The Dream-Day 54

...or, better known as, Triathlon 1 of 5. This was a sprint (750 meter swim, 11 mile bike, 3.1 mile run). Nutrition and strict adherence to pacing aren't critical in short events. So, Coach gave me the latitude to drop the hammer if I was up for it.

Got up at 4am and arrived at the marina in East Islip, NY at 5. It was pitch black and 54 degrees upon arrival. Made my way over to the transition area, found and racked my bike, and laid the rest of my stuff out in the narrow space allotted. Of course, being super anal, my layout was test driven at home last night. Bike shoes with 1 sock sticking out of each...check. To the left, water bottle (to rinse salt water off face) and hand towel (to wipe face and feet)...check. Just behind, running shoes real loose...check. In back, mesh wetsuit bag...check. On the bike, helmet upside down on aerobars with sunglasses and Garmin watch inside...check. After setting up everything, I collected my timing chip that they use to keep track of you as if you were under house arrest, and then got my number and age Henna tattooed.

Went back to transition area to warm up, stretch, spray myself with Pam cooking oil (I heard the sharks they just spotted off shore a few days ago love that stuff), put on my wetsuit, headed to the shore to check out the swim course, and swam about 5 minutes to relax.

There were 4 waves of athletes broken up by sex and age. My group of 170 went 3rd. It was my first time in the open water with so many people, but it was pretty benign. I was all geared up for a steel cage match that, thankfully, never came.

I exited the bay fine, peeled down my wetsuit while running towards the transition area, had a crappy transition to the bike, and peeled out. The bike ride was uneventful. In other words, I didn't crash and get mangled. I was pleased to get out of my shoes while still riding towards the dismount area and ran in my socks (much easier than bike shoes) back to the transition area.

I located my spot easily (I had scarfed the very end of the rack), re-racked my bike with the shoes still clipped to the pedals, slipped on my running shoes, and ran out of the transition to the run course. Coach told me to go for 8:30-8:45 pace. I gave him the mind bird and ran a 7:28 average pace and a 6:44 last mile. Not too bad for a non-running "old guy" (see 5/29 blog from Phish concert for the reference).

Here are my stats.
76th out of 542 (9th out of 61 in my age group)
Swim: 11:55 (134th fastest)
T1 (transition 1) 3:40 (slow, but I had to apply gel)
Bike: 33:04 (53rd fastest)
T2 1:41 (really slow, but saw a pair of jeans I just had to have)
Run: 23:08 (115th fastest)
Total: 1:13:25