Tri Series Race 1 - Mordialloc (3rd F20-24!)
Woke up at 5am this morn and my hip flexors were aching from yesterday's 200m reps! Oh wells, today's race is a "practice race".
Trains dont run till 7+am on Sundays and riding 30km down to the race site would just kill my already fatigued legs. So i booked a cab for 6am. Chatted to the driver, an Ethiopian dude who used to be a pro 5k/10k runner (who was brought to Aust to train) but stopped due to injury, and is now studying Bio Chem and working part time at various jobs. Interesting...
Anyway, it was a great day today--warm, about 25deg and sunny in the morn. My race started at approx 8.16am, the last wave (female <30 years old). The distances are "supposedly": 500m/20k/5k
There was a wide variety of competitors, from noobs in mountain bikes and cheap surfing wetsuits to pro-looking people in Orca/2XU wetties and race suits, race wheels and all. There were Elite M/F category, Open ITU U19 M/F, Open ITU M/F and age groupers (ME!). There were a total of 400 participants in the Sprint race. I felt kinda intimidated in my puny Asian body, old race suit, tearing apart bike shoes, torn handlebar tape and cheap Shimano training wheels.
Good thing I met Cam and George there so I didn't feel too alone.
The sea water was cold, 18-20deg. I felt dizzy after my short warm up swim. During the race, I was kinda scared during the swim coz the cold water made it very difficult to breathe, and the wetsuit was kinda pressing on my neck. The beach was pretty shallow and I could see nightmarish-looking brown and green seaweed, plants and rocks. EEEKKS.
During the run up to T1, I was feeling dizzy and my legs felt like 2 frozen ice pillars! I managed to pull down the wetsuit till my hips while running to transition, where I began hopping around like a one-legged frog trying to pull the suit off my ankles while trying to keep balance despite the dizziness. horrendous.
The bike course was 3x 6.6km loop. It was relatively windless and flat with 4 slight climbs in each loop. I felt strong on the bike, but finished off feeling like I could hold the pace for much longer. 20km feels so short!
After a pretty slow T2, it took me about 500m to get into the "running mode" and thereafter it was fantastic. I was feeling very strong, overtaking many people. The run was a 5km loop over road, sand, dirt trail and grass and had several sharp uphills--I surged past 4 people on one of the uphills...ha! I liked the run course tho--it was along the beach, scenic and interesting. Overall, I finished feeling strong as tho I could hold the pace over much longer.
Fantastic.
Ok official race results are out. Grossly inaccurate run distance!!
Swim: 8.22.0
T1: 1.22.1
Bike: 36.18.3
T2: 1.20.7
Run: 15.16.1 (5km? Hell yeah!)
Total: 1.02.39 (3rd in F20-24!!!)
I didn't even know I came in 3rd (of 13) since I didn't wait for the prize presentation and cycled 33km from Mordi home, stopping by Elwood to drop off the wettie at Sharon's place.
Cam won his age group (M20-24), with the 4th fastest run time of the day (12.13.1)!!
The swim could've been long since the Elite M swim times were in the 6.20s. But I won't doubt my inability to swim in a wetsuit in cold waters cld've produced such an off-target time. And what a disappointingly short run!! My estimate (based on Cam's time) is that it is about 3.5km.
Oh wells, great race, great practice! I'm looking forward to next Sunday's Gatorade Triathlon (sprint: 500m/20k/5k). Hopefully the distances will be accurate!
Trains dont run till 7+am on Sundays and riding 30km down to the race site would just kill my already fatigued legs. So i booked a cab for 6am. Chatted to the driver, an Ethiopian dude who used to be a pro 5k/10k runner (who was brought to Aust to train) but stopped due to injury, and is now studying Bio Chem and working part time at various jobs. Interesting...
Anyway, it was a great day today--warm, about 25deg and sunny in the morn. My race started at approx 8.16am, the last wave (female <30 years old). The distances are "supposedly": 500m/20k/5k
There was a wide variety of competitors, from noobs in mountain bikes and cheap surfing wetsuits to pro-looking people in Orca/2XU wetties and race suits, race wheels and all. There were Elite M/F category, Open ITU U19 M/F, Open ITU M/F and age groupers (ME!). There were a total of 400 participants in the Sprint race. I felt kinda intimidated in my puny Asian body, old race suit, tearing apart bike shoes, torn handlebar tape and cheap Shimano training wheels.
Good thing I met Cam and George there so I didn't feel too alone.
The sea water was cold, 18-20deg. I felt dizzy after my short warm up swim. During the race, I was kinda scared during the swim coz the cold water made it very difficult to breathe, and the wetsuit was kinda pressing on my neck. The beach was pretty shallow and I could see nightmarish-looking brown and green seaweed, plants and rocks. EEEKKS.
During the run up to T1, I was feeling dizzy and my legs felt like 2 frozen ice pillars! I managed to pull down the wetsuit till my hips while running to transition, where I began hopping around like a one-legged frog trying to pull the suit off my ankles while trying to keep balance despite the dizziness. horrendous.
The bike course was 3x 6.6km loop. It was relatively windless and flat with 4 slight climbs in each loop. I felt strong on the bike, but finished off feeling like I could hold the pace for much longer. 20km feels so short!
After a pretty slow T2, it took me about 500m to get into the "running mode" and thereafter it was fantastic. I was feeling very strong, overtaking many people. The run was a 5km loop over road, sand, dirt trail and grass and had several sharp uphills--I surged past 4 people on one of the uphills...ha! I liked the run course tho--it was along the beach, scenic and interesting. Overall, I finished feeling strong as tho I could hold the pace over much longer.
Fantastic.
Ok official race results are out. Grossly inaccurate run distance!!
Swim: 8.22.0
T1: 1.22.1
Bike: 36.18.3
T2: 1.20.7
Run: 15.16.1 (5km? Hell yeah!)
Total: 1.02.39 (3rd in F20-24!!!)
I didn't even know I came in 3rd (of 13) since I didn't wait for the prize presentation and cycled 33km from Mordi home, stopping by Elwood to drop off the wettie at Sharon's place.
Cam won his age group (M20-24), with the 4th fastest run time of the day (12.13.1)!!
The swim could've been long since the Elite M swim times were in the 6.20s. But I won't doubt my inability to swim in a wetsuit in cold waters cld've produced such an off-target time. And what a disappointingly short run!! My estimate (based on Cam's time) is that it is about 3.5km.
Oh wells, great race, great practice! I'm looking forward to next Sunday's Gatorade Triathlon (sprint: 500m/20k/5k). Hopefully the distances will be accurate!
posted by aine at 5:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home