Race Report: Triathlon Age Group National Championship (Olympic Distance)
July 8, 2006, Kansas City, Missouri
What a difference a year makes. I returned to the site of the canceled 2005 National Championship due to extremely bad weather, to compete in the 2006 version of the USAT Age Group Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championship.
The bright sunshine and warm temps welcomed us to Smithville Lake, just north of Kansas City. The transition area was loaded with the finest in cycling machinery, valued in the millions in sum. Zipp wheels were the standard wheelset. The lake temperature was a fraction of a degree above the wetsuit-legal 78 degrees. Most race directors would have rounded down to appease the slower swimmers (like me), but this was the new face of USAT, and I applaud them for sticking to the rules —even though it meant a longer, slower race for me.
I had 40-45 minutes of waiting before my wave was up. I went down the shore to do a swim warmup along with a few others, but we were quickly told to get out. Who invented the megaphone, anyway?
My wave was made up of the 25-29-year-old men and my age group, 10 years their senior. The lake's water level was low. Therefore, we started off by "galloping" awkwardly on the slippery lake bottom until it made sense to start swimming. There was nothing memorable about the swim. Only that when I looked over my shoulder at the first right turn buoy, I saw no one. Not good. I was getting dropped, big time. Heading back to shore, several women from the wave behind me were already passing, having already made up 5 minutes. When I exited the water, my watch gave me the bad news. One of my slowest 1500 meters, if not the slowest, ever. In transition, the harsh reality was confirmed when my bike rack was completely empty except for one guy a few seconds behind me. I think this meant I was in 57th out of 58 in my age group.
As I headed out onto the 25-mile bike course, Brad and Paula gave me some cheers, along with a suggestion of turning directly into the finish line. I wish. The bike course was sunny and rolling. People were flying. I was doing OK, but wasn't one of them. I probably moved up a few places, but wasn't making up much ground as I came into T2. The dismount and transition were smooth and I was finally on the run and saw FOA Mary, then Kristen, both on their way to making Team USA and an invitation to the World Championship in Switzerland (nice job!).
The first four miles or so were on the paved trail which seemed to undulate up, down, left, and right, endlessly. It was warm, and I wasn't running very fast, but I wasn't slowing down, either. All I wanted was to get off the trail and out of the park already! Finally, out on the road and up a hill. Getting closer. Almost there. Hey, that's Joe Friel sitting there. OK, there's the finish, left turn on the gravel and cross the line. Not much in the tank and disappointed in my time, but no mishaps, injuries, and certainly some valuable takeaways from the race:
1) My swimming is not comparable to National Championship caliber triathletes, especially without a wetsuit. Two hours of swimming per week won't cut it for me to compete at this level.
2) Not tapering was probably the wrong approach.
3) If you treat someting like a "C" race, you'll get a "C" level performance/result.
Final results: 52nd out of 58 in the M35-39 Age Group. Not even in the same galaxy as the World Championship invitees. Congrats to FOA training partner Ryan on getting close in the M30-34's and a very impressive performance. Respect.
What a difference a year makes. I returned to the site of the canceled 2005 National Championship due to extremely bad weather, to compete in the 2006 version of the USAT Age Group Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championship.
The bright sunshine and warm temps welcomed us to Smithville Lake, just north of Kansas City. The transition area was loaded with the finest in cycling machinery, valued in the millions in sum. Zipp wheels were the standard wheelset. The lake temperature was a fraction of a degree above the wetsuit-legal 78 degrees. Most race directors would have rounded down to appease the slower swimmers (like me), but this was the new face of USAT, and I applaud them for sticking to the rules —even though it meant a longer, slower race for me.
I had 40-45 minutes of waiting before my wave was up. I went down the shore to do a swim warmup along with a few others, but we were quickly told to get out. Who invented the megaphone, anyway?
My wave was made up of the 25-29-year-old men and my age group, 10 years their senior. The lake's water level was low. Therefore, we started off by "galloping" awkwardly on the slippery lake bottom until it made sense to start swimming. There was nothing memorable about the swim. Only that when I looked over my shoulder at the first right turn buoy, I saw no one. Not good. I was getting dropped, big time. Heading back to shore, several women from the wave behind me were already passing, having already made up 5 minutes. When I exited the water, my watch gave me the bad news. One of my slowest 1500 meters, if not the slowest, ever. In transition, the harsh reality was confirmed when my bike rack was completely empty except for one guy a few seconds behind me. I think this meant I was in 57th out of 58 in my age group.
As I headed out onto the 25-mile bike course, Brad and Paula gave me some cheers, along with a suggestion of turning directly into the finish line. I wish. The bike course was sunny and rolling. People were flying. I was doing OK, but wasn't one of them. I probably moved up a few places, but wasn't making up much ground as I came into T2. The dismount and transition were smooth and I was finally on the run and saw FOA Mary, then Kristen, both on their way to making Team USA and an invitation to the World Championship in Switzerland (nice job!).
The first four miles or so were on the paved trail which seemed to undulate up, down, left, and right, endlessly. It was warm, and I wasn't running very fast, but I wasn't slowing down, either. All I wanted was to get off the trail and out of the park already! Finally, out on the road and up a hill. Getting closer. Almost there. Hey, that's Joe Friel sitting there. OK, there's the finish, left turn on the gravel and cross the line. Not much in the tank and disappointed in my time, but no mishaps, injuries, and certainly some valuable takeaways from the race:
1) My swimming is not comparable to National Championship caliber triathletes, especially without a wetsuit. Two hours of swimming per week won't cut it for me to compete at this level.
2) Not tapering was probably the wrong approach.
3) If you treat someting like a "C" race, you'll get a "C" level performance/result.
Final results: 52nd out of 58 in the M35-39 Age Group. Not even in the same galaxy as the World Championship invitees. Congrats to FOA training partner Ryan on getting close in the M30-34's and a very impressive performance. Respect.
posted by JPD at Monday, August 21, 2006
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