. That's right, within 50 seconds I went from running a 5k to clipped into my bike, peddling down the road.
I felt pretty sluggish heading out on the bike as my legs started to adapt to the new type of locomotion, but I knew I'd get my legs pretty quickly so I hammered as fast as I could, sprinting on the bike for the first 2 miles passing as many cyclists as I could as I knew they were hurting too. I kept hunting folks down one by one and staying as 'areo' as I could. I estimate that I must have passed about 40 folks out on the bike course and I was only passed by three, all of whom had time trial triathlon bikes and there wasn't much I could do about that. I has the 33rd fastest bike split on the day and entered transition 2 in 53 position.
T2 went pretty well as I racked my bike, took my helmet off and grabbed my goggles for the pool. As I headed towards the pool out of transition area I noticed that I had forgotten to take my socks off. Besides the temporary embarrassment of swimming with my socks on they would have slowed me down quite a bit, so I ran back to my bike and took my socks off. Something always goes wrong during a tri at some point and the socks fiasco was it for me today. I cleared T2 from the bike to the pool in 1:13 m/s.
The pool was a little crowded as I jumped in and as anyone knows in a triathlon the swim can be a bit of a scrum. This swim was no different. The swim was snake pattern we swam down in one lane and back in lane 2 the back down in three return in four, etc. We had to cover 6 lengths of the 25 yard pool. Rule for this triathlon stated that you could only pass in the middle of the pool and not at the wall as we made our turns. As a result you had a very small opportunity to pass other swimmers before you were at the end of the pool. On the other hand, it was easy to block a pass as all you had to do is wonder in the pool lane like a Snowbird on a Florida interstate highway. I somehow managed to pass three swimmers in the pool (mostly my tapping their feet in front of me). I finished the 150 yard swim in 3:14 m/s, 36th overall. I apologized to the swimmers behind me for running them over in the pool. I guess it's the Canadian in me.
So here are the numbers. I came in 8th out of 17 in the men ages 40-44. 41st out of 71 men overall and 50th out of all 155 men and women. Not too bad for a training race. I'm pretty happy with my progress towards the big race in June.
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