Notes
Cincinnati Triathlon Olympic Distance Race Summary
Time:
Overall: 2:08:43
1350m Swim: 15:50
T1: 43s
40k Bike: 1:08:17
T2: 36s
10k Run: 43:13
Notes: I fell on my bike the day before which didn’t help and already bad race mentality. Something about the weekend didn’t make me want to race. I ate relatively badly the day before the race (qdoba, pasta, lots of Ensures – no veggies or fruits) and didn’t sleep well the night before.
So, when I found myself doing really well I was happy as could be! I started out the swim in the first wave to go off, the water in the Ohio river was glass-smooth, e-coli ridden (they just cleared us to swim the day before), filled with garbage (I was pushing it aside the whole swim), bathtub warm (mid-eighties I suppose), and filled with sharp mussels on the bottom which sliced my toes open. Started the swim on the outside hoping to catch some current – I didn’t notice any difference and decided to try and draft off of a guy ahead of me. He kept zig-zagging and making it really tough for me to draft – finally I realized that he was dying and had no idea how to sight so I swam on. Soon another group caught up to me lead by a guy who turned out to be the race winner – I liked this guy’s racing style because he only drafted off of me for a very short while and then pulled even with me. We went up the landing to transition together where I promptly trounced him in the transition.
On the bike, I was immediately caught off-guard by the steepness of the hill leading up to Columbia ave. It is seriously a climb that demands close to your lowest gear. When I hit it the first time I had to stand and go anaerobic just to keep on the bike. The rest of the course is filled with mildly challenging rolling hills. I was 4th man out of the water (1 girl ahead of me), and 3rd onto the bike course. It took me a couple miles to realize that I was pulling the two ahead of me in. I caught the first guy about a quarter of the race in, he was on a road bike and was not using the aero bars. I caught the second guy (air force, ended up beating me) just as we were coming off of Columbia on the first lap. I realized that he was not pushing downhills so I made it my goal to push downhills for the rest of the course. By the time I had finished I had opened up about a 2 minute gap on the leaders. Being in first place brought back my race mentality and I was smiling the whole bike.
On the run, I started out what felt like a fine 6:40 pace and hoped to hold it but by halfway in the course, I realized that my legs just weren’t feeling like sustaining more than 7min pace. I identified two chasers who were running close together, orange shirt and air force. The whole run they were methodically closing the gap to me. On the purple people bridge (800m to go), orange shirt caught me and looked so strong that I completely let him go. I saw air force about 300m back on me and decided to just cruise until the end (I didn’t think he would catch me). About 30meters from the end, he sprints past me and clinches 2nd (3rd once the times come in). Funny thing was, I was only a little disappointed. My goal going in was to clinch top 10 percent of the racers. I never had a race-winning mentality and I think that is what finished me. Also, the fact that I started the run 2 – 3 minutes out on the people that ended up beating me gave me a false peace of mind to be sure. Next year I'm in it to win it!
Goal for the next triathlon, build my running base and add some tempo work to get a little speed back.