Seafair Sprint

rmakela · #1 07-20-2009, 10:32 AM

Good and fun day for me at the Seafair Sprint, and I wanted to get it down in a quick race report. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I grew up in Seward Park and did this race 23 years ago, so it was great to be back on the home turf. Weather was perfect, lake was comfortable and even the milfoil seemed familiar to me. . .

I arrived about 6AM, parked about a half mile from the park and had a nice ride down the boulevard to wake up. Unfortunately, as I set up in the transition area I discovered that my Garmin 305 was refusing to wake up on command (much like my 13 year old son). I knew it was fully charged but it needed to be reset and I couldn’t remember the combinations of buttons to press – nor could anyone I asked. (note: press and hold mode/reset, release then power on. Works great now - but haven’t found the reset for my son). So I would race without heart rate, bike speed or run pace. This was somewhat liberating actually as it was one less piece of transition gear to worry about and my race strategy was pretty simple anyway: swim hard, ride full out and run as fast as I can till I finish or puke. I had set an overall goal of breaking 1:10, with split goals of 12:30, sub 35:00 and sub 20:00. This gave me 2:30 for transitions – and not too much wiggle room at all.

Though my 45th birthday is tomorrow, this was a “day of race” age so I was still in the 40-44 age group (with 92 other guys). This actually turned out to be an advantage this time as Pritchard made room for some of us slower guys by moving to the elite wave (thanks Mike!). I warmed up with some strides, put on my wetsuit to stay warm and waited about 45 minutes for my wave to start. Swam a few minutes to loosen up about 10 minutes before my wave and then got in line for the start.

I started the swim on the outside and managed to stay clear of the scrum. My only issue was after rounding the first buoy I put my head down and hammered for 20 strokes or so. I then discovered I was alone in a big lake. . . While I’ve been practicing swimming straight in open water, I realized this only works if you are pointed in the right direction. I had turned too much and I guess failed to sight the second turn buoy before I put my head down. I was well inside the buoy line. I got back on line to the second buoy, rounded toward shore and finished in 12:19. While I’ve been pretty pleased with my swim progress this year, this was my slowest relative leg and my swim split put me 14th in my wave.

Got my wetsuit off without issue. I was racked in the second row out of the water so I had a long run up the transition area in my bike shoes but on the grass it wasn’t an issue – T1 was 1:33. The bike felt pretty good, as I’ve been really trying to focus on riding faster (go figure) and pushing a bit bigger gear. It seemed like there was a slight headwind heading north toward the bridge, but with no heart rate, power or speed display I just tried to keep the consistent and pedal strong in the aero bars. At the turn I was around 18 minutes – I hoped to come back quicker but knew I’d have to hammer to finish sub 35. Had a bit of congestion getting off the express lanes and back onto the boulevard, but otherwise I felt good. Finished about 12 oz of Infinit and one Gu on the bike, just for good measure. I know I picked off a few in my age group, but I was passing lots of riders at this point (something like 800 people started in front of me). It was tough to tell who was in what wave. I finished the bike in 33:58 (8th in age group).

T2 was smooth – I slipped off my shoes before the dismount and made the long run barefoot to my rack. Running shoes on, V02 visor and belt - T2 in 1:13. Legs felt decent heading out on the run. Tried hard to keep turnover high and relax a bit and I enjoyed picking off several age group guys along the way. I was feeling pretty good until the hill at mile 2. This is a hill I ran dozens of times during HS cross country seasons, so you’d think I would have remembered it – but I never really stopped to think how much it would suck after an hour of going hard. It was pretty painful and I just didn’t want give back any hard fought places. I made it to the turn around, relieved that I hadn’t been passed. I cruised the downhill and headed to the finish – which came quicker than I anticipated given the 2 mile marker, but I was pleased to see it anyway. Crossed the line, had a short bit of nausea but managed to keep my Gu down. Run time was 20:47, 4th in AG. I realized I had beaten my overall goal time with seconds to spare and I was surprised to learn later that this put me 3rd overall in my Age Group and my first real AG podium. That’s pretty fun.

Time 1:09:51
Overall 67/1454
AG 3/93
Swim 12:19
T1 1:33
Bike 33:58
T2 1:13
Run 20:47

Great to see all the team out there yesterday and fun to hang out afterward. Nice work everyone.

Ray