Its been quite awhile since I updated my training status on the blog here, i’ve just been too busy. I’ve made it through 11 weeks of training now and completed race number one of the season yesterday.. the NJ Devilman Half-Lite. I enjoy posting race reports because it reminds me of what I need to work towards as I go through the season.

Thankfully I had a real good race based on where I am so far in training. The course featured a 1500m swim in Cedar Lake, a 40.3 mile ride through the flat streets of southwestern Jersey and then a fairly flat 9 mile run into the desolate bayside area of Cedarville, NJ. I finished 114th overall out of 274 finishers, which to me was pretty good. Here is the breakdown:

Day Before / Pre-Race:
I decided to stay over in a hotel since it was a little too far to ride on race morning, so I got to the Holiday Inn in Vineland just after 6:30pm on Friday night, but had time to get a turkey hoagie and my favorite Haagen Dazs ice cream prior to calling it a night. The hotel was packed with other triathletes, many were tuning up their bikes in the parking lot prior to calling it a night. I fortunately tuned up my bike during the day so I didn’t have to worry about it.

I got about 8 hours of sleep, getting up promptly at 5am to do my normal race morning ritual. Its strange that I would worry about showering and feeling clean prior to jumping into a dirty lake, but I do. I finished getting ready, had a banana with Nutella (which is evil), had some bad hotel room coffee and headed out on my way to Cedarville, NJ. Google Maps marked it as about 25 minutes to get there, but it wasn’t even that much even with a stop at Wawa to get some real coffee.

I arrived at the race site at around 6:30 and headed over for my packet .. when I realized I was being attacked by gnats. They were everywhere, and they were awful and wouldn’t go away. It was real muggy out, averaging around 64 degrees and I guess it was just perfect weather for them. Everyone was suffering from the gnats as we stood in line for our packets and got our numbers .. they were even in the porta-potties. Finally I got my packet and headed back to the car to get my bike and setup my transition area and have some final fuel before the start (another banana and nutella, which is evil).

After the sun came up and little more and burnt off the clouds, the gnats seemed to have backed away a little, so I decided to strip down to my tri-suit and get ready for the race. I got the wet-suit halfway on over my tri-suit, then made sure my transition area was as setup as it could be and then headed to the start as they asked.

After the sprint race was started, it was the half-lite people’s turn to get into the water and warmup. It was said that the water was around 68 degrees, which felt about right for what its worth. I got in about 5-6 minutes in the water to warmup, which I didn’t do too much of except to get my face in the water to get it used of the cold. My hands were getting cold, but overall I felt ready to go.. the bottom of the lake was quite gross, it was mushy, like we were standing on seaweed (which I think it was)… a guy pulled a piece of a tire out that he stepped on. One other guy made a comment that if he had to dispose of a body, he knew which lake to use..

Finally, after all the anticipation … 10 weeks of base training, 11 weeks of formal training ..the race was started.

The Swim (1500m)

I thankfully positioned myself in the right area where the start wasn’t too bad. The water really was disgusting, you couldn’t see anything when you put your face in it, it was worse than Harveys Lake last year (which is bad).. regardless, once you get over that and get into a pace, it didn’t seem to bother me. The wetsuit definitely helped me as I felt very strong throughout but realized that I was not bilateral breathing or breathing to my weak side. I guess it didn’t matter because I really was moving well, running over people wherever I could. The swim is really as defensive as it is offensive but I managed to not get kicked or punched at all. By the time I was into the second lap, I was in my pace and couldn’t be stopped. The last wave had just started at this point, so I was back into swimming over people who couldn’t keep a pace…

The off-season swim classes and interval swim training did pay off as I finished the swim in 24:03 according to my watch. The official result says 25 minutes, but that includes the run from the lake to the transition area as well (which was a distance). I ranked 92 out 274 on the swim.. pretty good.

Overall, very happy with the swim … here is the Garmin info on my swim.

Transition 1 (T1)

This sucked. Had trouble getting the wetsuit off totally and almost forgot my riding gloves. I felt unorganized, I got to keep practicing this. Unfortunately this was over 3 minutes before I got to the mount area for the bike.

Bike (40.3 miles)

After getting my bearings from the swim, the bike started out good. I didn’t screw up getting into the pedals and on my way. The course was flat, very flat… There was quite a headwind though on the way out on the course (which was 2 loops). I found that throughout the entire ride, I barely had to change gears, I think I used 3 gears the entire time.

I dislike it when the “pro’s” fly by people and ignore the rules. Way too many times did I see people not passing properly, not allowing for people to pass them properly or passing on the right. I noticed that #390, whomever that was, did it a couple times. He should have been DQ’d.

Anyway, i was under the impression that there would be a water exchange at mile 12 but it turned out to not be that at all but instead just being people handing out huge bottles of water. I almost crashed when I tried to get a water bottle from one of the people but thankfully kept my balance. That would have really sucked if I biffed on the bike just to get water that I probably really didn’t need…

I felt good as I headed out on the second loop although by mile 25 my neck and shoulders were getting sore. I’m pretty used of being in the aero position, but never for quite so long a period of time as there were no hills at all. I guess I never thought about lifting up and resting my neck as I wasn’t used to it this much. By mile 32 I had sharp pains in my upper right shoulder, so it made the rest of the ride really difficult … this is definitely something to work on for the next race.

Regardless, I think my bike time was pretty good for where I am skill-wise. This is really not my strong sport at all. I fortunately finished with a 2:09:00 on the bike, and ranked 139 out of 274.

Here is the Garmin info on my bike.

Transition 2 (T2)

This transition sucked also since I got off the bike and my back was sore.. it took me a minute of walking to the transition area until I can start to jog. I didn’t feel the transition was that bad, but I guess it was. I kept double-checking myself before I left because I thought like I forgot something … i didn’t, but lost time..

This transition sucked as well…

Run – 9 miles (calculated at 9.2 miles)

It pays to be a strong runner and have it be the last event. After shaking off the back soreness from the bike and finding where I was supposed to go, I headed out on a very flat run course averaging an 8:10/mile pace for the first few miles. This is where I make up my poor bike time as I was passing people left and right .. you know, all those guys that flew by me on the bike almost knocking me over. It felt good to pass them.

My pace was good and I stopped for water and gatorade at each stop to stay hydrated because by this time I was feeling very dehydrated as it became really humid. I popped my last Accel-gel at around mile 3 hoping it would get me through, and it did.

We turned around at nearly the end of this beach road and this is where I saw people really starting to fall apart. Thankfully, being a runner, I stayed strong continuing to pass people sometimes 2-3 at a time. I had to stop the water and gatorade at mile 7 as I felt like I was going to barf … I also felt a crap coming on, so I decided just to dump water on my head to keep cool, which worked.

As we turned the final corner, I made a last push on my pace and passed out another 3 people as I came towards the finish line. Surprisingly I got that last burst to finish strong and crossed the finish line.

Very nice run, disappointed that I was only ranked 106 out of 274 with a 1:16 finish.. but still, felt good. Here is my Garmin info for the run.

Results
Finish Time: 3:57:32 (broke 4 hours!!!)
Split Distance Time Rank Pace/Rate
Swim 0.80 Mile 0:25:46 92
T1 0:03:27 217
Bike 40.3 Mile 2:09:24 139
T2 0:02:22 184
Run 8.8 Mile 1:16:32 106

Post-race thoughts

The post-race food was a little disappointing, some soggy sandwiches, potato chips and sugar drinks … but no water. Ugh! Thankfully I had my own in the car, just had to get there. I packed up, stripped down and headed on my way out..

So the first race of the year is down and the take away is that I need to work in some strength training for my neck and shoulders for the bike. I also think i’m going to do another shorter triathlon prior to the IMRI in July, just to practice again.

After a good recovery/taper week, its back to training tomorrow …