The last two weekends I have done a sprint triathlon, finishing 7th both times. What are the odd of that? The Stoneman sprint played to my liking, I just wish I could swim.
I showed up to the Stoneman about 6:45. I thought that was more than enough time. By the time I walked my bike to the transition and found my rack, it was almost full. I felt myself spinning around, none of the other racks were this full. The sprint doesn’t go off for another hour and fifteen minutes?
I was able to find enough room and organize my gear. I then headed out for a run.
On the road I caught up with Eric Sommer, the transition king. I asked him about wearing my Tri Club jersey for the swim. He said to definitely wear it, or don’t wear one at all. That cleared my mind, now I just needed to try it out before the race.
I went back to the transition after my warm up. I neatly placed my Zoot shoes and my scrunched up socks. I had gotten blister the week before at Evergreen Lake, but was still not convinced on wearing socks.
I grabbed my swim cap and goggles and headed to the boat launch.
The race had started for the Iron Abe, they had to swim 9/10 of a mile. I looked out at all the buoys, damn that is a long way. I am glad I signed up for the sprint.
Once all the Iron Abe participants were gone they opened the water up for practice. I went out for a short swim. It is always that first hundred feet that kills me. I got my stroke down, and even did a little back floating, just for practice… When I got out, whooo, my shoulders were stiff. I am so glad I was able to get that out of the way. I was now ready.
My plan was to start in the front of the heat. I thought I might not get as beat up as I did the previous week. The gun sounded (maybe a horn or maybe just “go”, I don’t really remember) and we were off. I took a couple of blows to the arms and legs but I put my head down and swam.
It seemed like an eternity out to the turn around. I would take a site and put my head back down. I stayed calm and took it nice and easy. The turn around came and I could only think, hey I can do this! My head stayed down and my stroke was there.
I exited the water with a time of 11:23. Not a Springfield record by any means. But I took 2 minutes off my time from last weekend and even a good 20 seconds from last year. I must be doing something right.
I ran into T1, grabbed my helmet, skipped the socks, and ran out with my bike. I got past the mounting line, placed my foot in my left shoe and with a hop and a skip I rode away.
I quickly got up to speed and settled in. I love the TT bike, it is like a Lazy Boy recliner. If I could have only closed my eyes for and extended period of time.
But before I knew it, there were some turns and some hills. I was able to see all my competition after they hit the turn around. I looked to be in a pretty good place.
On my return, about 100 yard from the transition, I took my feet out and road in, on top of my shoes. I made a running dismount and headed into T2.
Ok, where is my rack? I started looking a the numbers on the paper plates hung on the outside of the rack. I kept thinking of the balloon idea to mark my spot (maybe next time.) Oh, here it is.
I hung up my bike, took off my helmet. Ok shoes. I started to put my right foot in, my leg didn’t want to bend, I did some sort of half kneel, and got it in. Left foot. Grab hat. Grab race belt, water bottle. Run!
I ran up the hill out of the transition area. My legs felt surprisingly good. I guess the 12 mile bike wasn’t as tough as last weeks 40k. I made it to the first mile marker. 6:50. Not bad, but I needed to get that down. A couple of guys passed me. One of them had a 38 on his calf. He was in my age group, damn it! He flew by me. I needed to pick up the pace, if I wanted to stay in contention.
After the turn around I was looking for the second mile marker. I never saw it. But before I knew it, I was on Lindsay Bridge, the home stretch. I could hear all the people yelling. I put everything I had left into it. I rounded the corner to the finish, and sprinted (or at least it felt like it.) I crossed the finish in 1:02:52. Good enough for 7th overall, and 2nd in my age group.
Now where is that beer I so desperately earned?
Thanks for the Sam Adams, Bill Winberg! Thanks Tom K, and Jason for taking all the great photos!
