Columbia Triathlon Race Report

It was a dark and stormy night…but that’s better than a dark and stormy morning and it seems the worst of the rain came down before the race at Columbia Sunday. (Not that that was ideal given that I was sleeping on a cot in my van – 'Tricamping!' Can’t beat it! – and it sounded like a squadron of snare drummers was camping with me…) But given the choice I’d rather sleep through the rain than ride through it. As only my second ever Olympic distance race I was a touch apprehensive, but having signed up many months ago it was time to throw down and see if all the hours would pay off…

YBR sure represented well at the race, lots of Central PA riders were in the mix and everyone seemed to do really well…of course, I didn’t see any of the others as I was keeping my head down (and out of the intermittent rain) and doing my own race, but for those interested, here’s how mine went down:

The swim was surprisingly warm at 71 degrees and kept the pro field from even being allowed to wear wetsuits. The first half was slightly challenging as the first buoy was about 600 yards from the start and a touch difficult to see with my bad eyes, but I think my line stayed decent enough. 300 yards into the swim myself and another racer had pulled away from the field. Interestingly we somehow ended up swimming right next to each other all the way to that first buoy, which ended up being really amusing as I breathe to the left and he breathed to the right. Since we had the same turnover, every stroke brought us face to face. It was almost like looking in a mirror. (Especially as we even had the same clear Swedes on!)

At the first buoy I made a rare strategic decision to let him go ahead and jump on his feet, which was nice as I rarely get to enjoy a draft in the swim. I managed to stay with him until around the 750m mark when we caught up to the wave ahead of us and the swim got too crowded to hang on a single pair of feet. By the time I was 1000m in I was firmly in the middle of the previous wave and started to see the blue caps of the wave before that. It certainly made for a crowded last 500m and I ran over more than a few folks…but that’s just how it goes I guess…

Hit the beach in 19:11 which was the 20th fastest swim of the day (the fastest time was a 17:45 so despite being 20th I wasn’t too far off the faster swimmers.) T1 could have been a touch better, I took swim a little harder than I thought and needed an extra deep breath before unracking my bike. However, all the weird looks I’ve gotten from neighbors while practicing transitions in the street were worth it as I passed the guy who led the swim and was first out on the bike course. In bad luck though, I again experienced a problem with my shoes releasing from my pedals while I tried to slide my feet in. I love my Cranks Bros pedals but I’m afraid I’m going to have to bite the bullet and get some Shimanos or Looks so I can have a higher tension spring. Any suggestions?

Of course, as I got on the (VERY crowded) bike course the rain started coming down. Couple that with a heart pounding from the swim and it took me a little while to really find a rhythm on the bike. I tried not to overthink it, but I was definitely worried as usually it’s my strongest leg. My only successful strategy in the past has been to get far enough ahead on the ride that the others in my age group don’t know that I can be chased down!

About 3 miles in the swim leader overtook me and got a small gap, but I managed to close it quickly on the first uphill. (Thanks Central PA hills!) Stayed in the lead for another 15 miles or so before he appeared again, this time passing me on the big, steep downhill. I’m not a huge fan of technical downhills and with the rain and wind I probably took them a little conservatively. Fortunately the next big hill got me back in the lead which I kept coming into T2.

My bike time ended up in the 1:05 range which was little slower than I might have preferred, but considering the amount of passing I ended up doing with all the waves ahead of me (and the cars that ended up clogging the course when the road got too small for all those cyclists and vehicles…) it really wasn’t such a bad time. But with my watch reading 1:27 heading out onto the runs I knew my chances of besting my 2:11 from the Nation’s Tri were probably fairly slim. Fortunately transition was relatively deserted when I arrived and I got through it quickly and fairly sure that I was leading my age group. Of course, I also knew at least one guy had to be close on my heels… and I was right. He passed me about a 1/2 mile in and I actually went with him for about a ¼ mile before making the (very wise) decision to stick to my own pace. I felt good and strong and planned to attempt to negative split the run. (But to be honest, with my running skills, that kind of thinking is mostly hypothetical for me.) I felt like I was probably running a mid-7:00 minute pace so when I passed the first mile marker in 6:50 I was more than pleased. All those hotel treadmill sessions during our European promo trip were finally paying off!

For those who have done Columbia, you’ll know that the hills, while not insanely huge or steep, are quite numerous. Having not seen the course before I had no idea what to expect, but I kind of liked them. They kept the pace varied and I feel like using different muscles all the time was beneficial to me… Somehow I managed to hold the pace and came around the lake still holding on to 2nd.

But then, just after the 6 mile marker someone from my age group finally appeared and passed me. Not being one to give up I hung with him for a bit until I saw what I thought was the finishing hill. (Yeah, I really wish I had previewed the course now…) I put on a really good finishing sprint to pass and gap the guy and felt great…right up until I crested the hill and saw the finish line was still 300 yards away…

I had little speed left and got outkicked for second, but my consolation was that fourth was only 14 seconds back from me, so I was quite glad to hold him off. And I got the world’s tiniest trophy for my effort!

So, overall, I guess I have to be happy given that this was only my second time racing Olympic distance and I managed to set a new best time on a tougher and longer course. YBR really represented well, too, with Kara, Rick and Sarah (and anyone else that I didn’t know was racing) all putting in really strong races. Next up: Black Bear sprint and then the big one: Eagleman. What have I gotten myself into there?!