Scott Tinley's Adventures offroad sprint triathlon

Today, I was leet (my competition number is as you can see 1337), and I knew it would be a good day.

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[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet]

This is how good of a day it was:

Men 40-44 Results

Sort by bike. Amazing. 2nd in group. 12th overall. This has not been my experience in triathlon so far.
Sort by run. Even more amazing. 3rd in group. People were definitely passing me on the run but I guess none of them were in my AG.
Sort by swim and have a nice laugh.

At least this time I got in the water 5 minutes before the start and was acclimated when it mattered. The really alarming thing was how the 66 degree water felt warm compared to standing around in the cold morning air.

Said swim seemed a bit long and I made it longer by sighting badly a couple of times. First I swam way off course between the turnaround buoys. Then I swam to the wrong side of the pier next to the boat ramp and had to make a couple of 90 degree turns to go around it. In my defense I was swimming in a straight line towards the exit arch visible behind it! Probably swam an extra 50-75 meters.

See the course for yourself:

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[Straight out to the orange buoy near center-image, then over to the other buoy on the right way out there, then back to the arch. Hey, the sun was in my eyes.]

Then with about two steps to go before the leaving the water behind, I slipped on algae and fell and did a snow angel in 10 inches of water before getting up and jogging slowly into transition. All together that's enough reason to think I could easily do better if I do this event again. On that note, the hill-climb + road sprint + offroad sprint trio seems sort of appealing as a concept for 2012. I'd certainly get some sighting practice.

Overall results if you want 'em.
Overall Results

Have to be a jerk and say that I beat Scott Tinley!

There's no GPS for the swim leg, because I was a dummy and forgot to push the start button on it as the race started. So it went with me on the swim in my cap for no real reason, except to slow me down a bit more in first transition. It was a pretty slow on overall but this is all in fun right?

Bike track:

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Data tells the story:

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On the first loop there was a lot of traffic and the single track was narrow. If you got to the side of it you were in soft sandy soil and tall grass. I think I passed 3 guys when they toppled over on climbs and I had to swerve around them. There was always someone to chase on the first lap, and it was hard to carry speed down the hills. Once we hit the fire road my roadie training showed itself and I was motoring past people who would have been really tough to pass on the single track.

The only drama was in the water crossing in Camp French. On the pre-ride I did last weekend, there was a way to ride over some rocks on the left and avoid the foot deep water in the middle. This weekend I arrived at speed expecting to see the same thing but there was a fallen branch covering the rocky line. Tried to go around it but drilled a big rock and stopped up short. Got a foot down but took a handlebar end to the thigh. That left a mark.

On lap two the trail was a bit more clear. I was saving it a bit more on the climbs so I'd have some energy left for the run, but letting it fly on the downhills. There was still some free time out there by laying off the brakes more. And I bombed the deepest water in the crossing without incident. Both laps were 28 minutes and change. GPS said lap two was 10 seconds slower.

Run track:

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Data for show and tell:

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Not bad. Had no real feel for how fast the pace was at first. Calf muscles were tight for the first half mile or so as usual. Just worked on picking my feet up as much as possible. Once the legs were loose and breathing had settled down I tried to stretch out the stride whenever I could. The hill at the end hurt and I tried my "I'm still looking for the escalator" joke on three people and only one of them deemed it worth comment.

Overall sub 9:30 pace is pretty good for me with hills at the end of a near two hour effort. All in all the effort level here in this 100 minute event was about the same as the 65 minute sprint in June. Not really sure if I had any such gameplan today but it worked out.

Missed the podium by less than a minute. Will this stick in my mind in future when I'm thinking about transition strategy? Perhaps.

This was the first time camping at an event.

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It was good in spite of my concerns going in that it could be crowded or noisy. It was mostly racers nearby and they were toes-up by 10pm. The last family with kids within earshot was in bed by 10:30. After that it was just me sipping a beverage and tending the fire with a stick.

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That and checking the stars. Nice dark sky around Lake Lopez. Could see tons of stars around the teapot asterism in Sagittarius. Could see different colors in the stars that make up the W of Cassiopeia. Saw three meteors. Wished I'd brought some binocs. Jupiter was by far the brightest thing in the sky and it is fun to check for its moons. The V of Virgo was clearly visible even before it had cleared the treeline.


This guy and his buddies were making noise all night, but I wouldn't say it detracted from the experience.

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And this guy wanted to join the party but a kind soul moved him off to the side of the transition area so he would not get squished. My hand for reference:

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