Race Report of the Portage Lakes Olympic Triathlon, Akron, Oh. (9/7)

Sigh, last triathlon of the season.  I drove the 2+ hours out to Portage Lakes (just south of Akron) at about four thirty in the morning.  Sadly, the race was minus my cheering section (Kayla) and I really could have used her navigation skills getting there.  I spent a bit of time getting lost and cut it quite close getting there on time.

The drive was rather boring and transition set-up and pre-race were uneventful.  These are pluses though because having an eventful pre-race would probably mean that something had gone wrong.  I've been to three HFP racing events this year and have to commend their organization.  Every one of them have gone off without a hitch and they are the most enthusiastic people.  Even without anyone to watch me at the race, I still felt like I had them cheering for me.  They seem to be proud of everyone who makes it across the line; pros and back-of-the-packers alike.  I even saw the director of the Greater Cleveland Triathlon there, who I can only assume was trying to learn how a real race is organized.

The swim started pretty normally and I felt great on the first of two laps.  However, for about the last three or four hundred meters, the fact that I had not been in the pool since Tuesday had started to take effect and I really had to drag myself through the water.  At the end of the swim, I had no idea as there was no clock, but I felt as though I had posted a slow swim time.  Checking out the race results online confirmed my suspicions, listing a swim time of over 23 minutes.  I am led to believe that the swim course was a little long because the winner of the race, a legitimate pro triathlete, only pulled off a 20 minute swim.

Because of a few little rises and the traffic coming out of transition from other races, it took about a mile and a half to really get my cycling legs under me.  After that, I was absolutely flying for the rest of the course.  There were a few decent hills and the course was rolling, but there were good downhills leading into these climbs, giving a good deal of speed to use on the way up.  Once again, I had no idea of how much time had elapsed by the end of the bike, but results show that I biked a 1:01!  It was one of my goals this season to get a 40k under an hour, and while this didn't happen, I'm pretty pleased with this particular bike split.  Because I've been having such a hard time with cramping on the run, I knew I had to change my nutrition strategy on the bike.  I probably would not have tried to alter it for this race otherwise, but I had run out of Accelerade a few weeks prior and had not yet gotten a new supply of it.  I knew I had to:  get more electrolytes in me because I am quite a salty sweater, and stop putting calories in my stomach after about two-thirds of the way through the bike so they wouldn't be sitting there for the run.  My usual plan is to have Accelerade up front in my aero-drink and take one gel about half-way through the bike.  For this race, I just used Nuun up front (this electrolyte drink has no calories) and took two gels pretty early on.  I wasn't sure what the outcome would be until I...

...Got to the run.  In a word, I felt fantastic.  I clicked off the first mile in about 6:10.  I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run this fast for the entire 10k, but it was the last race of the season and I wanted to leave it all out there.  Nearly the entire second mile of the two-lap run course was a steady uphill drag.  It wasn't a bad grade, but it was enough that I could absolutely let myself go when running back down the other way.  I got to the turn around to start the second lap and my watch showed a little over twenty minutes.  I was a little bit put-off at this time because I felt like I had been running so much faster.  The run wound down and I stopped my watch at just over 40 minutes.  I've really wanted a sub-40 all season, but I guess I'll have to be happy with this.  Thanks to the wonders of my GPS watch (read previous post), I learned that the run was 6.43 miles as opposed to the standard 6.2 miles.  Does this mean I could have firmly planted myself in the 38th minute for the run had it been standard distance?  I sure hope so and am pretty happy at the thought.  All in all, my run split amounted to 6:19/mile.

My cumulative time was a 2:07 that I was very happy to take and very happy on which to end my season.  Although, I can't help but speculate on what my time would have been had I been able to couple my PR bike and run splits with one of my sub-20 minutes swims and a run course a quarter-mile shorter.  Maybe somewhere between 2:02 or 2:03?  Now, that would be phenomenal for my second season!  

Thanks for reading and keep and eye out for reports of the trio of running races that will finish out my season.  Cheers!