Iron Abe Triathlon Race Report
July 29, 2007 Springfield, IL
1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run
~80 degrees F, moderate humidity, partly cloudy, 10mph wind

This was a C race for me. I decided to do this race at the very last minute. The day before the race, I did a short, but hard brick instead of my usual pre-race easiness. The night before the race, I went out with my friends, ate ice cream, and stayed up until it was almost time to leave. I got about 45 minutes of sleep.

Pre-race: Got up at 1:15am (after falling asleep at about 12:30), grabbed my stuff and hopped in the car to leave at about 1:45. Then I drove for 4 hours to the race site. I had to drink a pop in the car on the way so that I wouldn’t fall asleep. I got there a little early, so I drove some of the bike course before the race. It was hilly for IL. I set up my transition area, and happened to be right next to Matt (UFTriGator). It was really nice to meet another trifueler! For a warmup, I ran about 20 minutes with some walking and some strides thrown in. Then I biked for about 10 minutes of just spinning.

The swim was triangle shaped loop in Lake Springfield. The water was 80 degrees, so no wetsuits allowed. I swam ok. I turned too sharply at the first buoy and continued to veer left and went quite a ways off course. Oops! It was not my best swim, but not my worst either. It is possible that the course might have been a tad long.
Swim: 26:10 1500m, (18/164 Overall, 2/55 women)

I had a fast T1. I ran to my bike, put on my helmet, grabbed my bike, and ran out. Simple as that. Matt beat me by one second. Way to go! I blame it on the fact that his bike had the end spot on the rack and mine was next to it so I had to run an extra half step… lol kidding.
T1: 0:27 (2/164 Overall, 1/55 women)

The bike course was hilly compared to most other races that I do. It was an out and back course. The first few miles were on some rough pavement. The next few were rolling. Starting at about mile 5, it was a gradual uphill all the way to the turnaround. Right at the turnaround, a woman passed me and I gritted my teeth and stuck close for the rest of the bike. I had been looking forward to the turnaround so it would be a downhill on the way back, but alas, there was a headwind. Per RV’s comments, I rode almost the entire way in my drops. I am more aero there and I have more power in that position. It also stressed my hamstrings much more than my aerobars so my legs were thoroughly trashed by the run. I am very happy with my bike split. This is my fastest recent bike split and only very slightly slower on a tougher course than my fastest ever. :)
Bike 1:11:11 40km (37/164 Overall, 5/55 women, 21.0mph)

Finally a good t2 for me. Fastest t2 in the whole race.
T2: 0:30 (1/164 Overall, 1/55 women)

The run was so painful. I had passed the woman who caught me on the bike in the transition, but she passed me back at the first mile. I tried to stay with her, and she was not much faster than me, but my legs were hurting. By mile 4, she had a fair amount of time on me and I my stomach started to feel dangerous. I just focused on keeping her in sight. I saw some women not too far behind at the turnaround, and I really wanted to stay in the money, and I thought we were racing for 2nd and 3rd because there was a fast woman in the wave behind us (turns out I beat her by just a handful of seconds). My run split was about 2 min slower than usual, but then again, my bike split was 2 min faster. I think that it was good practice to push too hard on the bike at this C race and find that balance point where your run just blows up.
Run: 46:13 10km (28/295 Overall, 4/55 women, 7:27 pace)

Total time: 2:24:32
18/164 Overall
2/55 Women
1/2 F20-24 (Not that it matters, but I did beat 2nd place by an hour)

I’m happy with my race. I was only 11 seconds slower than my PR last week and I found the balance point for optimal bike/run pacing.
Early season: bike 1:15:01 + run 44:03 = 1:59:04.
Last week: bike 1:13:01 + run 44:06 = 1:57:07.
This week: bike 1:11:11 + run 46:13 = 1:57:24.
My transitions rocked. The 3rd and 4th women out there had faster swim+bike+run times than I did but I walloped them in transition. This is why it pays, literally, to have fast transitions. T1+T2 = 0:57! Next fastest, your fellow trifueler, Matt with :26+:34=1:00. Third was another 5 seconds behind and 4th was another 5 seconds behind that. It was a fun race and I’m glad I went. Matt, it was really nice to meet you!

Results here:
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=5997