Deer Creek Olympic Triathlon Race Report - June 6, 2010

On Sunday I was in my second ever Olympic distance triathlon. Saturday night I drove a couple of hours south to Columbus and stayed the night at my cousin's house, so I would only have about an hour to drive Sunday morning before the race. Once in the van and driving on Sunday, I heard that there was a Tornado Warning. The sky was dark and it was very windy. Not the best race conditions.

I arrived at Deer Creek State Park at 6:30 AM, checked in, and set up my gear in transition.


So far, so good.

It was still very windy and looked like it could rain, so put my shoes and towels in bags. I knew my transitions would take longer this way, but I didn't want to be putting on wet socks and shoes.



A few minutes after getting everything in bags, it started to rain. And RAIN, and RAIN. Plus there was a good deal of lighting and it was still VERY windy. An announcement was made that the start would be delayed for 30 minutes. So, the start would now be 8:30. My wave was supposed to start at 8:21, so now I'd be beginning around 8:51. I hid out in my van during this time, wondering how my gear was holding up over in the transition area.

Around 8:20 the rain suddenly slowed down, and everyone made their way back over to transition. My gear was good in the bags! :-) It looked like another round of rain was coming, but amazingly, it never did. We were just left to deal with the WIND.



The race started in waves, with everyone in the sprint race going first. I began with ALL of the ladies doing the Olympic distance. There was only one wave of men behind us. We started on the beach and ran into the water. The swim was two loops, totaling 1500 meters. (1640 yds - I usually track my swimming distance in yards.)I have NEVER been swimming in waves before. I've been planning on going up to Lake Erie more this year for practice, but haven't yet. Well, I got my share of waves on Sunday! It's just a small lake, but the wind was soooo stong! I knew I was slow, but I kept swimming along and did my best.

SWIM TIME (with the run to transition) 33:30

This was my first time racing with a full length, long sleeve wetsuit. Thankfully, it came off without a problem!

T1 2:43

The bike course was mostly flat, with only 2 or 3 spots where I had to shift to go uphill. But, the WIND didn't go away! I was being blown all around! For the few minutes that it was behind me, I had fun going 21 to 22 MPH on a flat to slight uphill area. :-) We also did two laps of the bike course for a total of 40K. (about 25 miles) I averaged 16.1 MPH on my bike computer.

BIKE TIME 1:33:32

T2 1:46

The run was an out and back 10K and completely flat. Again, the wind was a factor. I was actually laughing as I was being blown back. After the turn around, it was fun running with the wind at my back. I'm also very happy that I felt strong on the run. Not like last year where I couldn't catch my breath on the run in my Oly tri. I ran a 10:07 per mile pace.

RUN TIME 62:54

TOTAL RACE TIME 3:14:26

At first I wasn't happy with my time. I wanted to beat my time from last year - 3:08:xx. But the more I studied my results, the more pleased I became.

* My T1 time was almost a whole minute FASTER (even with the new longer wetsuit.)
* My bike average was .2 MPH faster, AND this was a longer bike course by 3K, AND it was SUPER WINDY!
* My T2 time was 30 seconds faster, and I had to tie my shoes because I didn't put on my other laces yet.
* My run time was almost 6 minutes faster!!! - a whole minute per mile faster.

So, the only place where I was slower, was the swim, and I'm okay with that, because those waves were crazy! :-)

Oh, because of the storm, I didn't think sunscreen was needed. Big Oops.




Next race: a 12.7 mile Time Trial at Presque Isle with Matt on Father's Day.