Mystic River Sprint Tri Race Report

Finally the day has come for my first Triathlon of the year. I have been waiting for this since the Wild Dog Tri last year!

Woke up at 4:30, took a shower and went downstairs and ate some toast and peanut butter. I packed the car with everything and went over the checklist one more time. When I was ready to go I woke up my Brady, put him in the car and we were off to my sister’s house. She was going to watch him while I was at the race. After dropping him off I drove down to the race site in Mystic which was only 20 minutes away. It was shaping up to be a wonderful day for my first Tri of the year. I was there by 6:20, so I had plenty of time before the start of the race to stretch, set up transition and check out the water.

For a warm-up I went into the YMCA and found a nice quiet room to stretch, focusing on my left knee. For the past 2 weeks I have been dealing with an ACL strain which turned into something else. For the past week my left knee has been swollen. I went to the Doc for my follow-up and he said it was ok to run the 3 miles on it. Just ice it and take ibuprofen right after. So after the stretch I headed out, put the wetsuit on and down to the swim start.

THE SWIM

The swim was a wave start. All pre-registered males went in the first wave. I would say around 125 men or more went out. I seeded myself toward the right middle of the pack. Yeah, not fun. From the shore until the first turn I was battling with other swimmers, getting kicked, hit and just could not get into any rhythm. After I made it past the first buoy, I swam out a little and found some open water to swim in. But that didn't last long. I guess a few others decided to do the same and I was still avoiding people's feet. The last buoy seemed to take forever to get to. Then it was a short swim to shore after the turn. It was kinda of funny. I found myself swimming next to this one guy and we were both taking breaths at the same time...lol. So every time I took a breath, he was doing the same. It was funny. I got to where I could stand and I went to pull the leash on my wetsuit, but this guy came up and said "Hey let me help you out" so he grabbed my leash and pulled it down. I said thanks and started to try and pull the wetsuit off. Well I couldn't. The zipper got caught in some of the wetsuit so I couldn't pull it down the rest of the way. So I struggled with that all the way to my bike. Swim time was 18:45. My goal was 15mins, but my zig zagging and avoiding other swimmers and I think the swim course was a bit long was factors for the extended time.

T1

I struggled for a bit with my suit while at the bike. When I finally got it off I tried to get the little pebbles and sand off of my feet so I can put my socks on. Then shoes, helmet, race belt, sunglasses and I was off

BIKE

Right off the bat I forgot to tuck my right shoe lace into my shoe, so of course it got stuck in the chain. I stopped, tucked it in and was off. For the first mile or two I wanted to test my knee to see how it will hold up for the ride. After mile 2 everything felt ok so I just kept going at a nice pace. The hills killed my speed. I didn't want to put to much pressure on my left leg, so on the hills my right leg did most of the work. It was a very nice course. There were a few cows I said hi to. At the turn off of a main road at the point where we started to head back to the Y a lady had a flat and was asking for a pump. So I stopped and lent her my pump. Got her tire pumped up and I stayed with her to make sure everything was good. I figured I would help her out since I wasn't really racing for time. After a mile her tire was flat again, so we stopped and pumped it up again. This would happen one more time. Then when we spotted some race officials I handed her the pump and said those guys might be able to help you out. She thanked me and I took off. I felt bad for her, but at the same time, if you’re in a race, you should at least carry a pump and/or a spare tire, no matter what the distance. Going back to the Y was great. The course seemed really fast and I was back to transition in no time. As I was coming into transition I saw my sister with my son and her husband! They cheered for me and I gave a little wave. That was cool!

T2

Since I don't have bike shoes, this transition was fast, racked bike, grabbed my hat, took helmet off and I was gone.

RUN

This was the part I really thought my knee would act up. So the whole time I was running I was feeling my knee out, listening to it almost. Making sure it wasn't hurting. I told myself if I felt even the slightest pain I would walk. Turns out, it felt ok. Just a little tight, but no pain. At this point of the say it started to really warm up. I grabbed some water out of transition and once in the middle of the run. I was running slower then normal but I was ok with that. The run course was a flat out and back. Coming up the hill at the Y I saw Brady again. I gave him a little high five as I ran by. I wanted to sprint to the finish so bad, but I knew I shouldn't.

After I finished I stretched my legs out and saw the lady who I helped during the bike finish. She said thanks and gave my pump back to me. Then I went to my bike and grabbed my recovery drink, Gatorade and Hornet Juice and headed over to the food area. I relaxed for a bit, chit chatted with my sister and Tim, then went and cleaned up the transition area.

In all it was a great race. There were a few times on the bike I said to myself that I was very lucky to be able to do a race like this. Now I need to get my knee taken care of. As of today I have 47 days before the Crabman Tri. I really want to race that one.

Until the next race……