The W. Finally. As Lee, the lifeguard at my pool said, "You've been knocking on that door for a while now, it's good to get through it!"
Recap of that win...
The Manassas Mini Tri, like the other super sprints I've been racing this season, is a short swim at 250 yards in the pool, a 4 mile bike and 1.5 mile run. It's red line the entire time with no room for error in each discipline or transitions. Everything must be fluid. Races here are won and lost by seconds. Last year, I placed 4th on this same course missing 3rd by 12 seconds and separated from first by 40 seconds.
With a start time of 7:15, I rolled into the parking lot by 6:10. Transition placement is first come, first serve and I try to be as close to the bike in/out as possible. I setup my transition area, talked with some younger kids about the bike, racing, and made my way to packet pickup. With about 20 minutes to start, I was able to walk transition a few times to know my lines for in and out.
Pre-race meeting was standard except for the DJ stopping the "Star Spangled Banner" about one verse in. No matter, the crowd of 200 participants, staff, and volunteers kept singing away without musical accompaniment. It was awesome. I may have wept. 'Merica.
Time trial swim starts are always interesting. For this 250 yards, I seeded myself at 4 minutes. I was 16 people back, with each person going off every 5 seconds. There were a few ::cough::too many::cough:: people that were nowhere near swimming a 4 minute 250 yd. Whatever. As the race director said at the pre-race meeting, "you can swim over, under, or around anyone". So I did. After I got the "GO" I sprinted the first 25 caught my 5 second man, hit the wall and kept hammering. I passed 10 people in the swim, easily. I hit the 4th fastest (3rd fastest male) swim time for the day. Out of the water, I quickly moved off the pool deck and once outside sprinted for my bike rack.
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. 56 second T1 down and onto the bike. I'd changed over to a new tri-specific shoe. These were much easier and comfortable post swim to get into and start cranking on the bike. eBay steal at $10 for the Specialized Carbon Tri Vent shoe and they only needed $5 replacement parts to make them 100% again. Again, a steal.
I'd also spoke with Chris at Bike Doctor Waldorf on lowering my front end position. This was the first race in the position and it was amazing. That guy can do wonders even just over the phone. I held a 24 mph on the flats and ended up with the fastest bike split for the day. The Manassas bike course has around 5 180 degree turns with even more 90 degree turns. It's difficult to hold a top speed for long, but it's a fun course! Riding the 180's properly and not losing speed is a key. As they teach in cyclocross racing, ride the tape to apex to tape on each turn. I passed the remaining early and stronger swimmers by the 1st mile and didn't look back. Strava link:
http://www.strava.com/activities/151004705/analysis
I moved into T2 with a full sprint, bobbled the re-rack a bit losing a few seconds, but remained calm and pressed on. Right into my shoes and grabbing my race belt, I was off onto the run. From reading what ITU professionals do and in my traning I've incorporated going to a full sprint right off the bat. This destroys that heavy leg feeling and gets the blood moving to run muscles sooner. Note: This works for me and it works for me at short distances, I wouldn't use this tactic a anything longer than an Olympic. With the bobble, my T2 time was at 52 seconds. It's usually around 25 seconds.
The run was as smooth as I could make it. I had a relay team leave just in front of me, so I used her as my pace for the first half of the run. Chase that rabbit. By the .75 mile mark, the top female gained on me, but she was an early swimmer and I knew I had 80 seconds on her at least. She was a fast runner, ending the day with the fastest run time overall. She and I crossed the finish line within steps of each other. I was able to maintain a 6:20 pace. Wheeew. I looked at the clock and figured I was around 27:45. I waited around the finish line for the next few people to cross. The next male racer was about a 2 minutes back. I had a feeling I took the win, but wasn't 100%.
I found out later when the results were posted. Happiest. Guy. In. The. World.
