OK--I'm really behind but will catch up this week. I've actually done 2 TRIs and 2 OW swims I need to report about as well as my training progress and the road ahead. But for this post: here is my Bellplain super sprint Race Report from the race I did 3 weeks ago:
Belleplain Triathlon Race Report
Date: June 18th, 2022
Location: Belleplain State Forest: Woodstown, NJ
Format: Super Sprint: 200-yard swim/9-mile bike/1-mile run
2022 Triathlon Race Number: 2
Career Triathlon Race Number: 167
Conditions: Favorable. Mid 70s, humid, 10-15 mph wind, water temp of 75
Background
Second triathlon of the 2022 season and the first of a “Super-Sprint Double-Header” weekend, as I planned to race here in NJ on Saturday and then down in Maryland on Sunday.
The race at Belleplain is a very small, local NJ race, which I competed in back in 2019—the last time it was held due to CoVid. Its run by DQTriDu Events, a local race management group that has been holding events here since back in 2003. The year before (2002), that race was called the Cape May Triathlon, which was the 2nd triathlon I ever did. After that year, DQ bought the race and has run it ever since.
The swim is held in “Lake” Nummy, which, is more of a shallow pond, and the bike/run in and around the State Forest. Back in 2019 there were 57 people in the race, but I was a bit disappointed to learn that there were just 29 people in this year’s edition, but my 65-69 age-group had 5 competitors—which made it the largest Age Group in the race—something that must be very rare indeed!
It's only about 15 miles to the race site so it was easy to get there and arrive relatively early. When I unloaded my bike at the race site, I was disappointed to find a flat rear tire. It was fine the day before during my test ride of my race wheels so I concluded that I must have had a slow leak that led to the flat in my car overnight. Fortunately, I had three spare tubes with me and proceeded to execute the change. Unfortunately, none of my 3 spare tubes could hold air. I surmised that the problem was all 3 of the spares were spares I had built for the 808 wheels (80mm tubes with an extension and sealed with electrician tape) and they were probably 3-4 years old and had probably had dry rot. Note to self: after the race make a fresh set of new 808 compatible tubes.
I wasn’t happy about the prospect, but I decided that my only option was to use my original tube and to try to pump up my rear tire as close to the swim as possible and to bring a CO2 cartridge/inflator along on the race and if necessary, give it some CO2 mid-race and hope that this was enough to get me back to transition. Not ideal, and not the kind of situation someone with my racing experience should really let happen, but it seemed to be my only choice.
The Swim
The swim was 3 sides of a rectangle out into the lake from a beach start. There was also a standard sprint race that preceded ours and I was able to run back to transition to check on my tire twice and both times found it noticeably soft and so I repumped it—the last time just 2-3 minutes before the start of our swim.
This is not the type of situation you want to deal with right before a race, but I felt relatively calm about it. The bike was only 9 miles long and I felt I had a reasonably good chance of getting through it, even if my tire was 40-50 psi.
All the men went in the first wave, and I just cruised through the swim. I didn’t see the need to hammer this swim, given its length, and as I swam, I could easily see the two guys in front of me (it would turn out that 3 women in the subsequent wave would also out swim me). I exited the swim in 4:06 and measured it at 213 yards. This is a quite poor 1:56/100 and reflects my lack of sprint/super-sprint specific swim training. (I had also gone though a 6-week stretch, where I wasn’t able to get the desired amount of training in). I averaged 33 spm but had a dismal dps of just 1.54 yards. This is well short of the 1.9-2.0 yds/stroke I achieve when I’m swimming well.
Competitively, I was 7th OA on the swim, which works out to be at the 79.3 %-tile. Fwiw, in 2019 I was 13 seconds slower and was at the 66.7 %-tile in that race. I easily had the best swim in my AG and here is where I stood after the swim:
1. RC --------
2. Vanore + 1:34
3. Fischer + 2:47
4. Kuehnle + 2:54
5. Henderson + 3:43
Transition One
It’s a long run from the lake to transition and part of it was over a bunch of little pinecones—ouch! The first thing I did when I got to my bike was check my rear tire and it felt a bit soft but not as bad as I feared—all right! Time to hammer! I finished my transition in 2:26, according to my Garmin, which was 6th best OA and 2nd to Vanore in my AG. Here is where we stood after T1:
1. RC --------
2. Vanore + 1:02
3. Fischer + 4:15
4. Henderson + 6:16
5. Kuehnle + 6:26
The Bike
The bike at this venue is flat and generally fast—there are a couple of sections that have poor road quality/potholes but generally, the pavement is pretty good. I tried to really attack on the bike and soon passed all but one of the men in front of me (there were 3, as one guy I had outswam, had out transitioned me).
I executed the 9.21-mile bike in 23:51, which works out to 23.2 mph. This seems pretty good, but I was disappointed to see that I only averaged 219 watts—which is 20-30 watts short of what I think I’m capable of on a ride like this. As an aside, I wonder if I’m losing my ability to really hammer or if what I’m seeing is a lack of high intensity work in my training (probably both).
The good news is I had the fastest overall bike split by 26 seconds (over the eventual OA race winner, Pappas). My time was within 2 seconds of 2019 and in that race, I had only posted the 5th fastest time.
My bike was good enough to pull me into 2nd place overall:
1. Pappas --------
2. RC + 0:56
3. Kerr + 2:06
4. Hackmeister + 2:46
5. Bennett + 3:35
I didn’t know these specifics of-course, but as I entered T2, I fully believed I had an excellent chance of being on the podium and that 2nd place was mine to lose. As for my AG, with only a 1-mile run, my bike was essentially good enough to seal the victory:
1. RC ---------
2. Vanore + 4:32
3. Fischer +10:22
4. Kuehnle +15:10
5. Henderson +18:45
Transition Two
I dismounted and ran into T2…. which was a ghost town—so satisfying!
I knew I wasn’t going to catch the 41-year-old leader, but I was psyched to push hard to secure 2nd. In 2019 I ran this mile in 8:30 and while I didn’t think I could do that today; I was pretty confident I could run a 9-minute mile or so.
I had decided to use my Nike Alpha-Flys for this race (vs. the Next %) as I wanted to test them, in a race situation, as I thought I might use them at Kona. I had a big problem getting my right shoe on—not using socks probably hurt a bit. I wasted a lot of time in transition and kinda’ panicked a bit and really strained hard to get my heal in.
And then my hamstring popped! I could tell right away that this was not a minor thing, and my immediate thought was: “I guess I won’t be racing in Maryland tomorrow….”. I focused back in and finally got my shoe on, and I jumped up and went to see how bad it was.
The answer I got was: “pretty bad”. I tried to push on my right leg, and it basically didn’t work. I stopped and turned around and didn’t see anyone right behind me and I thought: “how bad can this be...it’s only a mile…no way I’m DNFing this thing! And so, I decided to just get through the mile as best as I could.
My transition, of course was very slow. It took me 1:30 to complete my T2 (although it seemed a lot longer). This was 16th best OA (48.3 %-tile). Strangely enough, I had the 2nd fastest T2 in my AG, but Vanore was able to gain a bit on me:
1. RC --------
2. Vanore + 3:53
3. Fischer +10:40
4. Kuehnle +15:56
5. Henderson +18:50
The Run
So, it went the way you’d probably expect. Very Ugly. I basically had to use my bad leg to drag my good, but very compromised, leg around. It was only 1-mile, but it was tough to do. I was passed by the eventual 2nd place guy but was able to hold onto a podium spot (by just 6 seconds). My training partner Midge Kerr also passed me on her way to the OA Female win so technically I finished 4th OA.
It took me 11:04 to traverse the 1.02 miles (10:54/mile pace). This was 21st OA (31.0 %-tile---OMG!) and 3rd in my AG. Here is where I stood overall and in my AG:
1. Pappas --------
2. Hackmeister + 3:52
3. Kerr + 4:41
4. RC + 6:24
5. Bennett + 6:30
1. RC --------
2. Vanore + 1:36
3. Fischer +10:48
4. Kuehnle +15:09
5. Henderson: +20:23
Afterwards, I discovered that my bike’s rear-tire was flat and that I couldn’t do much walking and no running for 2 weeks afterwards, but it does now seem (3+ weeks later) to have sufficiently healed to allow me to make a push run-training wise in front of my 8/6 half-Ironman in Boulder. And I ended up not going to Maryland and instead hosted a Father's Day party and drank too much tequila!
Onward and upward!
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