RESULTS: 1:08:40, 7th OA out of 415, 1st AG M25-29 out of 16The Powow Sprint was my first race since my half ironman and I was pumped up for this race since I'd be able to compare this years results to last years. The other reason I was excited for this race was that I wanted to win my Age Group again. Last year I finished 20th overall and 1st in my Age Group in a time of 1:12:01. Here are my splits from last year:
2007 Splits
Swim: 11:06 T1: 2:08 Bike: 36:41 T2: 1:17 Run: 20:51 Total: 1:12:01
20th Overall, 1st AG M25-29
The night before the race I figured I'd sleep fine, but needless to say I was up at 1:30AM not able to sleep and going over the race in my head. I was hoping this wouldn't happen since it was just a Sprint, but it did. There is no other race that makes me lose sleep than triathlon. I must say that I love it and hate it. I can go into a Half Marathon or any other road race and sleep fine the night before, but for some reason I get so anxious for race day the night before a triathlon. On top of all this the night before I had just come back from vacation on Friday afternoon. By the time I got home Friday from the Cape after taking the Ferry back from Martha's Vineyard it was about 4:15pm. Then I was off to get my race numbers and then drive the bike course to make sure it didn't change from the year before. Needless to say it was a hectic night before a race and Jess and I didn't get to bed till about 10pm, which is late for me before a race. Then to top things off, my alarm didn't go off in the morning and we were running around race day morning. Race day morning was crazy, we had planned to get up at 4:30AM, but the alarm didn't go off and I didn't wake up till 5am. When I saw what time it was, I jumped out of bed and ran down to eat breakfast and then I still had to pack my tri bag with all my gear, since I hadn't done it the night before. Luckily we still made it out the door by 6:15AM for a 45 minute ride to Amesbury, MA. Needless to say my warm-up consisted of allot of stretching and running a very little. Usually I like to get there and ride my bike to warm-up and then run and then just before the swim Start I usually swim a quick warm-up. Anyway here my splits and write up below.
1/2 Mile Swim: 12:12 (29th OA, 5th AG)
I was in the First Swim Wave, which consisted of Males 34 and under. We all had to line up on shore to go through the timing chip mat and then line up in the water a little more than waist deep. We waited about 30 seconds and we were off. I had a great jump on the field and going into the turn at the first buoy I was about 4th in my swim wave. I had definitely gone out way to hard and I was starting to feel it by the second turn buoy. By the time I got to shore I was 6th out of the water in my swim wave. I looked down at my watch and I was a little disappointed to see that my swim time was 1:06 slower than last year. I figured that I'll have to make up that time in the bike and run. (Come to find out, allot of the athletes were saying the swim was a little longer than last year and if you look at the overall the results, the times were a little slower than last year as well.) (2007 - 11:06, 4th AG, 30th OA)
Transition 1: 1:28
This by far must have been my fastest transition all year. It was great that the bike racks weren't to far away from the beach. I was also able to get my wetsuit zipper undone quicker and then rip it off my legs much better this time around. I haven't gotten comfortable with starting the bike leg with my shoes on my bike yet, so I had to put my bike shoes on in transition, but overall I improved my transition time 40 seconds which is huge! (2007 - 2:08)
12.6 Mile Bike: 35:02, 21.5 mph (17th OA, 1st AG)
The bike leg started out great with me passing someone in transition and then catching another rider about half way in. The only downside was that I ended up getting passed by 2 riders from the 2nd swim wave. Also while on vacation I ended up doing my 2nd longest ride of the season, 45 miles and could still feel the affects of this on the bike ride, but once I was about half way in, I felt okay. Overall, I was happy to find out in the results that my bike time was the fastest for my age group and that I had improved my time from last year by 1:39. (2007 - 36:41, 1st AG, 30th OA)
Transition 2: 0:56
As I came into to dismount the bike I had already taken my feet out from my bike pedals and was ready to run through the dismount line. This transition has been getting much better as my bike handling skills improve. Once I dismounted from the bike I ran to my transition area and threw on my shoes, I was going to throw on socks, but decided against it, since it was only a 3.2 mile run and I'm glad I did, otherwise I would have lost some time here. All and all I improved this transition time by 21 seconds from last year. (2007 - 1:17)
3.2 Mile Run: 19:05, 5:57 pace (2nd OA, 1st AG)
The run is and will always be my strongest leg. I felt great coming out of t2 and into the run. I ended up catching 1 of the guys from the previous swim wave, but in the overall results, it wasn't enough to finish ahead of him in the standing. The run was an out and back run and coming in from the bike I saw what ended up being the lead runner heading out for his run. I love the out and back runs since you can figure out where you are in the race on the way to the turn around. As I headed out to the turn around I started counting and found out that I was currently 5th overall, I couldn't believe that I was doing this well and I started to pick up my run as I came back in. I improved my time on the run by 1:46 from last year. (2007 - 20:51, 2nd AG, 13th OA)
Post Race:
It was great coming into the finish line and looking down at my watch to see that I had improved my time by about 4 minutes (Actual - 3:21) Of course this year I didn't have as many people cheering for me this year as I did last year. Last year my Parents, Grandparents, Aunt and Jess were there. This year at the finish line was just Jess, who is also my professional photographer and Number 1 Fan! (Sorry Mom and Dad, I know you were still on your vacation.) At the start of the race I was disappointed to find out that local Triathlete Dean Phillips was a scratch as an individual and learned he had joined up with a team. I finally introduced myself after the race and he remembered me from the JCC Triathlon, that he had won again this year. We got to talking and he told me that he hasn't been able to run since he has a knee injury, but he has been able to bike. I was hoping to pace off of Dean for the swim since he's strong there, but I knew I wouldn't have a chance to keep up with him on the bike since that is his strongest leg. All and all it was great race by Andy Hawkes, the race director, who I've come to know through my Aunt Judy who lives in Newburyport. Now it's time to get back to training for Beach 2 Battleship...stay tuned.
