Richmond Tri Club Sprint
(3rd Place AG, 1 hr 4 min
31 sec)
27 April 2013
Venue,
setting, course, organization, support and post-race food were all
excellent. A class act across the
board. And it was very clean … no muddy
transition area, no muddy T1 or T2 entry or exit points. SetUp Events teamed up with the Richmond Tri
Club and 3Sports to make this happen … and it was perfectly executed. I was impressed.
Swim (400M open water pool, 6 min 53
sec)
A truly open
water pool swim, is that possible? That is
what they posted on their web site and they were correct. The Greater Richmond Aquatic Partnership
(GRAP) is a state of the art multi-lane 50M, 8 lanes (or 25 M, 22 lanes)
competition pool used by serious swim teams, clubs and athletes (and local
schools and Universities). It is a fast
pool (elite swimmer speak) and it has spectator seating for 700.
The competition
pool (there is an additional smaller 25M warm up pool also) was set up with
turn buoys, and triathletes were staged in groups of 10 (based on swim ability
and estimated 100M times) to depart every 30 seconds. We circled the pool platform and were staged
in taped off corrals. I was number 155
out of about 500 swimmers and this meant I departed 7 min 30 seconds after the
elite swimmers launched at 0800. The
entire process of moving all the triathletes into the pool was very quick and
very efficient. They promised it would
be fast and it was. However, my first strategic
mistake was jumping into the pool and heading to the front of my 10 pack during
the water treading 20 second period. I
should have stayed behind the first 4 or so swimmers in my pack and merely
draft off them for the first 50 meters or so.
Lesson learned. When we launched,
it was nothing but body parts and elbows mashing for the first 50 meters. None of us were giving ground and it was an
all-out in the water fight. I saw the
same thing with the previous 10 packs before me so you would think I would have
figured that out. I thought that someone
was going to inadvertently get a black eye or lose their goggles. The first buoy was bodies on top of bodies
for the 180 degree turn. Lesson learn,
dive when you can’t swim on top.
Assertive is the kind term that comes to mind, aggressive is probably
the more accurate term. No pushing off
the wall or floor of this pool which was 8 feet deep. After a few more laps, things finally started
to thin out, alas. On the last lap, I
finally found my groove and started slicing past swimmers at a faster rate,
just in time to get out of the pool. No
surprise there. The clarity of the water
was superb and other than the shortness of the swim (and 180 degree turns); it
felt like a true open water swim due to the overall competition pool sized dimensions
(LxWxD). The Chuck, Jerry, and Todd (CJT)
swim squad would have loved the pool course.
It was quite the class act all in all.
And by the way, unlike the pool swim in Smithfield, there were no
swimmers walking on the pool bottom (to deep, 7.5 to 8 feet) or hanging on the
side of the pool or ropes (not allowed).
BUT, I did see a few swimmers that were side stroking it and they
appeared to be winded and about to sink.
I guess the lifeguard policy was not to bail out these few swimmers
unless their heads went under. In the
meantime, they merely acted as road blocks and/or speed bumps for the rest of
us. Thankfully, I had to work my way
around only 3 or 4 of them during my swim portion. The CJT swim squad would have likely chopped
them in half.
Bike (20KM, 33 min 35 sec with T1 of
1 min 40 sec)
I blasted
out of T1 but certainly not at the sub 1 minute level that all the hot dogs
tend to do. After about one-half mile of
up-hill riding away from the GRAP, the next few miles were down-hill. As expected, this was the fast portion of the
12 mile ride and I quickly experienced a Jerry episode where I found it almost
impossible to swig liquid from my aero bottle because I was so winded (anaerobic?)
from such a high pace race. Eventually,
I did suck down my full bottle of HEED but I had to force it down by slowing
down my breathing and it took me the full 33 minutes of the bike segment. As for the downhill first few miles …I know
my physics well and knew that the law of potential energy was gonna kick my
butt. Or in USAF speak it was time to
trade some airspeed for altitude on the way back to the GRAP. Or in triathlete speak it was time to pay the
piper for that downhill portion. Three
right turns and you are back on the main road heading
back to T2, this time all uphill. All
went well on the bike but I was still concerned that I felt winded after only
riding a mere 12 miles when I am so used to a very different and much longer
ride. An Olympic or Half race will be my
season wakeup call apparently.
Run (5KM, 20 min 41 sec with T2 of 1
min 44 sec)
Post-Race Food
Let’s just
say you should have been there. Alas,
quality food like they had a Smithfield this year and the Kinetic Half last
year. Anything catered in is always good
and it is always better than cold boxes of highly saturated fatty pizzas. Here is the menu for the post-race
“breakfast”- scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage and potato hash with peppers,
onions and herbs (vegan – no sausage), French toast with cinnamon apple topping
(and real maple syrup), fresh fruit and even cocoa milk (which went real
fast). Hungry now?
Alyssa gets another Volunteer T-Shirt
Just like
spring break in Daytona Beach, offer a free gift and the students will swarm
you. Alyssa (my daughter) is just like
dad and has figured out how to get lots of free goodies by volunteering (and it’s
fun of course). She even brought a
friend and they were tasked with body marking, cup refills and cutting off
timing chips at the finish line (which was very fast paced). And both of them came home with more than a
cool T-shirt (cow bells, puzzle blocks, granola bags, etc.).
Highlight
It was
impossible to “not” be touched by a special children’s program they imbedded
into the tri. About 8 special needs
children completed the entire tri with the help of a team (large team) of
volunteers sponsored by a local charitable organization. It started off 15 minutes before the official
tri start at 0800. Each child climbed
into a small rubber dingy that was attached to some amazing swimmers. The pool was lined with the triathletes who
were all pre staged in their corrals.
Well, the swimmers pulled the dinghies the length of the pool and
everyone went nuts (kids, triathletes and spectators in the viewing stands). I thought they would complete a ceremonial
one length pull but the first swimmer went around the first turn buoy and
continued through the entire course. So
did all the other swimmers pulling their special guests. This continued for about 13 minutes and the
applause never died down. I was
exhausted just watching the swimmers pull a child laden dingy 400 meters. Not until I was on my bike did I know that
the children were also on bikes (actually being pulled in a bike cart behind a
bike). They were going to complete the
entire course apparently. As I passed
each bike, a mile or so apart, the back of the bike cart had a bright pink sign
with the name of the child and several volunteer bikers flanking the pulling
bike. Most of the kids were fast asleep
by then, worn out from the pool excitement.
And then I get onto the run segment and see a different set of
volunteers pushing kiddie buggies with the same children around the entire 2
loop run course. Wow was my reaction to
all of this. The kids were an
inspiration and so were the volunteers that swam, rode or ran with their
precious cargo. Another class act all
the way. Well done Richmond.
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