Smith’s Point Triathlon Race Report: Wet and Windy

Swim start. So many people. So little room

Yesterday was Smith’s Point Tri. I never mentioned that I was doing this one because even though I’d signed up for it, I wasn’t sure I was going. The weather was tentative all week and while I’ve been working out, I don’t know if I could say I’ve been training the way I should have been before a race. We’re talking one brick workout in a couple of months. And I’d never done a race in the rain. The bike makes me nervous enough. The thought of biking on slick roads in the rain? That’s even scarier.

We picked up our race packets on Saturday afternoon, still hedging whether or not we were doing this thing. We’d decide at 4:00 am, depending on the weather.

Thinking I might not be going helped me sleep a little better on Saturday night, always a good thing. And when I woke up? No rain. I had packed my bag the night before and loaded my bike and other essentials in the car, so all I had to do was get dressed and eat and get on the road. The race site was only about 40 minutes away, so leaving at 4:45 gave us plenty of time to get there by 5:30. Still no rain, even though it was predicted, along with thunderstorms.

We set up transition and got to the hard task of waiting around. The race start was set for 6:45ish; our wave went into the water at 6:53 am. It wasn’t raining, but it was windy, and you couldn’t see the swim area from the transition area. After Florida’s race, where the wind created super-choppy conditions, the wind worried me. But the water was pretty flat, so that was good. We waited some more, hit the porta-potties and waited some more.

If I had one complaint about this race, it was the way the swim start was orchestrated. There were only 4 waves for more than 500 people and the waves went 3 minutes apart.

It was what amounted to pure chaos. 40 and under men were in Wave 1. Three minutes later, ALL of the women (except for relays and Athenas) went in Wave 2. There were approximately 180 of us. And then 3 minutes later, 40 and older men took off, and there were a lot of good swimmers in that group that descended on the women in no time. Wave 4 was Athenas, Clysedales, Relays and Challenged. (note to self: compete Athena next time… it will be easier).

There was lots of kicking, punching and crashing going on in the swim the entire way. The course was advertised at 500 meters. It wasn’t. If I had to guess, I would say the swim course this year was 750 meters at minimum. My swim time was 17.28. So the swim was tough from a “battling for position” perspective, but I still felt strong. And at one point, I felt like I was in the water for an awfully long time, much longer than 500 meters would normally take.

When we got race results last night, I was surprised at the 17-minute time, thinking I would have done better than that for 500 meters, like 12 minutes. That was until I looked at other split times. Last year, the best swimmer pulled a 5:14 time. This year, the fastest swim time was 8:15. Those guys weren’t battling for position. And we’re talking, these are the same guys as last year, just with much longer swim times. Everyone in the race couldn’t have been off. The swim was definitely quite a bit longer. And in that case, I was happy with that time. It was right on par with what I would have expected in that craziness.

T1 -4:14. Because we were expecting rain, which still hadn’t arrived, I had laid all of my gear out in plastic bags, so I had to fish for my towel, sneakers, etc. I geared up, tied my shoes and got on the bike. I do have to work on speeding up my transition times.

The bike was flat and the wind was at our backs on the way out. Sweeeeeet! Not too far out though, it started to rain. And it felt like needles hitting my skin. Ouch. The road got a little slick but it was manageable so I kept up a good pace (for me, which isn’t that fast by anybody else’s standards) to take advantage of the no-wind situation. I knew the way back wouldn’t be as easy. The rain quickly went from needles to a steadier, heavier rain, which made it really tough to see through my sunglasses. Someone needs to invent sunglasses with teeny tiny windshield wipers.

The second leg of the bike was through a little neighborhood with lots of corners to turn (my neighborhood training helped me here), and one really steep little hill that just sort of snuck up on me. My cousin had warned me about the hill, but this didn’t look steep so I didn’t think I was there yet. I was and I hadn’t downshifted enough. Thank goodness it was short. Once I flattened out, I was on my way again. A couple of bikers had wiped out on the turns with the wet roads, so I made sure to take it easy. Back out on the highway toward the beach, we hit the wind. By  now it was pouring and coming straight for us. Headwinds had to be 25 to 30 mph sustained, so the last leg of the bike, maybe 3-4 miles, was pretty tough and much slower than on the way out. Because I am not a strong runner, I like to conserve a little energy at the end of a bike, but that wasn’t happening yesterday. It took a lot just to ride in against the wind.

Bike time was 49:09 for 12.3 miles. I went in hoping to bike the course in under 50 minutes in good conditions. And I accomplished that. Under the conditions we had, I was really pleased with my bike time. I have a race in a couple of weeks in Virginia with my sister. It will be hilly. I’m scared. Hills are not my friends. Wind is practice for hills, right?

T2 1:41 Here, I just had to rack my bike, take off my helmet and fish my hat from my bag of tricks. I don’t do the clip pedal thing on the bike so I already had my sneakers on. They were very wet and squishy,  as was the rest of me.

I headed out for the run. I threw my hat on to keep the rain out of my face but 1/2 mile into the run, which started out very, very slowly for me because my legs were all trashed from the windy bike in, the rain stopped. And it got HOT. And so humid. I took my hat off because, really I HATE anything on my head other than my Chica-band (which I also had on), and strapped it to my race belt. It blew away. A brand-new, nicely vented hat. Oh well, race casualty.

I kept running through the water stop at 1.5 miles, where I stopped to drink and walk a little (because I still haven’t mastered the run/drink thing) and then walked a little more just for good measure. For the first half of the run, even though I was going slow, I was having a little trouble getting my breathing normalized again, and the walking helped that. I started running again, and the skies opened up again too. The second half of the run was in a downpour.

If I see drizzle when I’m getting ready for a training run, I use it as an excuse to go back to bed. I guess I can’t use that any longer. The hard part of running in that rain was that my running shorts weighed about 10 pounds and kept sliding. And my feet were all sloshy and my sneakers added another 10 pounds. The good part is that as soon as the rain hit, it cooled everything down again, and I felt like I finally got my stride back. I did walk a few more steps as I reached the beach bridge, but picked back up my pace and ran in and felt like I had a strong finish.

Run time was 38:56, which was actually better than I expected considering how heavy my legs felt. I know I can do better than this on the run, and I have to work on my tendency to hold back. I have this need to conserve energy when I get to the run because, well, fear of the unknown. Since I’m not familiar with the course, I go slower than I know I can because I worry I won’t be able to finish.

However, I know I can do this distance faster. Even off the bike. There really is a mind-game aspect to this whole thing.

Overall, my race time was 1:51:26. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours, and if I was lucky, finish in under 1:50. Considering the swim was at least 4 minutes longer than it should have been because it was longer, I was really happy with my time.

It’s progress and in a race I wasn’t even sure I would attend.

Next stop, Pink Power Triathlon in Richmond, VA, on August 21. I’m doing this race with my sister, her first, so it should be lots of fun. And it’s a pool swim. I still find those more manageable.

Sorry, no pics. With all of the rain, no one wanted to reach for a camera or a phone! And I have to give props to my hubs, who came to spectate and cheer me on. He stood out there in the rain the whole time. And even with an umbrella, I think he was as soaked as I was. It was good to see his face… and my brother’s and Jen’s—they finished way ahead of me… at the finish line.

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Tags: fat girl 2 fit girl, race expectations, race report, rainy triathlon, Smiths Point Triathlon