Pictures of me, taken by Kerry Yndestad, at Yndecam.
As usual, picture of scenery and stuff taken by me
First place went to the overall winner, who was about 15 minutes (!) faster than me. It was not my fastest race of the year. Actually, it was very average. My swim was slightly, very slightly faster, than my average race pace, my bike was slightly faster than my average race pace for the year, and my run pace was my average for the year. I was much faster at Graniteman Big Lake two weeks, where I was 7th out of 28. I would say that the Lake Marion course is a little more difficult than Big Lake. Lake Marion is a shorter swim, longer bike, same run distance, but maybe a little more challenging.
I started my morning as usual, usual breakfast, usual coffee and donut on the way. Water and Gatorade before the race. I was there early, as usual, but not so early that I was one of the first in transition. Even though I was not one of the first, I think I got one of the best spots. The racks were setup up long, so there was not a lot of end spots, where I like to be. All the end spots were taken, except for the one nearest the run entrance, almost right in front. It was nearly perfect for me. I loved the spot.
There were a lot of people I know doing this race, so I did a little more chatting beforehand, which was really nice. Also, the Sprint waves went later than Olympic, so there was a bit of a longer wait.
On Tuesday night, I discovered I had a busted a cleat on my left shoe. I road with the busted cleat at Tuesday Night Time Trials, and it went ok. I thought I fixed it. Stupidly, I thought I fixed it without checking to see if the shoe would clip in. When I got setup in transition, I decide to take the bike out and discovered the cleat still did not work correctly. I went over to the guys who were wrenching, Valley View Bikes (I think), and got a screw driver. Only to discover part of the cleat that holds the shoe onto the cleat was missing. The back portion was there but the front was gone. I flipped the back to the front and that seemed to work ok. At least to race with. It did work ok. My foot slipped once, but not bad. I don't think it hurt my speed too badly.
So, as I have tried to do the last two races, I went out aggressively on the swim. I think it worked well. I came out 3rd in my AG. Out of the water I got passed by Steve Stenzel (if you haven't checked out his blog, go here http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com he is a much better writer, picture taker, and runner than I am) on the long run to the transition. We are not in the same AG, so I was not worried about it, but I thought we biked about the same pace, so when I saw him leaving transition before me I thought he would either keep the gap on me, or I would barely catch him on the bike. If you compare us running, his slowest day to my fastest day, he probably outruns me by about 5-6 minutes. Anyway, I got in and out of transition without issue.
There was a lot more wind on the bike than I thought there would be. It seemed like a constant headwind. If the wind was light, or not at all, it would be a fast bike course. No serious climbs, that I can remember. I had no issues with my pedal.
I came off the bike feeling ok. Not great. I got out of T2, pretty quick. Another one under a minute. I started off fast, I had no idea what the run was like. It starts off flat to a little downhill, and then around a mile has a long and painful uphill, then it flattens briefly, and then a short and very steep uphill near the turnaround, then downhill most of the way back. The morning temp started off pleasant, but got hot by the time I ran. This was one of the few "hot" runs of the year. It hurt more than Big Lake, and was slower. I think the wind on the bike, and my desire to really crank it out, wore out my legs pretty good.
When it was over, I got my final time split and figured I would not finish on the podium. I waited for the results to post, just in case. I was glad I waited, because I did get a nice 2nd place metal for my effort. I also spent some more time chatting with people I don't see too often at races.
I would do this race again. Packet pick-up was nice and easy on race day. I like the course, challenging run. Good job with food and water. I think I might try the Olympic next year, depending on my schedule, otherwise I would do the sprint again. Weather was great. All-in-all it was a great day.
2013 Lake Marion Sprint Triathlon Results
Swim (440 yds) = 7:15 (1:39/100yds)
T1 = 2:50
Bike (17.3mi) = 47:34 (21.8 MPH)
T2 = 0:49
Run (3.1mi, heard a rumor it was actually 3.2) = 25:06 (8:06/mi)
Total = 1:23:22
Overall = 23/282
AG = 2/27 (First podium of the year, last time I had one was 2011)
Overall Pace = 4:03/mi
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