Vulcan Tinman Sprint RR

Hey!

So this weekend past was the Vulcan Tinman Sprint Triathlon. It was to be my first ever REAL distance triathlon, and would officially elevate me to 'triathlete' status. The only problem was the expected 3 degree temperatures with 10 cm of snow and rain. I wasn't too excited.

All week I debated what I would do if it actually was that crappy. I want to race but I also want to enjoy the race and not get a cold with it before we left on holidays the week after. I talked to some clients, Leslie, and tried to figure it out with no luck at all. I decided to go to Vulcan on Saturday and see, besides I had to pick up my race package anyway, and they had a free bike inspection!

It rained for pretty much the whole drive out. Cold, windy, and wet. When I got to Vulcan, I wasn't into it. Not at all. Maybe it was the snow that was falling as I walked my bike to go and get registered, I don't know. I picked up my timing chip, walked into transition to set up, then turned around and walked back out with my bike still. I decided it wasn't worth it. It wouldn't be fun or smart. I headed back over to the registration tent to return my chip while I was shivering.

That is when I met up with Leslie. She layed the guilt trip pretty bad on me and when I asked her what she would do, she said 'are you kidding, I'd do it.' So there I go back to transition, still doubting it.

I set up transition and went to go get changed in my tri gear and what do you know, the snow turned into rain. Great! Not really. I went into the pool and found out that since so many people didn't show up, that you didn't have to start in your designated heat, you could start whenever you wanted. Great! Get it over with!

Swim:

The swim was weird. You didn't start swimming and start timing; you have to start timing, then run to your lane, jump in without knowing the temperature of the water, then start swimming right away. This means no warm up. It was 5 degrees outside and my shoulders usually take about 400 m to actually start feeling good. Luckily when I jumped in the water was super warm although it was salt water which I also wasn't ever in before.

The swim went pretty well. Of course my shoulders and triceps were burning, but the salt water actually seemed to make me float a bit more. Since the heats were all random, I had in my lane a young kid who was doing breast stroke the whole way, and an older guy who wasn't really a speed demon. They finished not long in, maybe 250m and the next two in were actually faster than I was, so that made it easier on me, in the crammed 25m lane. While I was swimming, the sun actually came out!

My goal time for the swim: 10 min

My actual time for the swim : 10.57 including the run, jump in, jump out, and short run.

Rank: 83 of 347 overall

Bike:

Since it was so cold, my transition took forever! Dry off, socks, shoes, shoe covers, shirt, jacket, toque, gloves, and helmet. Then I was off. The bike was a 20 km out and back. Out went really well, I was pushing about 45km/hour the whole way down in aero and felt great. WOW! I can sure pedal hard if I really want to, I remember thinking. Then the turn around came, and things got ugly.

It turns out the reason I went so fast was the strong tailwind I had. When you turn around, that tailwind apparently turns into a headwind. I tried to keep above 25km / hour on the way back, that's how strong it was! After about 10km, that's when the hail storm hit. The hail was small but man did it sting! I couldn't even see where I was going, I had to shield my eyes to even look up so I didn't hit anyone! It stopped about 2 km later and the rest of the ride went pretty well. Pretty much flat, and only one corner back into town.

Bike goal: 30 min

Bike time: 33.23

Bike rank: 38 of 347 overall

Run:

Transition number two from the bike to the run went ok. The sun was starting to poke through a bit so the second transition was pretty much stripping EVERYTHING I spent 3 minutes putting on.

The course for the run was 5km and was just a little tour of the outskirts of town. By the graveyard (which I thought was kind of ironic), past a golf course and through some streets and back again.

One guy that passed me with about 3 km left on the bike was about 1km ahead of me on the run. I tried to push to catch up to him and almost did by the end of the race. If I had another 1 or 2 km I would have got him I think, but that's what got me through the run. My calfs were pretty tight and sore from the 1/2 marathon last weekend but it was only 5km, if I made it through all this other crap today, I can make it through the rest of the run!

Goal Run time: 25 min

Actual Run time: 22.42

Rank: 30 of 347 overall

Overall I was pretty happy with the day. I did it. I didn't want to, but I did. The hardest part was just getting to the start line, after that I felt pretty good. I definitely need to work on a little bit more race preparation and some nutrition issues again, but the three sports seem to be fitting together pretty well. I'm not great at any, but I'm not awful at any either. Win, win, right?

Overall goal time: 1 hour 5 min

Overall actual time: 1 hour 7 min, 1 second

Overall rank: 34 of 347

Gender rank: 29 of 145

Age group rank: 3 of 15

That's right! 3rd in my age group!! I was pretty happy to see that! I don't know if you get medals or anything, but we left before the awards anyway. I will try emailing the race director to see! Not too shabby at all, for a first ever REAL distance triathlon!

This next week should be great too. We leave on Monday night to head out to Boise, Idaho for Leslie's Ironman 70.3 Boise on Saturday. We are going to make a pit stop in Yellowstone National Park for a couple days, and Missoula, Montana on the way home as well. The interesting part is we are taking Monster (formerly known as Rexy) with us. My parents are going to meet us in Boise as well to help cheer! It should be great! I will definitely update when we get there in the mid week!

Have a great week workers!!!!

Grizzle