Ann Arbor Tri: June 11, 2006

OK, so I'm finally getting around to my race report!

This was my third time doing Ann Arbor. I got a late start on my training this season, and it has mostly been about building endurance for Musselman, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. My only real goal was to have fun, which was made easier by the large turnout at this race from the FAST tri club - lots of people I know racing! I was also looking forward to meeting Laura (Catdoc1 from the WW board), who traveled across the country just to do this race. (OK, maybe visiting family might have been part of the travel plans, too!)

It was a cool morning, so there was some discussion about adding layers to prevent being cold on the bike. I didn't have too hard of a time deciding what to wear since I hadn't brought anything but the tri top I was wearing and a bulky hooded sweatshirt! I met Laura in the transition area and we chatted a bit before she headed off to set up her transition site and I headed back to the car to get my swim goggles I had forgotten.


Just enough time before the race start to get a brief warmup swim in and pose for some pre-race pictures before it was time to line up for the swim start. We were in the second wave. The gun went off and everyone starts swimming. It's the usual triathlon swim chaos, and I got whacked in the eye a couple of times, but I felt pretty calm and smooth the whole way. By the first turn buoy I had fallen in with a couple of guys swimming around the same pace, and I pretty much swam with them for the rest of the race. I sighted off other swimmers for most of the race, and before you know it, the swim was over. I had decided to take off my wetsuit as soon as I exited the water, since my suit comes off better when wet, and it was a long run to transition. I was glad I did, because the wetsuit came off easily.

T1 felt amazingly slow, and my transition time proved that it was not my imagination. But then it was off on the bike. A couple of guys from my wave passed me in the first mile, but after that it was about the halfway point on the bike before I saw anyone else other than the three guys who seemed to be riding at exactly my pace in front of me. The bike course is 14 miles long, and the biggest hills are towards the end. I am pretty slow on the uphills these days, so a number of people passed me on the hills, although it seemed to be mostly the fast people from later waves. I felt like I rode a pretty good bike leg, although my time/speed was way off from a couple of years ago (18.1mph avg this year vs 19.8mph in 2004). Oh well, I gave it all I had. (QOTD: Why is it that I can do a race "just for fun", have my only goals be to have a good time and get a good training event in, and yet I still can't help comparing my speed to my past speeds and other people's speeds???)

Back into the transition area for another not-so-speedy transition, and then it was off on the run. I have only done a couple of bricks, so my legs were definitely not used to the rubber leg feeling, but after a bit they got used to it. I fell into a steady pace, and was feeling pretty comfortable, but of course we hadn't gotten to the hills yet! I had planned to walk up the hills, and I stuck with that plan. I chatted and joked with the guy in front of me, who I paced off of, since we were running pretty much the same pace. I passed him at the aid station, and then he paced off me for a while until I lost him when I ran up some short hills and he walked them. In retrospect, maybe I should have followed his plan, since he passed me on the last hill just before the finish, and I couldn't keep up with him any more. Mia passed me around the 2.5 mile mark. She looked great, but unfortunately I had to break the news that yes, there were more hills to come.

Overall, I felt like I met my goals for the run, although I was disappointed that I walked up the last hill instead of running up it. I knew the finish was just ahead, and I just couldn't muster up the toughness to push myself to run up the hill. Not that this hill was any big deal, but it made me question whether I'll have the toughness to keep going at the end of my 1/2 IM.

Ann Arbor Tri Race Summary
1/2 Mile Swim: 16:03 (3/19 in AG)
T1: 3:18
14 Mile Bike: 46:28 (18.1mph, 7/18 in AG)
T2: 2:17
5 Mile Run: 58:23 (11:41 pace, 16/18 in AG)
Overall Time: 2:06:27 (14/18 in AG)