Vineman Monte Rio
Just like Vineman 70.3, the swim was an out and back in the Russian river. The water was comfortably warm and very calm. At the start I took it relatively strong as I usually do in order to get out front. The weird thing was that right from the start, I was alone. It felt like everyone waited 5 seconds before starting. At about 200 yards I looked around to see if there was anyone around me to draft off. I realized I was in the lead so I settled into a comfortable pace and tried to stay far enough out front so that no one could catch my draft. At the turn-around I was able to gauge that I had about a 30 second lead on the rest of the field. The river only had a slight current, but I could definitely feel that I was swimming against it on the way back. Although it didn't feel good, I must have handled the current fairly well because I exited the water with about 1:20 advantage on the field.
Bike
The bike course was drop dead gorgeous. From racing Vineman 70.3 before, I knew the scenery on the bike course would be good. The scenery on this course was great! The views of rivers, redwood forests, and the ocean were spectacular. The only worry I had before the race was getting through a fairly bumpy 6 mile stretch near the beginning, but I was happy to get past that without any mechanical difficulties. It took about 5 or so miles into the course until my legs settled in and I was able to put some power into the crank. At the turn-around point, I was able to gauge that I had about a 2 minute lead on the field. I knew there were some fast runners behind me so I figured I needed to try to hold that margin into T2. It turns out that I ended up with the fastest bike split on the day, which was sort of a surprise.
Transition 2
A description of my T2 is warranted here. It was terrible and sort of embarrassing because I was the only athlete in transition and the race announcer was talking me up the whole time. Because the course was new to me, the transition snuck up on me and I wasn't able to slip out of my shoes before the dismount line. I sort of freaked out but ended up running in my bike shoes to the rack. For those of you who don't race, a common technique (which I practice) is to slip out of your shoes while riding and leaving them connected to the pedals, and run barefoot to the bike rack. Running with your shoes on is clumsy and slow due to the metal cleats on the bottom. Anyways, I racked my bike and realized my running shoes were about 10 feet away. Whoops! I left my bike where it was and ran over to my running shoes and started putting them on. To add to my crappy transition I fumbled around while putting on my shoes, something I am usually pretty decent at. Once I got my shoes on I started to run the wrong way, but luckily the race announcer corrected me and I proceed out the correct run exit. I was happy to get that debacle over with and get onto the 10K.
Run
The run course was another amazing course. It was flat, cool, and probably 90% shaded; perfect for me. It took me about a mile to settle into a comfortable pace. One thing that is nice about being out front is that you have a guide in front of you to chase. On the swim there was a kayak guide, the bike there was a motorcycle guide, and the run there was someone riding a mountain bike guiding me. They sort of act like the rabbit out front. At the turn-around of the out-and-back run, I found out that I had maintained my 2 minute lead on the pack. At that point I did some math in my head and realized that unless something went wrong with my run or the guy chasing me had a world class split on the second half of the 10K, I was in pretty good shape. With about half a mile to go I got some intel from the bike guide that I still had a fairly healthy lead. This allowed me to relax and push to the finish at a comfortable pace.
I ended up finishing first overall with a time of 1:59:33. This race did not have a dedicated pro field but two pros showed up to race, Andrew Bauer and Ken Rakestraw, both of which had beaten me at Wildflower in previous years while they were still amateurs. I think they are currently focusing their training and racing on the 70.3 distance, but it was nice to find out that I can hang with them at this shorter distance.
Thanks to Jeff Kapic for the excellent photos. Check out the link here to see some more great photos.
Redondo Beach Sprint
The Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon is super short: 0.5 mile swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run. It is shorter than I usually prefer, but the fact that it is my hometown race and I could ride my bike 3 miles from home to the transition was all the reason I needed to race.
I'll keep this recap short just like the race. With a race this short, you just red line it from start to finish. There were some good swimmers that showed up and a pack of 5 of them took off like a bat out of hell from the beginning. I pushed very hard to keep up with them, but ended up exiting the swim about 15 seconds behind the lead pack. As I made the long run to transition while gasping for air, I passed one or two of them and quickly hurried off on my bike. When I race the Olympic distance, it usually takes about 5 miles for my legs to settle in on the bike and stop burning. With the short sprint distance, the bike leg was pretty much over by the time this happened. I made it to T2 and hurried off on the run. The run course is rather technical with a lot of turns over the 2 mile course. A little over halfway through the course, I passed a guy and then we entered this portion that basically zig-zagged through a parking lot. While rounding one of the turns, I tripped over a crack and hit the pavement. Yes, Mark Tripp tripped while running. Har harrrr. After rolling around a couple times, I got up and proceeded on with the race. The embarrassment from the fall was probably worse than the scrapes that showed up on my legs. Fortunately, the fall didn't hinder me too much and I was able to hold my position until the finish.
I ended up 3rd overall with a time of 41:02. The two guys that be at me, Chris Foster and Brian Lamar, both race ITU, so I'd say my 3rd place finish was not too bad. Because I had some fresh road rash on my legs from the running crash, I immediately headed home to clean clean up. I felt bad about not sticking around for the awards, but figured it would be best to clean my woulds ASAP in order to prevent any possible infection.
The Redondo Beach Sprint helped confirm in my mind that at this point, the Olympic distance is the distance for me. Last year I realized that 70.3 is too much given the amount of training I am able to put in and yesterday I realized that I prefer a little more of the endurance aspect of racing than the sprint distance allows.
Thanks again to TriSports.com for the continued support. Remember to use coupon code MTRIPP for 15% off your purchase of eligible items.
Next up is the San Diego International Triathlon on June 30th.
No comments:
Post a Comment