Old Point Tidewater Race Report

2012 Old Point Tidewater Triathlon

Heading to the Finish Line

This race is special!  It is my home course.  I live four miles from the Buckroe Beach race site.  I swim, bike and run over 2,000 miles a year in this area.  It was my second triathlon, ever, and I always, even when injured, do this race.

It was a beautiful morning with temperatures in the high 70s and a water temperature right around 74 F.  It was a wetsuit legal race, but the swim is only 1000 meters.  The time I could save using a wetsuit would be eaten up in the time it takes to get out of the wetsuit.  I did without.  I got to the race site at around 5:45 for a 7:00 a.m. start.  My training partner, Adam, was waiting on me.  He was primed and ready to go, but I had to get my stuff dropped in transition.  We ended up losing each other in the confusion of the transition area (my fault) and doing our own warm-ups, a 2.5 mile easy run followed by an easy 300 meter swim, with a couple of sprints to get a feel for the water.

1st Place 40-44 Age Group

Adam and I are both in the 40-44 age group.  I'm a little faster in the pool on the longer stuff, we're evenly matched on the bike, and I'm a faster runner  This was the first head to head race for the two of us.  But we're training partners and it really is a good natured competition.  Somebody better get something for all those early mornings in the pool and 3 hour rides!  We were the third start and went off at 0708.  It was perfect conditions.  There was no current, the water was like glass, and the wind was non-existent.  I get days like this at Buckroe maybe twice a year.  Adam and I paced each other to the first turn (about 300 meters out) and then we lost contact in the traffic around the first buoy.  It takes me a long time to relax on open water swims and I didn't feel comfortable or loose until about midway through leg two of the swim.  It was a good swim for me as you can see in the GPS data from my Garmin 910XT. Swim time was 18:26, about 1:41 per 100 yds.  The transition required us to run a quarter mile up the beach and boardwalk to the transition area.  T1 was 3:03.  If you took out 2:00 minutes for the run from the beach it would still be over a minute - needs work.  Adam beat me out of the water and through T1.  He had managed to get about one minute on me by the time I left on the Bike.  As I noted above this is one terrible bike course.  You can't build or sustain any kind of speed because of the road conditions and the turns.  The longest strait stretch is about 2 miles.  I finished the 19 miles in right around 49 minutes for a little better than 23 MPH average pace.  It was the 15th best bike ride of the day.  Adam's was better - 13th.  He picked up another 12 seconds on the bike.  I actually did T2 like I was supposed to - I pulled my feet out of my bike shoes before I got to the dismount line and all I had to do was rack my bike, grab my visor and pull on my racing flats.  T2 was 0:54 - I'll take under a minute any day.  I got 3 seconds back from Adam.  Out onto the run - an 8K.  I excel at running.  It's my thing.  A guy from my age group passed me in the first 100 meters and woke me up.  I never get passed on the run.  I put the hammer down, passed him back, and in 31:37 (6:22 pace) I was done.  The whole thing in 1 hour 43 minutes even.  I passed Adam on mile one of the run.  Here are the full results.  Kudos to Adam - he didn't miss the podium by much (4th 40-44 age group - 1:46:33) and all he's missing is the run.  I have a feeling he'll give me a challenge next year at this event.  Hopefully it will be on a new course.

A volunteer removing my timing chip.

It was a good day.  23rd overall and 1st in the 40-44 age group.  Third podium this year.  I definitely need to work on sighting.  My swim was all over the place.  The bike was strong, but there is room for improvement.  I need to get a handle on the transitions - under two minutes total is my target.  I will have the run under 6:00 min/mile pace by September!

Two notes today.

 *** NOTE 1 ***

The Auto-multisport is almost unusable on the Garmin 910XT.  If you hit lap accidentally there is no way to return to the previous activity.  The only solution is to hit stop and reset the mode and then control the mode manually.

*** NOTE 1 ***

*** NOTE 2 ***

The Garmin 910XT continues to  experience uncommanded shut downs.  On the 55 mile recovery ride the day after this race it did so again.  Garmin is aware of the problem but does not have a fix.  Their recommended solution is to restore the factory settings and load the most up-to-date operating system software.

*** NOTE 2 ***

I hope to see some of you on the course.