GO!!!!

St. Anthony's Race Report
May 1st, 2011





I am finally getting around to writing up a race report from the weekend.  I landed back in TO Monday afternoon and then pretty much went straight back to work and struggled to get through my last three night shifts.  I was just too sleep deprived.  But I got a bit of a tan and had fun so it was worth it! ;)

Now to the race report....

Leanna and I woke up pretty early in order for us to get to transition by about 5:30am.  We were welcomed to quite a strong wind on Sunday morning and the first thing that came to my mind was the swim...I was really hoping that the race officials were not going to cancel the swim.  The wind was much stronger than the day before and the water had quite a bit of chop to it then.  I wanted a fun and challenging swim but with those conditions I can see them cancelling it.  We were lucky to get a ride to transition from a nice couple from the Tampa area who were volunteer kayakers for the swim after we were mislead by the hotel of a shuttle bus running to the race site.  We learned from our ride that the swim location was changed and shortened to 1000m from 1500m.  I was happy with that as the other alternative was no swim and I really dislike duathlons! lol!

I got to transition and had LOTS of time to prepare.  My swim wave start was an hour after the race start so I took my time.  I laid out my stuff, pumped my tires, chatted with other racers, and slowly made my way to the swim start.  The wind made it quite cool in the morning and waiting around as long as I did on the beach made me start shivering.  I did a short warm up swim and felt pretty good and waited until my race to start.

Finally got into the corral and was excited to start.  The horn went off and off we go!  We had quite a bit of a run on the beach before hitting deep enough water to swim.  I actually had to back off a bit on the run into the water as the footing was terrible and my ankle turned causing quite a sharp pain.  Finally started swimming and then made my way to the front.  I felt really great in the water and pushed it.  I swam on my own which is my preferred way and slowly was passing swimmer after swimmer.  We then had another long swim out of the water onto the beach.  I crossed the timing mat in 16:03 which was a 1:37/100m pace and not bad for me at all.  According to my Garmin I swam 1.25km which is possible as I swam wide to avoid the crowd but prob not completely accurate.  I had the 9th fastest swim time in my age group.

We then had quite another long run this time to transition.  It was over a 1/2 mile on concrete along the seawall.  Finally got to my bike and literally stopped and starred at my stuff and said to myself - what's next!? LOL! Kind of rusty in my transition there!  I quickly came to and put on my sunglasses and then helmet and shoes.  My T1 time was 5:37.  Not too proud of that! Haha!

Running out of T1

I started the bike and just started going hard!  The plan was to go hard and hold 170 watts and that I did.  I found myself to be quite aggressive on the bike, breathing hard, and rarely braked to make the corners which I normally do not do.  However, starting in a later wave meant having to pass LOTS of people.  I was yelling out "left" and "thank you" very often and was riding on the left side of the lane for a good chunk of the 40km ride as I was passing other competitors.  I did have to come to a complete stop at one point when a pick-up truck decided to turn into my lane right in front of me!  That was a scary few seconds for me as I thought I was going to rear end the truck! eek!  All in all it was a decent ride for me. The head wind was quite strong at times and I had to dig a little deep to keep my power up.  I did not have my race wheels with me so that meant I was using my powertap.  According to my Garmin, I averaged 33.2km/hr for the 40km, avg 172 Watts, and 83rpm.  Time was 1:12:52.  Unfortunately, I forgot my HR strap at home so I have no HR data.  I had the 9th fastest bike split in my age group and I am quite happy with that! Yay!

T2 was a little better than T1 but I need to work on this! Time: 2:08

Now for the run.  I was hoping to run a PB for the 10km but I knew that it would be hard.  I have not done a brick session at all this season and I felt the effects of that right away.  I started running a good pace at about 5:15min/km but just could not keep the pace up.  The heat and the humidity was also getting to me a bit.  I just tried to focus on a quick turnover and tried to go hard.  But I slowly just got slower.  And all that kept coming into my head was that I somehow have to run a half marathon and then a marathon after an even longer bike.  I was a little demoralized by that thought.  This was just 10km and I was struggling!  How in the world am I going to run double that in a couple of weeks and then quadruple that by the end of June! lol!  I know I could do it with more training (I did it six times already) but boy, there was no way I could have done that on Sunday.  I was running well leading up to this race and thought I could have run faster than I did but could not pull it off.  I was passed by quite a few girls in my age group so I dropped spots here.  Ah well.  I ran the 10km in 54:57 for a 5:28min/km pace and actually negative split the run by 41 seconds.



Total time was 2:31:37.  Good enough for 17th place in my age group out of 114.  Not too shabby!  I was actually quite happy with that result!  It was quite a competitive field and I held my own! Yay!  I was hoping for a miracle and place top 10 and maybe qualify for the US champs but I knew that coming into this race that this was likely not going to happen.  Especially once I realized there were over 100 competitors in my age group.  So to have a top 10 swim/bike in my age group is quite good for me!  Just need to work on that run!

Running through the finishing chute at a time of 2:31:37.  I started an hour after the first wave started.  

This race also would have probably been a PB for me in the Olympic distance even if the swim was 500m longer.  My previous PB was 2:41.  For me to swim another 500m would have probably taken me about another 8min so I would have come in at about 2:39 or so.  Coming into this race I wanted to go under 2:40 so I would say that I accomplished that and this was in the wind and heat.  Props goes to Leanna who placed 8th in the elite amateur category out of 32 in a very competitive field and claiming a spot for the US champs plus bringing home a pair of Oakley's!  Way to go Lee!!!

Afterwards we enjoyed our last night in St. Petersburg before having to come back home.  We had dinner at a restaurant by the water and overindulged in some yummy frozen yogurt where we were able to put our own toppings.  Leanna went a bit overboard and did not finish hers but I managed to finish mine! Hehe!

Enjoying my frozen treat by the water.

It was a great weekend and a great way to start the season!  Oh and first thoughts on my new saddle: positive!  It felt pretty good but I need some longer rides to give it a proper assessment.  And on a side note - Torture Thursdays are back!!! Yay!!! I just learned that since the Athletic Centre at UofT will be open until 11pm in the summer, the masters swim club got back our Thursday night time slot!  I am looking forward to this!  LOL!