Colonial Beach International Race Report

The Colonial Beach International Triathlon was held on 15 July 2012.  The weather was overcast with a chance of thunder storms and temperatures in the mid 80s at the race start.  The race includes a river swim in brackish water with currents that can be strongly affected by the tide.

The History

The set of Colonial Beach races (Sprint and Int'l) has been around for nearly 3 decades, making it one of the older races on the east coast.  The town of Colonial Beach is a quaint east coast beach town that reminds me of Cape May done Virginia style.  The venue is located within 10 miles of the birthplaces of 2 presidents - Washington and Monroe.  Westmoreland State Park is located within 15 miles.  Setupevents took over race management for the two day event in 2011.

The Race Course

Swim:

The swim is a 1500 meter river swim in the Patuxent River.  The water is brackish and tidal.  Time of day changes the direction of the current.  The swim course is a modified rectangle that parallels the shore - the second and fourth legs are with/into the current. 

Bike:

Colonial Beach International Bike Course

The Bike course is a 23 mile out and back.  Setupevents advertizes this as an international race with a 41 KM bike, but even they admitted during the pre-race meeting that the course was short.  No explanation as to why they couldn't move the turnaround a mile to get the necessary distance.  The bike course starts out flat, but quickly becomes rolling hills.  There is one very technical turn at the bottom of hill at the intersection of Tetotum Road and Windsor Drive.  The Colonial Beach bike course is a great ride.  I'd come back just for the ride.

Run:

The run is absolutely flat out and back around the perimeter of the peninsula that is the town of Colonial Beach.  It parallels the shore for nearly the entire route, but can be brutally hot in the full sun.  The locals do a great job of cheering you on for the full length of the course.  It is common to see a bunch of kids using their garden hose to spray down racers.  There are even a couple of impromptu aid stations along the route.

My Race

The 2012 Colonial Beach race was a great race for me.  It is my second year at the event and I'm very happy that I decided to come back at the last minute.  I drove up the afternoon of the day before the race through a driving thunderstorm typical of July in Southeastern Virginia.  I made it to packet pick-up just in time for the pre-race meeting and grabbed dinner at the Chinese restaurant across the street.   Another racer was having dinner there at the same time.  I noticed during packet pick-up he was in my age group.  I'd be seeing him later on the race course.  After a quick bite I drove to Westmoreland State Park and camped in my truck.  I'd planned on sleeping in the bed of the truck under the stars, but that was not to be.  The rain continued through the night and I slept in the cab of the truck with my bike.

The morning of the race I woke up at 0430 to wash up, get dressed, have a banana, a cliff bar, and a bottle of Gatorade.  It was before dawn but still warm and humid.  I couldn't see the stars and as I feared the day dawned with a very threatening looking sky.  Off to the race course.  I was onsite by 0500.  I racked my bike - I was in a three rack section two rows from the bike exit.  I was on the middle rack and I took the end of my rack nearest the exit for the row.  I almost always choose this position so I can get the extra space between racks.  On this day it became a problem.  But more on that later.

After setting up transition I did a two mile run for a warm up and then headed down to the swim start for a 300m swim.  I had a nice warm-up and felt really good for the start.  The 40-44 age group was in the third wave.  The order of start was young men, young women, old men, old women, and then novices & relays.  Water temp was 82 F and the tide was going out.  First gun at 0550 - three minute intervals.  At the pre-race meeting we were told that due to the current the swim course direction had been reversed.  The 2nd leg would be with the current and the 4th leg would be against the current.  The reasoning behind this was that the deeper water has stronger current.  However, there wasn't enough separation between the second and fourth legs to matter.

Swim Track from Garmin 910XT

The first wave went off and was immediately swept down stream.  There was over a knot of current according the NoAA website for 15 July.  Based on my observations of the first two swim waves I used a radio tower that was 20 degrees to the left of proper course as my sighting mark for the first leg.  You can see from my swim track that 20 degrees wasn't enough.  I missed the first mark by 30 feet.  No problems with the current on leg two.  I swam a great 3rd leg and sighted 30 degrees off course to nail the third turn buoy.  The fourth turn buoy was a low profile yellow tube.  It was impossible to see and you can tell from swim track where I finally picked it up.  You can see my full swim metrics at the garmin connect website.  Almost 34 minutes in the water for a 1500 meter swim, nearly 5 minutes slower than my results from the Rumpass in Bumpass Int's in April.  The current was tough, but it didn't destroy me like it had in Hampton in 2011.  I was 53 out of the water for the men.

My strategy for T1 was pretty straight forward.  Run hard to the bike, get my shoes and helmet on, get out.  Adam Frager, my training partner, suggested leaving my shoe buckles just barely closed and sliding my feet in rather than have to buckle each shoe.  It worked and saved me some time.  I budgeted 1:30 in my race plan and I used 1:44 - room for improvement.  I had a momentary lapse for about 15 seconds when I got transition.  A late arrival to our rack had stuffed his bike in and put his gear in the aisle right in from of my bike.  I never saw the guy, but if i ever see him do it again, we will have words.  No excuse for that kind of behavior.  It's not the other racers fault you showed up late.

Flying Dismount

I felt strong on the bike.  I started out with a good cadence and settled in to ride.  My biking has steadily been improving due to some great work with Adam on long tempo rides.  This bike course is awesome and I was excited to be riding it again.  As usual I was passing competitors pretty regularly, but I was passed by only one other cyclist.  He and I played tag over the next 20 miles.  He was a relay rider and he was going hard.  I decided that I wasn't going to let him go and we dueled it out.  He was faster on the downhill, but I was a better climber and could hold him off on the flats.  We absolutely smoked the bike course.  He beat me into transition, but only because I slowed to pull my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike.  We had the 8th and 9th best bike rides of the day.  I came in at 59:31 officially, I didn't hit the lap button on my Garmin until I got to the rack, so my watch was a little off.

Into T2

To say I was very, very pleased with the bike would be to understate it.  It was a great ride for me.  However, I was working so hard I didn't refill my Aero bottle and went the last 5 miles with no fluids.  I also did not eat on the bike.  I broke all my rules on nutrition and hydration and I think my run suffered because of it.

I budgeted 1:00 for T2.  I used 1:26.  There was a little bit of congestion, but I just don't know where I lost the time.  I need to be faster and smoother in transition.

The run is where I excel.  I went out feeling a little hot and fatigued.  I didn't have a gel and I didn't use my sport beans.  I hit the first water stop and grabbed a water and threw some ice down my jersey.  I came through mile one at 6:43 and I just couldn't get the run rolling like I normal.  I finally pushed the pace down under 6:40 by mile 3, but that's along way off from my normal 6:20 pace.  The 40-44 numbers were getting fewer and fewer and when I saw the lead runner coming at me at mile 2.5 I new I was in a good position.  At the 3.1 mile turn around I picked out 3 guys that I new I could catch and I went after them.  I caught my fellow diner from the Chinese restaurant at mile 5.  I told him he should have had the General Tso chicken and that got a laugh.  Turned out he was the last guy in my age group that I would pass.  He took third in our Age Group, I took 2nd.

The full results are on the setupevents website.  I was 19th overall, 17th among men, and 2nd in the 40-43 age group.  My time of 2:18:05 was 29 seconds slower than my PR but over 13 minutes faster than my time at Colonial Beach in 2011.  Don't forget there was a 1 knot current on the swim (I talked to the lead swimmer, based on his time he felt like the course was 300m longer).  53rd on the swim, 9th on the bike, 15th on the run.  It was a good day!

Lessons learned:

1.  Stay focused during transition

2.  Always follow your nutrition plan

3.  Don't sweat the things you cannot change (tides)