Race report - 2012 Active Feet ('Fun') Race 1 Triathlon (er, Duathalon!), St Kilda
overall: 31:40.5
(fastest overall was 22:08.3, slowest was 52:54.3)
(fastest in my category was 26:53.2, slowest was 45:03.3)
ranks
category (F 18-29): 31 / 58 (54th percentile)
gender: 73 /161 (46th percentile)
total: 228 / 368 (62nd percentile)
"swim" (500m run): 3:39
pace: 7:18 min/km
category: 54 (93rd percentile... cough)
total: 311 (85th percentile)
T1: 1:48
bike (7km): 16:10
pace: 2:19 min/km
category: 12 (21st percentile)
total: 141 (39th percentile)
T2: 1:19
run (1.5km): 9:43
pace: 4:51 min/km
category: 47 (82nd percentile)
total: 297 (81st percentile)
First event of the season. Exciting. :) St Kilda is a great course to start on. Very flat and straightforward. Yesterday I went down and ran through the course with a Tri-Alliance crew. It rained steadily all day and so I was not surprised when the swim was cancelled this morning. Some people arrived without knowing that, however. Check Facebook at 5am and learn these things, people.
A lot more people compete in the Gatorade sprint distance race - 4x as many. That would explain why their wave starts go for an hour whereas ours go about 17 minutes.
Anyway the swim being replaced with a run meant I didn't have to solve the problem of what to wear and I could save bringing my swimming gear. I arrived and got all my gear organised and transition set up with plenty of time. At 6 in the morning it was pretty cool, and waiting for the race to start I was a little chilly. By the time it ended I was fine though.
My transition spot was next to a palm tree, nice and easy to remember, and one less person to mess with my stuff. Nonetheless I wrote the details on my hand in permanent marker - I'm sure it's super easy to completely forget that stuff what with adrenaline and all.
I had gone for a 15 minute warm up jog but that was quite a bit before the race started. By the time it started... well, I managed not to be last. Running is just so HARD! My pace is really about the pace I run 5km at - a race pace for 500m would be a lot faster, you would think. It's pretty amazing what a difference being well warmed up makes to my running pace.
I was pretty pleased to get it over and get on to the bike leg. Like last time, I just overtook person after person. It's really fun. :) Maybe one person overtook me at all. A lot of people seemed to be cruising like they were just out for a weekend stroll. Funny after such an emphatic run. (Pace was actually slightly slower than the first race - 2:14 then. It was a different course, though - maybe there is more downhill in Sandy.)
I slowed way way down for the dismount, as I was pretty paranoid about going too fast and crashing like last time. Happily there was no repeat of that performance!
Then the final run. Running is definitely a bit easier for me now, compared to January, but I am not especially faster at it. I did a couple of little "efforts", but generally I find it hard to judge if I can go "harder" or not. I am perhaps too afraid of going too hard and then finding I'd need to stop. I really need to force myself to do that in training to know that it won't happen. (Also note: despite feeling very hard, that's the best pace I have recorded. It is a shorter distance than usual, granted.)
Lots of people cheered for me, I'm sure it helped that I was wearing my new T-A singlet. Afterwards I stayed around and looked on and cheered at various vantage points. I watched some bike mounting/dismounting. The experienced guys are pretty spectacular. One guy dismounting nearly hit me in the head with his bike after hoisting on his shoulder. One guy fell off while dismounting (not too bad, he was OK). One guy came in off his bike and the official was like "Have you done two laps??" No - out for another lap, then. Oops!
Thus endeth my first duathalon and second triathlon event. Next event is a 5km run in the same place in 2 weeks, with claudine_c. :)
Previous races
Sandringham "fun" tri
(fastest overall was 22:08.3, slowest was 52:54.3)
(fastest in my category was 26:53.2, slowest was 45:03.3)
ranks
category (F 18-29): 31 / 58 (54th percentile)
gender: 73 /161 (46th percentile)
total: 228 / 368 (62nd percentile)
"swim" (500m run): 3:39
pace: 7:18 min/km
category: 54 (93rd percentile... cough)
total: 311 (85th percentile)
T1: 1:48
bike (7km): 16:10
pace: 2:19 min/km
category: 12 (21st percentile)
total: 141 (39th percentile)
T2: 1:19
run (1.5km): 9:43
pace: 4:51 min/km
category: 47 (82nd percentile)
total: 297 (81st percentile)
First event of the season. Exciting. :) St Kilda is a great course to start on. Very flat and straightforward. Yesterday I went down and ran through the course with a Tri-Alliance crew. It rained steadily all day and so I was not surprised when the swim was cancelled this morning. Some people arrived without knowing that, however. Check Facebook at 5am and learn these things, people.
A lot more people compete in the Gatorade sprint distance race - 4x as many. That would explain why their wave starts go for an hour whereas ours go about 17 minutes.
Anyway the swim being replaced with a run meant I didn't have to solve the problem of what to wear and I could save bringing my swimming gear. I arrived and got all my gear organised and transition set up with plenty of time. At 6 in the morning it was pretty cool, and waiting for the race to start I was a little chilly. By the time it ended I was fine though.
My transition spot was next to a palm tree, nice and easy to remember, and one less person to mess with my stuff. Nonetheless I wrote the details on my hand in permanent marker - I'm sure it's super easy to completely forget that stuff what with adrenaline and all.
I had gone for a 15 minute warm up jog but that was quite a bit before the race started. By the time it started... well, I managed not to be last. Running is just so HARD! My pace is really about the pace I run 5km at - a race pace for 500m would be a lot faster, you would think. It's pretty amazing what a difference being well warmed up makes to my running pace.
I was pretty pleased to get it over and get on to the bike leg. Like last time, I just overtook person after person. It's really fun. :) Maybe one person overtook me at all. A lot of people seemed to be cruising like they were just out for a weekend stroll. Funny after such an emphatic run. (Pace was actually slightly slower than the first race - 2:14 then. It was a different course, though - maybe there is more downhill in Sandy.)
I slowed way way down for the dismount, as I was pretty paranoid about going too fast and crashing like last time. Happily there was no repeat of that performance!
Then the final run. Running is definitely a bit easier for me now, compared to January, but I am not especially faster at it. I did a couple of little "efforts", but generally I find it hard to judge if I can go "harder" or not. I am perhaps too afraid of going too hard and then finding I'd need to stop. I really need to force myself to do that in training to know that it won't happen. (Also note: despite feeling very hard, that's the best pace I have recorded. It is a shorter distance than usual, granted.)
Lots of people cheered for me, I'm sure it helped that I was wearing my new T-A singlet. Afterwards I stayed around and looked on and cheered at various vantage points. I watched some bike mounting/dismounting. The experienced guys are pretty spectacular. One guy dismounting nearly hit me in the head with his bike after hoisting on his shoulder. One guy fell off while dismounting (not too bad, he was OK). One guy came in off his bike and the official was like "Have you done two laps??" No - out for another lap, then. Oops!
Thus endeth my first duathalon and second triathlon event. Next event is a 5km run in the same place in 2 weeks, with claudine_c. :)
Previous races
Sandringham "fun" tri