On Sunday, May 16th I competed in my first race of the season, the Queens Biathlon. Below is my race report.
Pre-Race
I felt confident but cautious coming into this year's race--confident because my training had gone well and I felt good about my fitness (especially on the run); cautious because last year I was way too overconfident before this same race, and was ultimately disappointed with my performance. Race morning I packed up my car and got to the transition area nice and early. I did have a relatively minor mechanical issue--in reattaching my rear wheel I somehow screwed up the sensor for my bike computer, and thus was forced to race without it working at all. I stretched, warmed up a bit, hit the bathroom a couple of times, and was ready to race.
First Run (3 miles)
I intentionally seeded myself in the middle of the pack, so I was passing other runners constantly during the first mile. I concentrated on running a nice consistent pace, shortening my stride on the uphills, and opening it up on the downhills. I also decided to simply trust my run fitness and resist the temptation to "race" the other competitors or push myself too hard. Once again, the last hill into transition was steep and painful, and I decided to take it fairly easy. As I came into transition and glanced at the race clock, I was happy to see a sub-7:00 minute per mile split--all of my run training had paid off, and I had taken 1:10 off of my time from last year.
Bike (18 miles)
My first transition was a bit clumsy (at one point I dropped my helmet), but the time was a wee bit faster than last year. I was off on my first race ride on my new bike! Unfortunately I quickly remembered my least favorite part of this race--the bike course, which consists of a double out-and-back on a major highway. Heading out the wind is in your face, and on the way back there is a long, somewhat steep hill right before the turnaround (which connects to an even longer one to head back into transition). I passed a few riders, got past by a few more, and generally held my own. With the exception of the really bad hills I was able to stay aero pretty much the entire time. The one issue was that I did not have an actual water bottle for the race (long story), and thus, ended up sticking a regular old bottle of Gatorade into one of my cages. Thus, I literally had to take the bottle out of the cage, unscrew the top, drink, screw the top back on, and then place it back in the cage every time I wanted to get a bit of hydration. The "Triathlon Nazis" would have been so ashamed! I ended up taking 38 seconds off my time from last year, which does not sound like much, but given the conditions, I was pretty happy.
Second Run (3 Miles)
I had a very smooth second transition (17 seconds faster than last year) and was off on my second run. My legs felt SO MUCH BETTER starting out this year than last year--once again, all of my off-season running had paid off! I quickly caught up to a duathlete who I had been trading places with all through the race and asked if he wanted to pace off of each other, which he agreed to. Within the first mile we passed one racer and very soon after got passed by another. Aside from that, everyone ahead of us had too much of a head start for us to make up much ground. I faded a bit on the final hill and he opened up a small gap, but I was extremely happy with my time, which was 1:07 faster than my second run last year (and nearly as fast as my first one last year).
Post-Race
Needless to say I was very happy with my performance. I raced smart, raced hard, and left it all out on the course. I also learned from the mistakes I made last year, and improved in every single one of my splits to beat my 2009 time by 3:12. I ended up finishing 4th in my age group, which makes this two straight races in which I have been right around the podium. I could not have asked for a better start to my 2010 season, and am excited for the races ahead. Thanks for reading!
Race Splits
Run 1: 20:57 (6:59 pace)
Transition 1: 0:54
Bike: 53:33 (20.2 MPH--not amazing, but it feels nice to have a 2 at the start of my bike split again)
Transition 2: 0:30
Transition 2: 0:30
Run 2: 22:14 (7:25 pace)
Overall: 1:38:08 (21st overall, 4th M35-39)