April 18 2015 - Smithfield, Virginia. This was my first triathlon of the year. There are numerous activities that demand more time and effort than training for a triathlon this year, as a result I expect to participate in three triathlons this year instead of 'compete.' I am familiar with the Smithfield Sprint Triathlon, third time I've completed it, and it is one of the local triathlons to the Hampton Roads area. The swim is an easy 300 meters in a pool, ten mile bike ride on country roads, and a neat 5k through oldtown Smithfield.
It is a given that everyone makes up ridiculous times when submitting their estimated times for pool swims. The goal is to minimize swimmers clogging up the lanes trying to pass each other. Eventually, everyone subtracts minutes off their 300 meter times and the result is all the swimmers are clogged up on the walls waiting for faster swimmers to go on by. The race directors at the Smithfield Sprint devised a staggered start to attempt to minimize the total length of the event. The first 100 swimmers were the fastest 100 times, and notionally the best athletes. The next four heats of 100 had the full range of swim times, ranked by time, and the next heat of 100 couldn't start until the last swimmer from the previous heat of 100 had left the pool. This got slower athletes out on the course sooner, thus minimizing their overall time on the course. I don't know if it achieved an overall decrease in event time, because the slowest athlete in the last heat was still out on the course for a while. But, Bravo Zulu to the race organizers for thinking outside the box.
I had some swim practice prior to the event, not sustained or frequent, but enough to pass several athletes in the pool. Within my age group, out of 15 athletes, I placed 5th.
Transition to the bike was smooth and uneventful.
I probably had less time on the bike, with the exception of two races in the late winter/early spring, than I did in the pool prior to this race. I wasn't feeling particularly great during the ride. The lone bright spot came during a steep decline followed by a >90 degree left hand turn with a long incline. Two riders had just passed me on the downhill and obviously had greater fitness than I did. They cleared the turn ahead of me and began the uphill climb. Knowing it was uphill after the turn, and I had to slow down for the turn, I devised 'strategy.' First I downshifted about 10 gears then stopped pedaling and prepared to make the quick turn. As soon as I felt the momentum of the downhill start to decrease I pedaled as fast as I could, and PASSED the two riders with superior fitness who were struggling to downshift and make it up the hill. I felt like Lance Armstrong! Shortly, one of those riders passed me on a strait-away. I never saw the other guy, I probably forced him into a DNF with my superior riding skills. Within my age group I was 5th out of 15 on the bike.
The transition from bike to run was also smooth and uneventful.
I am a poor runner. I've lamented on the internet about that for several years now. My 5k time was over 30 minutes, which is not good. One day...one day.
In my age group (35-39) of 15 athletes I placed 8th, the middle guy. Not too bad considering the weak preparation I had for the event and my slow run time. The bright spots were my decent performances in the swim and bike, and some pretty good transition times.
I'll do the Smithfield Sprint again, even with the wacky swim start times!
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