Summer Sizzler Sprint Tri

At the urging of the women I run with here in the summer, I entered a small Sprint Tri yesterday. We thought it would be a fun experience which it was. One of the women is an experienced triathlete, so she did what was called the Formula 1 race where you did the course twice, the other women and I did the shorter Sprint which consisted of a 400 m swim, 17K bike and 3K run. Now I must say that I have been cycling some, I swam 2x in the lake but hated the weeds, and I run a lot. That training pattern was quite obvious in my final results.

The race was put on by an outfit called Score This out of the Buffalo area. Score This puts on races all over western NY state in the summer and provides timing assistance and transition area set ups as well for events from a Half IM to mini and kids tri events. If for ever reason you find yourself in this part of the country in the summer, there events are well worth it as they are well organized, monitored, etc. For a small event, they had 4 kayakers and USAT referees. Many of the competitors in the Formula 1 event had competed in IM Lake Placid a few weeks back, so it was a good field. http://score-this.com/

The swim was 400 m in the Niagara river which was interesting with all the weeds. They did a fun start where you entered the water in groups of 3 every 10 sec as most of the competitors in the Sprint event were like me - not really triathletes. At the start of the swim, you could basically "run" in the water almost all of the 1st 100 m until it was deep, and then start swimming. The weeds were right below you which was very freaky as you could see and touch them when doing freestyle. Many of the swimmers were freaking out, and I ended up swimming breast stroke around most of the women in my wave, getting to the last 100 m where I could run and exiting the water. I was very glad that I had been a competitive breaststroker in high school and college as it made it easy to deal with the weeds. I was covered with weeds exiting the water which made for a fun barefoot 400 m run up to the transition area over grass and trail. (3rd Place AG after the swim.)

My transitions suck, but before you knew it, I was on the bike. (12th place AG after T1!). With the exception of the turns in and out of transition, the bike was an out and back fairly flat course. I rode at a steady effort generally at 17.5-18 mph (which for me is excellent), but I did slow in and out and through the turns. I was 9th in my AG after the bike.

My 2nd transition sucked as well since I could not tie my shoes, and I really need those speed laces if I ever do this again. I had the 13th slowest (out of 15!) T2, but I made it all up in the 3K run where I swear I passed 40 runners ending up running the fastest for my AG (with a 7:01 per mile pace) and 4th Overall in my AG, and 37th out of 133 women.

I was tired, but I had a complete blast. My running/tri buddy finished 4th in F1 tri and my other two friends (who panicked in the water) finished 105th and 106th (they worked together after a very tough swim) overall.

Not sure I'm ready for a longer effort as well, I sure should train for them, but it was a great experience and I'd certainly do another small one here next summer and maybe even up it to a full sprint or Olympic distance.

Results:

4 1:10:38 Keane, Michele 462 Female 45-49 133 37 0:10:53 152 51 3 02:43 02:49 195 87 12 0:40:48 166 56 9 15.8 02:06 249 115 13 0:14:02 42 6 1 07:01

As you can see from above, I was the 42nd fastest runner overall - of all the competitors, and the 6th fastest woman runner. There were 262 competitors in the race.

That was great, Michele! I can see weeds being disconcerting if you're not used to them. It is hard to control the "get me the hell out of here" feeling when you are swimming, but great job on gutting it out. I would of liked to see the picture of Michele the swamp creature coming out covered in weeds! Good job on the bike as well - I know you have spent some time cross training and after looking at the results, you really kicked it with the competition! I usually wear speed laces as well - it is amazing how when you are tired and amped up at the same time how difficult something simple can be like tying your shoes (I had a hard time getting my cycling shoes on and they are velcro!!!). Your run on tired legs was really impressive - on your results, no one around you had close to that kind of pace - must of been rewarding to fly by so many people.

Hopefully you had a lot of fun and good job!!!

Swimming in weeds in one of the main reasons I have only done one triathlon. Congrats on your finish.

Woohoo!

Congrats on your race and your AG finish! Sounds like your running paid off for you. Excellent performance!

Excellent job all around Michele! No shock that the run was your strong suit. I'm glad you had a blast. Congratulations on the AG finish.

Congratulations Michele, it seems no matter what you try, you rank near the top in AG each time. Just think if yuo trained for one of these. They are a lot of fun. To not disrupt the running training much, I used to do June sprint tris (only a few of them). THe only problem is you have to practice in a pool.

I love how you just did a triathlon so spontaneously. What a great job. I agree the weeds are freaky. I am not into lake swimming but love the ocean. Congrats and great report!

Well done Michele, I don't think I would have liked the weeds either, thankfully my tri's this year didn't offer that feature. Speed laces are definitely the way to go with your running shoes. You rocked the run, congrats!

Impressive Michele - nice job in the run.

Thanks all. Already thinking of doing an Olympic distance race next July put on by the same group (Tri in the Buff). I open water swim in GA all the time and in Lake Erie, but the weeds were really dis-heartening. Many of the athletes were freaked including my friend who is quite experienced.

Congratulations Michelle! But do go any longer on this tri thing please. We lose too much traffic due to barefoot, ultra, tri etc.

Great job Michele. Looks like there's nothing you can't do. Awesome.

How fun! I like that you ran in the shallow, weedy water. The freak out from stuff in the swim gets more manageable each time you swim in a lake. Your transitions were classic as well. My son, speedy when in motion, is super slow changing shoes and putting on his helmut.

Dang...we gotta swim in weeds when we tri? Michele, you did great! REALLY does make me want to tri...aw crap, you and I both know I just want to run! Glad you're coming this way again...maybe I'll be ready to run the 5K or 10K at Huron next spring. Are you in?

Paula Sue wrote:Dang...we gotta swim in weeds when we tri? Michele, you did great! REALLY does make me want to tri...aw crap, you and I both know I just want to run! Glad you're coming this way again...maybe I'll be ready to run the 5K or 10K at Huron next spring. Are you in?

Maybe, PaulaSue. I love that half, and although I won't be living in Cleveland (yet) in march, John will be, so maybe I'll come and visit - it will depend on the date and Shannon's Spring Break.

Terrific race Michele. Boy, that swim sounded gross. I can imagine how people would hate all the weeds. Nice running for you as well. I've come to realize that a strong runner in a triathlon will make huge gains on many of the other competitors. Nice job.

Great job on the race, Michele!

So you kicked ass on the run? Color me shocked.

Not bad for a non-triathlete...