2010 St. Andrews Sprint Triathlon
Race Report # 7: 6/20/10
Background
Back to Middletown, Delaware for my 8th time (in a row) at this, the oldest triathlon in Delaware (23rd running). This would be my 7th triathlon of the 2010 season and the 93rd of my career.
Race day dawned very warm with the promise of difficult conditions as the day progressed. For the first time, Piranha Sports was running the event—a development that I did not look forward to as I was sure that the race would lose some of it’s homey, small-time feel as a result.
I had 13 folks in my AG with the biggest worry being Bryan Sauer. I had raced Bryan for the last seven years (although usually not in the same AG—he just aged up) and had beaten him 4 times and he had beaten me the other three, including last year. Bryan is an excellent runner and I figured I’d need at least four minutes on him leaving T2 to stand a chance of holding him off—especially given the poor state of my run. I knew it would be close one-way or the other.
The Swim
Piranha, in its infinite wisdom, decided to change the configuration of the swim course so our ability to compare to past swim times was somewhat compromised. In the past I’ve also been given the opportunity to go off in the first, “elite” wave due to my three prior AG wins here. Today, however, I found myself in the 5th and final wave—for men over 50. There were 43 of us in this last wave.
I lined up to the left, away from the buoy line as I anticipated quite a lot of congestion from the waves in front of me. At the gun, I surged ahead strongly for 15 strokes and then glanced to my right (my non-breathing side) and was shocked to see that I was at least two yards in front of everybody. Yikes! I saw whom I thought was Paul Schlosser (whom is one of the best swimmers in the race) across on the buoy line and I decided that I must be going too hard (even though I felt fine). I decided to back off and just head over and try to swim with Paul as long as I could. I got on his left shoulder and comfortably matched him stroke for stroke.
At the first turn buoy I dropped back to sit on his feet, hoping to be able to hang on as long as I could. We were the first two orange hats and I glanced back and saw Bryan some 10-15 yards behind me (this was very significant as Bryan has always beaten me by 25-40 seconds in the past).
As we hit the final turn buoy, it became clear to me that I was stronger than “Paul” (as it turned out this wasn’t Paul, as he had gone off in the first wave but as it turned out I was more than a minute faster than an obviously unfit Schlosser) and so I surged by him and swam strongly all the way to the swim exit—first in my wave! I hit the shore in 5:39 with an average HR of 158 bpm. As I mentioned above, it’s no longer viable to compare this swim time with prior years but I was 2-3 minutes faster than any of the prior years (my prior best was 7:32 in 2007). It seems to me that the course was shorter than in the past but also clearly I had a fantastic swim.
Unfortunately, the timing mat was a good quarter mile up the hill right at the entrance to the transition area so I really don’t have accurate swim splits for my competitors. My guess is that Bryan was 10 seconds behind me. As I ran up the hill and towards transition, Bryan came streaming past me so his split will show as the fastest on the results page. I ended up with the 25th fastest swim split OA (although Bryan had the 14th so I clearly lost a lot of places as I labored up the hill running to transition—definitely a foreshadowing of difficulties to come). Anyways, this works out officially as the 91st percentile (I probably was really in the top 5%). Here is where I estimate we stood after the swim:
1. Christofferson --------
2. Sauer + 0:10
3. Krippahne + 0:18
4. Hutchinson + 0:43
Transition One
This is one heck of a long tough transition and it was longer this year due to the “neutral” flow pattern dictated by the “McPirahna” folks. Anyways, I was slow running the quarter mile or so back to the bikes and then once in transition actually went faster than my AG competitors. All told, it took me 4:04 to complete T1 and my HR averaged 170 so I know I wasn’t dogging it. Still, I lost 28 seconds to Sauer during T1 and hopped on my bike 18 seconds out of the AG lead.
The Bike
The course is billed as a two-loop, mostly flat, but with several hills, 16-mile affair. In fact it is just 15.6 miles. The wind plays a significant factor at times and today I would judge it was average for the course—say 10-15 mph.
Since I had just begun my taper for IM Germany I was for once, reasonably well rested for this race and I was optimistic that I could turn in a solid bike leg. I hit it hard right from the start and about 1.5 miles in blew past Sauer and tried to put my head down to hammer out the 4+ minutes that I knew that I would need to have a fighting chance of holding him off on the run.
I felt pretty good and my power meter was flashing ok info at me. I rolled through the first lap in 19:50 (which I knew was pretty good, but still off my past performances). I actually felt stronger as the race went on and eventually completed an uneventful bike leg with a time of 39:45. My prior rides here are directly comparable (with the caveat of different environmental conditions) and here is how I have performed here through the years:
2003 39:41 9/271 1/19
2004 39:40 8/275 2/18
2005 39:43 6/299 1/23
2006 39:03 6/263 1/21
2007 38:34 7/257 1/23
2008 38:12 8/294 1/11
2009 41:48 7/251 1/16
2010 39:45 10/268 1/13
So from a historical comparative perspective this was a decent outcome. I averaged 250 watts and an average HR of 162 bpm, which I’m not going to beat myself up over—I’d like to think I’m good for another 10+ watts but it is what it is. My cadence came in at 80 rpm as I continue to be unable to spin at my historically optimal rate of 85 rpm. At 10th OA I came in at the 96.6 %-tile which, (hey I’m 53) is passable for me. The bottom line is that my bike fitness is just now beginning to round into form—definitely delayed by my earlier accident—and I can reasonably expect to beat faster come the end of the summer.
Competitively, my effort, while a good honest attempt, was not sufficient to open up the kind of gap on Sauer I knew that I needed. I was 3:48 faster today on the bike than him but that left me with just a 3:30 advantage going into T2. I didn’t know this of-course but if I had I would have known that my chances of winning the AG were slight. Here is where we stood after the bike:
1. Christofferson --------
2. Sauer + 3:30
3. Hutchinson + 4:49
Transition Two
Simple transition made a little slower by our friends at Piranha Sports. I exited T2 in 1:10 (about 20 seconds slower than all the prior years) and had an average HR of 162. I had the 3rd fastest transition in my AG and picked up a second on Sauer so competitively T2 was a non-event.
The Run
I headed out on the 3-mile cross-country course feeling ok—all things considering. Of-course, my left hip continued to ache and my whole left leg felt tired and weak—unfortunately par for the course for these past 8 weeks or so. That said, I do feel like it is slowly improving and maybe I won’t be a horrible runner for the rest of my life…
I was optimistic that I could hold Bryan off. I didn’t know how big my lead was but I guessed it was close to enough. I tried to push as hard as I could. Because I was in the last wave, only one person caught me on the run for the first 15 minutes or so. I was aware of this being likely to be true even if I was running poorly but it did fill me with hope. My HR was consistently between 165-170 bpm (a little short of optimal but not bad).
With about 0.5-0.6 miles to go I looked back and there was Bryan—not more than 50 yards behind me. I was cooked. A few minutes later he cruised by and I congratulated him on his strong race and imminent triumph. He was just a better triathlete than I was today. I felt a bit deflated and I (and I’m not happy with this) just slowed down and jogged my way to the finish—I’m sure I left 30 seconds out there over the last half-mile. In any event I finished with a 22:54 and an average HR of 167. This is an average mile pace of 7:38. It was my slowest ever run split here and some 3+ minutes off my best effort. My run is in very bad shape for sure. My desultory effort was 6th best in the AG and 78th OA (71.3 %-tile).
I ended up dropping 4:26 to Sauer and lost by 57 seconds. I was 18th OA (93.7 %-tile). It is what it is but obviously if I could run like I have in the past, this would have been an easy AG win as well.
Oh well—here are my final thoughts:
1. Great swim—absolutely no question I can swim faster now than I have ever been able to. I have a great deal of gratitude that this is so.
2. My bike is still improving and beginning to get within shouting distance of previous high-water marks…I think I’ll get stronger as the year goes on but I don’t think I can reach my prior peaks.
3. My run is dismal. End of story. Bad tidings for IM Germany. I’ll still show up and give it my all but I know enough to play it as it lies…
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