Blue Lake Sprint Triathlon

Being that this is my first race report, forgive me as I struggle to find a format that works best. Twenty-four hours after my first triathlon, albeit a Sprint Distance, I get to sit here with my cup of coffee and reflect on my race preparation, strategy, and performance.

Woke up at 5:15 AM with an expected 6:00 AM departure time and had a sizeable bowl of plain Quaker Oats. The kitchen was mystery #1 for me this morning…what do I eat pre-race? After reading maybe 100 blogs over the last two months of training, I remembered that the overwhelming pre-race breakfast of champions was plain oatmeal, and luckily we had some. Melissa, my wife, got all dolled up, I loaded the car, and we were off.

The weather was in the high 50’s to low 60’s the entire race, with thick overcast and a forecast for rain. That seemed just fine by me, being that I was not into battling both heat and nerves in my first event. As we drove down Marine Drive on the Banks of the Columbia River, I was able to gauge the wind direction by watching the planes take off from PDX, which proved to be quite helpful on my somewhat eventful bike ride.

Upon pulling in to the race venue, Blue Lake Park, in Fairview, Oregon, the first person I saw was our Coach, Dave Ciaverella. The whole Multnomah Athletic Club Triathlon Team had a tent set up just outside of the transition area. It was a nice touch to have a place where families and competitors could commiserate. After a short chat with my coach, he informed me that his aspirations for me were higher than Spring Distance Tri’s, so I better enjoy my first and only one. I ingested his thoughts on the course, set up my transition area, and got into my team gear and wetsuit.

The swim course looked much longer than it was, but I had to just tell myself that it was 20% of our Masters Swim workouts at the MAC, so I would be fine. Don’t get me wrong, this was my first mass start race swim, but I guess I have a different barometer for open water than many of my competitors. After four years of surfing the Oregon Coast, enduring average water temps in the low 40’s, strong swirling currents, pounding waves, and fairly constricting wetsuits, this open water swim in a super flexible suit at 59 degrees felt like a holiday.

After watching the first two heats go out and few people do the obligatory freakout , I donned my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle green swimcap and waded to the starting line. Smart money would have started near the rear of my 75-person heat, but I felt good and took a spot right up front. The horn blew and I was off!

The swim went great. My pace felt metered as I got to the first buoy quickly and made the turn while swimming over a couple of people and receiving a couple of kicks to the belly. Oddly enough, that did not bug me (must have been the rugby background that doesn’t mind punishment during athletic contests). The next few hundred meters was a straight stretch and I settled in a great three-stroke breathing rhythm with surprisingly good sighting. Over those meters a few of us continued to separate ourselves from our heat and gobble up some of the earlier starters. We soon hung a right for shore, which was approximately 100 meters away. Going against the wishes of my entire coaching staff (the two Dave’s), I pushed it and passed a solid number of earlier wave competitors. As I stood up out of the water, I took a gander at my HRM to see the number 181 blinking. Oops! I had already spiked my heart rate thirteen minutes into the event…bad idea. Running up the hill from the lake I was quite light headed, but not enough to miss my wife screaming, “Dude, you are totally kicking ass, keep going!” Melissa has quite the voice, and it was very instrumental in pushing me in each of the three disciplines.

SWIM TIME: 13 minutes 45 seconds
SWIM DISTANCE: 874.89001 Meters

T1 was purely about bringing heart rate down and not being light headed. The wetsuit slid off without issue, and I was 75% back in the game and not overly woozy. I would have liked to cut off maybe thirty to forty-five seconds here, but I have to remember this was my first event.

T1 TIME: 3 minutes 15 seconds

The bike course was a flat out-and-back ride along Marine Drive towards PDX. I started off, like my coaches said, a little lighter just to get my legs warm and get body into the pedaling mode. No one passed me on the first half of the bike. My HRM read mid to high 150’s, which was a nice change from 181, and I maintained a good aero position the entire course. After the turn around I decided to make a bonehead move and shift from the big ring to the small ring up a slight incline. You can guess what happened next…my chain fell off. Surprisingly enough, I did not panic, and I just immediately stopped and put it back on, losing around 1:15. A little amped from my mishap, I hammered the remaining 5.75 miles in an attempt to catch the guys that passed me. I was never able to catch the real cyclists who zoomed by because of a stiff head wind, but I am pleased with my recovery. At least I was not the poor woman at mile four who had a flat. My bike times will get plenty of training hours over the next month before the Hagg Lake Olympic.

BIKE TIME: 36 minutes 44 seconds

Again, Melissa was right at the door to T2 yelling her head off. I dismounted the bike quite gracefully, and was in and out in an acceptable amount of time. Little or no more efficiency could be expected in my first race.

T2 TIME: 1 minute 36 seconds

The run was certainly the most painful part of the event, but also the most gratifying. My Polar foot pod was not talking to my watch, so I was flying blind on pace, and the course did not have markers for distance. Over the first quarter mile of the run, I found myself obsessively checking my HRM, which showed me at a not unusual mid-160’s. Finally I decided to just screw it, and kick with a pace that I knew I could maintain, and forget about my HRM. I disconnected it, and flew by perceived exertion. I felt much slower than my actual time, but my main goal on the run was to track down people in my age group and pass them. My pre-race goal was Top 10 in my age bracket, so I was on a seek-and-destroy mission. After the turn around (I decided this was the 1.55 mile marker) I checked my watch and I had a solid cushion to make my goal of 1 hour 20 minutes as an overall event time. With that knowledge in hand, I began to kick just a shade harder. The next mile was strange, as I felt myself becoming quite emotional, over what I was not sure. I can tell you for sure I had to fight back loads of tears, but to this moment I am unable to pinpoint the casual agent. Our bodies take “emotional inventory” (credit that term to my esteemed friend Tommy Robertson) at the strangest of moments, and this was one of them. With that fire burning, I made the second to last turn to see my Coach Dave and his wife Ann cheering me on, and I turned along the lake for the last stretch. Making sure no AGer’s were to pass me, I upped my kick again and crossed the finish line, passing one competitor from another bracket. Melissa was there to congratulate me, and to immediately notify me that she wants a cowbell and stopwatch so she can be an even better supporter. Now that is why my wife is a badass.

RUN TIME: 22 minutes 48 seconds
RUN DISTANCE: 3.1 miles

OVERALL TIME: 1 hour 18 minutes 8 seconds

AGE GROUP: 6th Place

I am pleased to say I surprised myself at Blue Lake, even with my gaffe on the bike course. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could actually place where I did, and actually compete in an age group that contained the overall winner. I will continue to train my ass off on the bike, and then hopefully will upgrade to a real Tri specific machine and pick up that extra MPH to move up a few spots. Three places from hardware can be overcome, I guarantee that.