Rumpass in Bumpass

Rumpass in Bumpass Sprint Triathlon
2009 Race Report #2
April 19th, 2008


Background

The Rumpass in Bumpass (Virginia) is a new sprint triathlon that is part of the Virginia Triathlon Series. It takes place on the private, or “hot” side of Lake Anna. Lake Anna has been the site of quite a few of our triathlons in the past including the Kinetic and Odyssey Triathlons. These have always been held at the State Park on the “cold” side of the lake. So this was effectively a new venue for me.

The race was billed as half Olympic distance or 750 meters for the swim, 20k for the bike and a 5k run. Race morning dawned clear and nice with light winds that would not be a factor. It was quite a bit warmer than the days leading up to the race and with the 10 am start, the mercury would hit 82 degrees by the time we were running.

This was my second triathlon of the season. Despite the surprising success of my first tri two weeks prior, I continued to have modest expectations about this race. My fitness levels are way off of prior years. To balance that, a quick look at the competitors in my AG indicated to me that I had a reasonable chance of picking up the AG win.

The Swim

As I mentioned, the swim was in the “hot” side of the lake. The reason why it’s warmer in this part of the lake than the State Park side is due to the waste heat water discharge from the nearby nuclear power plant. Despite all the neutrons flying around, the water was still only 62 degrees. The swim was a relatively straight-forward “triangle” with a deep water start. I was in the 3rd wave and at 10:03 the horn sounded and the race began.

The first leg of the swim was the longest and I felt like I did not do a very good job of navigating a straight line. There was a lot of water to spread out in so this was just poor execution on my part. I didn’t feel very quick in the water—maybe the wetsuit had something to do with it (first time in one since last August), but I wasn’t feeling coordinated.

After the first turn I tried to force the pace and soon began to feel my heart flutter a bit as I started to hyperventilate. I had this happen once before a couple of years back at Eagleman. I backed off right away and soon had my heart and breathing back under control. I knew I wasn’t going fast but just resigned myself to a mediocre swim. For some reason, I never swim well in this lake.

Finally I hit the shore and see 16:26 for my swim split. I had two immediate reactions: Yuch, and no way was that just 750 meters. I know what I can swim 750 in (12 minutes or so) and while I did not have a great swim, it wasn’t that bad. My HR was only 152 bpm, which is typically the effort I’d put out for an IM swim—no question I dogged it a bit.

Competitively, as it turns out I was 160th out of the 424 who started the race. This translates into a 62.5 %-tile, decidedly mediocre. Strangely enough I was 2nd out the 12 in my AG—a clear sign of the weakness of this 50-54 YO AG.

The standings in my AG after the swim were:

1. Delaney ------
2. Christofferson + 2:24
3. Miller + 2:30


Transition One

I did what I thought was a workman like job. I got my wetsuit off pretty quickly—not bad for having not done it in over 7 months. I clocked my T1 in 2:09. The lengthy transition as much a reflection of the very long run out to bike mount as much as anything. I recorded the top T1 in my AG and as a result improved considerably over my competition. The standings after T2:

1. Delaney ------
2. Christofferson + 0:32
3. Miller + 1:52

The Bike

The roads around Lake Anna are fun to bike on. It’s scenic country with not much traffic. For some reason though, I never seem to go that fast here. Maybe because it’s April when I typically race here or maybe it’s the rolling hills or the rough road surface. Whatever the reason, I followed up my mediocre swim with a similar bike.

The ride was generally uneventful and I passed a guy (Delaney) in my AG a couple of miles in. This was the last guy in my AG that I passed so I eventually concluded that I must have had the 2nd fastest swim in my AG and that I was likely to have a pretty big lead heading into the run. I clocked the ride at 12.2 miles—a little shorter than the advertised 20k. I recorded a 32:55 which works out to 22.2 mph. My average power was 241 watts, which isn’t horrible, but sure is below the 260+ watts I’d like for a race like this. My cadence was 76 rpm—about 10 rpm below my desired number and reflecting my lack of spinning drills on my Computrainer this spring. My HR averaged 162 bpm—a reflection of less than race effort. Pretty uninspiring statistics for sure.

Competitively, its hard to get a read versus the overall field since they messed up my split, but I clearly moved up in my AG and recorded the fastest bike split of the twelve. I can’t say for sure where I was relative to my competitors though I had clearly moved into 1st.

Transition Two

I executed a good T2 in 1:39 (long run in). I can’t compare how this stacks up against the filed or my AG due to the inaccurate splits they posted for me (they had my T2 at over 34 minutes!). However, they did have a good run split for me so I was able to triangulate and solve for the AG standings as we left T2:

1. Christofferson --------
2. Miller + 3:18
3. Folkman + 6:03

As I headed out for the run I knew I had a big lead and I sensed I was not having the best of days. I certainly was not as motivated to run hard as I should have been.

The Run

There was a very long run out from the transition area and then up a hill past the bike mount/dismount line. Here they took us off the paved road and had us run about 300-400 yards on one of the worse running trails I’ve ever seen. It was rutty, rocky and full of roots. It also had quite a few short-radius turns so you really had to focus to not fall. After that section the run was mostly on a rolling road. It was a basic out and back course so towards the end we were blessed with the trail section again.

The run was supposed to be a 5k. I’m not sure how long it actually was but for sure it was quite a bit longer than 5k—probably at least 3.3 or 3.4 miles. Only 14 runners were under 20 minutes in the whole field with a top run time of 17:52.

In any event, I was running uninspired anyways. I came by the first mile and saw a split time of 7:57 with an average HR of 163. I knew the first mile was wrong, because I was pretty certain I was running at a 7:20-7:30 pace. The 2nd mile was more of the same (7:55/165 bpm). During the second mile, after the turnaround, I saw the guy who was second in my AG and it was quite clear I would win pretty easily. That realization, combined with my splits caused me to just cruise the rest of the run.

I finished the run with a 25:13 split. As I mentioned, the run was clearly long. Having said that, it felt like I managed only a 24-minute effort or so—pretty bad stuff! I had the 146th fastest run split (65.8 %-tile), which is of-course, pretty lame. In my AG, I recorded the second fastest run leg, which reflects on the low caliber of the competition in my AG. I finished with an overall time of 1:18:21. I beat the second place guy by 1:15 and the 3rd place guy by 6:45.

Not my best race for sure. I should have been able to go several minutes faster here today, even with my poor current fitness. Oh well. A “W” is a “W”, even if it’s pretty ugly. I’ve never started a season 2-0, so there is some consolation in that I guess. Probably time to start training with some seriousness. This type of performance won’t stand up when I face some real competition from the boys in Jersey!