RACE REPORT
The swim
At about 9:30am my M30-34 age group wave proceeded down the
ramp and I was able to warm up for 5min after stretching for 20min close to the
transition zone. The water was chilly and it took me a couple of minutes to
acclimate to the water again. With approximately 200 triathletes in my wave the
swim would be “interesting” and fast for sure. Reason being that technically
the fastest Olympic distance age group triathletes from across the United
States were competing after qualifying by placing in the top 10% in their age
group at various races across the United States during the 2012-2013 year
leading up to USAT Nationals.
The start gun went off at 9:45am with 200 swimmers
frantically blasting away to the first turn buoy. The first 500m out of the
1500m swim was just mayhem. With so many fast swimmers around it was difficult
to get the best line and we end up swimming into and over each other constantly
fighting to draft a faster swimmer or trying to get the best line to the next
turn buoy. I settled into a steady pace after 500m and manage to draft a couple
of swimmers for brief periods of time. Some of the swimmers I tried to draft
were swimming skew so took my own line and swam by myself for long sections. I
quickly checked my stop watch close to the end and saw I had been swimming for
approximately 18min. I knew that my target swim split of 21:30 was doable. I
exited the water in 22nd place and was right on target with a swim
split of 21:29. I entered transition and had a slightly slower T1 time than
anticipated due to struggling to get the bottom section of my wetsuit off.
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| The swim start area (Photo taken after race day) |
The bike
Out of T1 I went and onto the bike leg. With my slow bike
split of 1:08 in Bermuda just less than a month ago I knew I could bike faster
on the fairly flat Milwaukee bike course due to getting the proper retul bike
fit done and specifically working on my bike fitness over the last 3.5 weeks. I
end up averaging 37.5km/h for the 40km bike and posted a bike split of 1:03
which was the bike split I was aiming for on the day.
Reviewing my heart rate data afterwards and speaking to my
coach I realized my average HR was approximately 10 bpm lower than what it
should have been. I was biking at half iron distance HR and not Olympic
distance HR. The positive side of this was that I felt fresh coming off the
bike and heading into the run. It is also encouraging to me that a bike split
of 1:01 on similar bike course is certainly achievable for me in the new
future.
The run
I was hoping to capture my run data but thankfully (being
sarcastic) to one of the worst GPS devices I have ever used the garmin 405
disappointed with only picking up the satellites 5km into the 10km run. At
least I could capture my HR data and can use this data to set training zones
going forward. I felt really strong heading into the run and was running close
to 4min/km for the first 5km. Typically, I start fading 5km into the run during
an Olympic distance triathlon but having discussed this issue with my coach he
gave me more targeted run sets to try and fix this problem.
I got to 3miles into the run and felt that I still had energy in the tank with no immediate need to stop and walk. I kept on pushing and could start feeling the pain setting in with my HR creeping up to 95% of my max HR. I just kept on pushing through the exhaustion levels and thought of my son Jordan to keep my going. I looked at my watch and was hoping to do a new PB which would mean a time of less than 2:12. With about 2 miles to go I realized I could go sub 2:10. I kept pushing and thought to myself of all the training sessions I had done to this point and that 2 miles is nothing in the big picture. I saw the US Bank building in the distance (downtown Milwaukee) and knew the finish line was right in front of there. Eventually I had 1 mile to go and pushed to dig deep with what I had left to reach the finish line in a new PB of 2:09:50. I was elated especially after having a breaking through run performance of 41min flat. Afterwards I had learned that my wife (in the Cayman Islands) and my Mom (in South Africa) were able to see me finish live thankfully to the online streaming from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In the end I finished 46th out of 183 triathletes in my age group representing all 50 States in the United States with top 25 Americans eligible for qualifying for the World Age Group Nationals. If I was an American National I would have been 21 spots away from qualifying for the World Age Group Championships to be held in Edmonton, Canada in 2014. This means that as an American citizen the qualifying time for the M30-34 World Age Group championship would be a 2:04 or faster. Interesting to note that the guy who won the M30-34 age group did a freakishly fast time of 1:54 which is very close to times professionals do on the ITU circuit. Another standout achievement I noted for the day was that Bob Scott who is 83 years young won his age group in a time of 3:07. The winning time in the M70-74 age group was 2:34. Amazing indeed!
I got to 3miles into the run and felt that I still had energy in the tank with no immediate need to stop and walk. I kept on pushing and could start feeling the pain setting in with my HR creeping up to 95% of my max HR. I just kept on pushing through the exhaustion levels and thought of my son Jordan to keep my going. I looked at my watch and was hoping to do a new PB which would mean a time of less than 2:12. With about 2 miles to go I realized I could go sub 2:10. I kept pushing and thought to myself of all the training sessions I had done to this point and that 2 miles is nothing in the big picture. I saw the US Bank building in the distance (downtown Milwaukee) and knew the finish line was right in front of there. Eventually I had 1 mile to go and pushed to dig deep with what I had left to reach the finish line in a new PB of 2:09:50. I was elated especially after having a breaking through run performance of 41min flat. Afterwards I had learned that my wife (in the Cayman Islands) and my Mom (in South Africa) were able to see me finish live thankfully to the online streaming from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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| My son Jordan watching the live stream from the Cayman Islands |
In the end I finished 46th out of 183 triathletes in my age group representing all 50 States in the United States with top 25 Americans eligible for qualifying for the World Age Group Nationals. If I was an American National I would have been 21 spots away from qualifying for the World Age Group Championships to be held in Edmonton, Canada in 2014. This means that as an American citizen the qualifying time for the M30-34 World Age Group championship would be a 2:04 or faster. Interesting to note that the guy who won the M30-34 age group did a freakishly fast time of 1:54 which is very close to times professionals do on the ITU circuit. Another standout achievement I noted for the day was that Bob Scott who is 83 years young won his age group in a time of 3:07. The winning time in the M70-74 age group was 2:34. Amazing indeed!
