Carmel Spint Triathlon: Dusting off the cobwebs

Well it's been 3 weeks since the Carmel Sprint Tri and I'm just now getting around to creating a race report. It won't be fun and flashy, especially because it was just a sprint tri and the damn race is over before you even begin to warm up. I was excited for this race because 4 years ago, this was my first ever triathlon, so I was excited to do a pilgrimage to my first race.

The Carmel Sprint Tri is a great race to start the season with: It's a 400 meter pool swim, 10 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. It's just fun because it's often the season opening tri and tons of peoples first tri ever. This was Lauren's (my girlfriend) first tri too. The pool swim is sketchy though because it's a self-seeding swim. Meaning that when you register, you put down your estimated 100m swim time in order to get seeded at the start. That just means that everybody takes their 100m (not their average 100m for 400m, but 100m flat) swim time, and they subtract 15 seconds. So what does that all mean? It means that unless you're in the very front of the pack, you're swimming over people the entire time.

Well the day started pretty typical, the race started at 8:40 so we woke up at 6am. Most races have me getting up at 4am so the extra sleep was nice. I had my typical bagel with peanut butter and banana slices and almost an entire water bottle of PowerBar Perform. The race was going to be less than an hour so I wasn't too concerned with my nutritioin. Lauren and I had everything in the car the night before so we just woke up and left.

We drove to Carmel  High School to transiton to get set up. I did a simple walk through with Lauren about how to set everything up then I did my own. Nothing's too complicated about my transition setup. Once we got everything set up, it was picture time...

We then headed to the Gym to wait for our wave to be called. I seeded myself in the 1:25/100m group so I was the first wave. Quick good luck kiss goodbye and I headed to the pool, leaving Lauren behind. I was super nervous for her but she's a competitor at heart so I knew she'd do great.

The swim was sub-par. It's fairly difficult to pass people before the wall so I only passed 1 person. I was aiming for a 6 minute swim but exited the water at 6:30. When I came out of the water I knew that I had sandbagged the swim. I know I'm capable of a 5:45 400m race swim but oh well, it was my first race in almost 8 months.

T1 went well. Although, I was running with my bike towards the mount line and the volunteers didn't direct me to the right area because it wasn't marked. I only lost 2-3 seconds but it was a mental derail. I did a fly-mount for the first time in a race and almost bit it because there was a sharp turn as soon as I hopped on. I was passed by my friend Noah when I was slipping into my shoes. He's a stronger cyclist than I am so I just looked at him like a 'Rabbit': Someone to chase the whole 10 miles.

The bike was pretty uneventful. The course was new from 4 years ago and there were a lot of turns so it was hard to really get into a groove. I kept Noah in my sights the entire time and picked off 3 people. Around mile 7 I was passed once. The guy was on the bigger side so I wasn't surprised he was a good cyclist, I knew I would catch him on the run though. By this time, I could barely see Noah.

I pulled into T2 after doing a fly-dismount. Of course there was another voluteer who wasn't watching where he was walking and I had to swerve out of the way to avoid him. I'm always thankful for the volunteers but there should be a screening involved.

I threw on my K-Swiss Kruuz 1.5's, grabbed my race belt and off I went. I was careful to put on bodyglide on the lip of my shoe to avoid any chafing because I would be going sockless. Sprints are the only distance I go sockless. The 2 seconds it takes to throw on socks for an Olympic distance race are worth it.

I had a lot of time to make up for my sub-par swim but not a lot of real estate. It's difficult to catch people in a sprint race when you're in the first wave because it's only 3 miles and your pace per mile usually isn't much more blazing fast than theirs. I wanted to have sub-6 minute miles for the entire 5k. I quickly knew that wouldn't happen though. I started to have side-stitches and stopped about 3 minutes into the run to rub it out. I was pretty pissed because I usually don't get them in races. I was passed by some young kid. After massaging it for 10 seconds, and feeling 100% better, I continued on. I knew I was a faster runner than Noah so that became my goal, to catch him.

 

By that time I was up to my normal 5k pace, pushing 5:45 splits, I knew it was too late to hit my sub-18 minute goal. For the remaining 2.5 miles, I was all alone. Nobody to chase, or at least thats what I thought. At a point where the course splits, I saw that Noah wasn't too far ahead. I started booking it and I knew I was rapidly gaining on him, but I was quickly running out of road. I was about 20 feet behind him when he crossed the finish line. Sucks to know that if I didn't have to stop in the beginning that I would've easily caught him. I finished in 54:33.

My splits were 6:35 swim/26 min bike/19:17 run.

I finished 20th overall and 5th in my AG. I was 15 seconds off of a podium finish so that was a kick in the nuts. I guess I was happy with how I finished, but knew I could've gone much faster. My training had been going well, but not great so to finish how I did was satisfying.

At the finish line, I found Laurens parents and waited for her to finish. Her wave didn't leave until 45 minutes after mine so I knew I would've been waiting a while. She crossed the finish line in 1:03:59,which was good enough for 4th in her AG! Not bad for a soccer player turned triathlete. Overall I was happy with the race. I've never been a huge fan of Sprint tri's because they don't necessarily favor the runner, which is where I make up the most time.

The two biggest things I was excited for were to see Lauren complete her first offical tri and also to race in my new Wattie Ink kit. The past several months of being on the team have been the most exciting of all my 4 years of doing tris, combined. I've never met a better group of people to support, encourage, make fun of and badger in my life. Sean Watkins has done an amazing job of hooking us up with the best sponsors in the industry to put us in a place to make it a very realistic goal to make it to the top of each podium.

 

After the Carmel Tri, I'm stoked to see how far I can push  my body and see what sort of goals I can crush this year.