RR: Riverstock Triathlon (Olympic) - Award!!!!!

First off, the past few days have been very mellow with regard to training as my plan called for a mini-taper for my Olympic distance triathlon I did yesterday.  I was still training every day, but the sessions have been shorter and less intense leading up to my race.  Example:

Thursday:  One hour bike with with 5 x 1 min pick ups at 15 min
Friday:  40 min. run with 5 x 1 min pick ups at 10 min; 30 min easy swim
Saturday:  was suposed to do a :15 bike (bike check) and :20 easy run, actually played a soccer game with fellow coaches of my daughters soccer league

Now on to the race report....I decided to drive up to Sunbury, PA (2.5 hour drive) the day before the Riverstock Triathlon (Olympic distance) and camp out (tenting it).  I arrived at the race site around 5:45PM, signed in and then realized that I never actually reserved a camp site.  I spent the next hour trying to find one, eventually getting a spot about a half hour from the race site (whew!).  I set up the tent, which I borrowed from my neighbor, finished my dinner (pizza from "Unida Pizza", great name) and was beat...I think I fell asleep around 8:45PM.  It was not a good night of sleep as the air matress I was sleeping on lost some air slowly through the night, and I didn't have enough blankets.  Some wacky dreams didn't help either.

Race Morning
I woke up at 5:15AM, actually I was lying there awake for a while waiting for my alarm to go off and trying to stay warm.  I emerged from my tent and immediatlely noticed the fog, thick soupy fog.  After packing up camp, I made it down to the race site with plenty of time to set up in transition and take care of normal pre-race business.  There really wasn't time for a swim warm up because the fog was so bad, you couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of you.  So everyone just milled about in transition until the pre-race meeting.  One quirky thing, the DJ they hired never showed up so we didn't have music for the National Anthem. So the RD asked if someone could start us out in singing it....so one person started singing and them all together we all joined and sang it. Pretty neat and had everyone feeling good before hitting the water.

Swim  (1,500M)
The fog finally eased up a bit, but not a whole heck of a lot.  Regardless, the race director was determinted to start the race at 8AM and that is what we did.  The swim was wetsuit legal (thank God!) which meant I didn't fret at all, knowing that I just had to keep my arms moving and just try to swim straight.  It was pretty uneventful for the first 300m as we were swimming with the slight current, then we had to go about 200m perpendicular to it before turning upstream for about a 600m.  This was a bitch!  The current was a bit stronger than normal and just before making the turn back towards the start you had to do under a bridge where the current picked up quite a bit and made for some really slow going.  I pushed through it, bumped into a few people, and then made my way to the last couple turns.  All in all it was a good swim; I think I had my wetsuit a bit too low as my shoulders and neck were just a bit tight afterwards.  Swim time: 31:26

T1 - 1:36
I felt like it was a bit slow just because I had to get the wetsuit off and I opted to put on socks.  After looking over everyone else's times I realized that there were only a handful of people faster than me. 


Bike (24.07 miles)
Everything was going really well for the first five miles or so, then I had my first bit of uphill and I could feel it in my quads, the result of my Saturday soccer game.  I pushed through it and just kept my legs moving.  The course was a bit tough, pretty much all uphill for the first 12 miles but then some really great downhill portions where I hit 38 - 40 MPH.  I think if I drove the course ahead of time I could have let off the brakes a bit and gone a bit faster.  Duirng the bike I think I passed three people and was passed by two, but that was it for me seeing anyone out on the course.  I would have liked my bike time to of been faster, but it was a pretty tough course where I wasn't in aero for any solid length of time.  Bike time:  1:14:38 (19.35 MPH)

T2 - :42
I was pretty quick, but could have been quicker.  Shoes on, Garmin from bike to wrist, nutrition, visor and glasses.  Looking over the results, again, there were only a handful of people faster than I was in transition.

Run (6.2 miles)
Immediately my left hamstring felt tight, almost cramp-ish, and I was nervous that I didn't drink enough on the bike.  I eased off a bit from my 7:30/mile pace and just tried to find my right pace.  I passed one guy right away and then ran the next two miles or so with a guy named Jeff.  It was nice to finally have somene to chat with.  I opted to try and pick up the pace a bit for the last four-plus miles, so I said good-bye to Jeff and off I went.  Miles three and four were tough, pretty much a gradual incline through Northumberland, until the turnaround at the far end of town.  Then it was smooth sailing for the last couple miles as I was able to go from 7:47/mile pace down to 7:30's.  I felt really good and was eager to get to the finish line.  Once I entered back in to the park where the race finished, I was told that I was in 12th place overall and I was smiling BIG.  Run stats:  46:52 (7:33/mile)

Final Time:  2:35:13
Place Overall:  12th out of 92
Age Group:  1st out of 6 (not a very deep field)

The highlight of the day came during the awards ceremony when I learned that I won my age group and received a really cool award (see below).  It is an old "45" recorde on a wooden base. So cool and so happy that I actually won my Age Group for the first time EVER!!!!! Granted it wasn't a bit race but I am still proud.

Oh, and a really cool finishers medal (see below).

So, there you have it, the Riverstock Triathlon is in the books and it was a good race.  Next up is going to be the Hunterdon Half in October and then Ironman Arizona in November.  As for today, I am going to be resting my weary legs so that tomorrow I am ready to get back to training!