PumpkinmAn Triathlon Race Report

As many of you know the Olympic Triathlon is a 1,500 meter swim (which is just under a mile) a 40 Kilometer bike ride (right at 25 miles) and a 10k run (just over 6 miles)

Well this was a pretty exciting day for me, not because of my race but this was Pam’s first Triathlon ever. Here is a link to her Race Report

Well the day started out about 4:30 am, had a banana, bagel and a protein bar prior to the start. We arrived at T1 a little after 5am and put our bikes in the rack and went back to the van to drink some coffee and wait for the sun to rise. Went back to T1 and added our water bottles and other items needed for the change from the swim to bike. I made sure Pam had her bike in the right gear and her bike computer was set correctly and zeroed out. (the computer was something I should have done for myself as well). Went through the very long transition area it was probably 200 to 300 yards long. Scoped out the mount line and marked the spot where our bikes were at so we didn’t have to hunt for them. Pam went down to get ready for her wave and I followed behind her after I went back to the van to change into my Tri suit. Went down to the water and was able to find Pam and shortly after that the gun went off and she was underway, lost track of her pretty much right after the start.

Ok, now onto my race, 20 minutes after Pam’s wave mine took off, about 5 minutes before the start I put my goggles on, my cute little swim cap and went out and warmed up a bit. I was hoping to have a pretty good swim, as I’ve really been focusing on that this past year. The gun went off and so did I. I went out a bit fast at the beginning and then settled into a comfortable pace. It seemed like the pack was leaving me behind and after looking at the finishing times they did (I found out later had I used my wet suit that I would have saved about 4 to 6 minutes on my swim time, lessons learned*). I was really pleased with my sighting and navigation during the swim, probably one of my very best. My swim time not so happy with 33:25 2:14/100 M 6th of 10 in my age group

I hit T1 at 33:25 and knew I was in the back of the pack when I got to my bike and most of the others were gone already, I had a great transition, best in my age group (but I didn’t have a wet suit to remove) 2:29. Ran my bike out of transition and stepped on the shoe it felt a little funny and I didn’t move as far forward as normal so I didn’t throw the other leg over, did it again and then realized the socks I put in my shoes for the sole purpose of stretching out the shoe I had forgot to remove before I loaded the bike in the van,,,,, So I took the two big bulky pair of wool socks out and proceeded to put them in the back of my tri top,,,,, I guess the other racers must have figured that I was the hunchback of Pumpkinman. So, off I went out on the bike. Long story short on the bike I was pretty happy with it, (I passed two younger guys on really nice P3s) it’s a lot of climbing with about 1,200 ft of elevation gain, I said before the race if I could average 14 to 15 mhp I’d be happy I was right at 14 and was 5th out of 10 in Age Group,,,, getting out of the shoes, dismounting and running into transition went great, had the fastest T2 time in my age group, and am thankful I remembered to take the wool socks out the back of my tri top. I did the Bike course in 1:46:14 avg 14mph 5th of 10 in my age group

Lightning FAST T1 1:32, I remembered to take out my Hunchback Props out of my tri top, slid my shoes on grabbed my bottle of water and on to the run. As usual a little tight at the start but felt pretty good especially for pushing it a bit on the bike going up that 6 mile hill to T2. I was carrying my own water bottle so I didn’t have to stop for drinking water at the aid stations but did throw a cup of water over my head at most of them. The run has a few rolling hills which I don’t mind. I only had a few people pass me on the run and passed a lot of people both on the way out and the way back. The run course is more downhill on the way out and more uphill on the way back and I was able to negative split it. On the final ½ mile I passed about 5 people and wasn’t passed by anyone after the turn. 55:47 Pace 9:00 flat 2nd of 10 in my Age Group

I ended up with a total time of 3:17:57 5th in my Age Group 145 out of 245 for all males

After the finish I found Pam, had some pasta, bread and a beer or 4 then we loaded up and went home.

*Regarding the swim I did some testing with and without a wet suit out at Lake Mead the Friday after the race, I started deep water at one of the buoys and swam past one buoy and turned around at the next one and went back, I'm guessing on the distance but pretty close to 500 meters or just under. The wet suit over the TJ kit was 1:38 faster than the tri suit alone or around 5 minutes for 1,500 meters. I guess I should have wore it for the Tri last Saturday,,,,, who knew?!?

Tri Kit only 10:19
Wet Suit, Promotion Full Sleeve 8:41