Tri the Pee Dee Race Report

Last weekend, July 14th specifically, was the Tri the Pee Dee sprint race just outside of Florence, SC.  It is a neat little race to do for fun, but it is certainly one that I will not try to really compete in next year.  It is held at Emerald Lake, which is a tiny ski pond just west of Florence.  The lake is very shallow, being about fifteen feet at it’s deepest, and the deepest part along the swim course is only about seven feet.  With that in mind, and the fact that the race occurs in the middle of the summer, the water temps are quite comfortable!  The lake actually has a very blue-green appearance, and the day before the race Caroline and I went for quick swim, which was great for getting the kinks out from driving.  The bike course is pretty much pancake flat, really you could sit on your trainer for an hour and get a perfect workout to do this race.  The bike course does have one unique aspect, however: the first and last mile are on dirt road.  They had it scraped just before the race, so a lot of the loose stuff was pushed off to the side, but that only helped the first few bikes through.  By the time I got onto the bike course (not too far behind everybody) there were loose sand ruts where the narrow bicycle tires had gouged through the sand.  It actually forced me off my bike one time, and I actually passed two people while running my bike along the sand!  The run is certainly the place to make up time on this course, as it is a three loop course which runs along the perimeter of the lake.  This made the race very enjoyable for spectators, which was good since it was Caroline’s first time going to a race with me.

I had a good swim, doing the 700 meters in 12:55, which is an acceptable pace for me.  I had been avoiding the pool for a while before this race as my back had been bothering me a bit.  It still irritates me some, just inside my right shoulder blade, and I can’t figure out what is causing it.  Fortunately it seems that swimming does NOT cause this pain, as I have been doing some consistent pool swims since the race with no ill effects.  I got out of the water and then had a really slow T1, spending 1:47 getting the big stuff knocked off my feet to avoid blisters and getting all of my gear on.  I swear I don’t wear that much!

The bike was, of course, horrible for the first mile.  I turned my computer on after the first half-mile, which was the worst section, and for the paved portion I averaged about 22 mph.  Including the dirt, however, brought my average pace down to 19.4 mph for a total time of 47:53 for the 15 mile bike.  All through the course I was riding up to people who had dirt and road rash down their sides where they had fallen on the dirt portion of the road.  I did not fall, but it took me a bit to get my head back into racing before I started really hammering again, I can only imagine how much falling must mess with your mental focus.  A friend actually had to lay his bike down to avoid running over a girl who fell right in front of him, and he ended up losing a chunk of skin out of his achilles area.  Somebody should tell Jeromy that that first mile is a dirt road.  Next year, I am bringing the mountain bike, lol!  No, seriously.

T2 took me 1:00 flat, which is about my average.  Actually both of my transitions were about my average, which I am fine with for now.  I have other places that I can make up much more than the minute and a half I lose in transition.  I came out of the run flying, ready to make up some time.  I heard that my friend Anthony was just finishing his first lap when I came out of the TA and he tried to catch up to run with me, but I was in full burst mode and he could not catch up!  My first mile was a 6:30, then I held about a 7 minute pace after that for a total time of 21:28 in the 3.1 mile run.  The average mile pace was a 6:55.

Total time was 1:25:00, which was enough for third place in my age group at this event!  It was nice to get to stand up on the podium, finally!  I know that a lot of the really stiff competition was not there, given the nature of this race, but it was definitely a confidence boost to place in the top three.  I feel really solid in my run, although I am looking forward to doing some run specific training this winter.  I cut more than a minute per mile off of my time over last winter, and had the injury which slowed me down a little.  I would love to chop my sprint run time down to under a 6 minute mile, my olympic time down to a 7 minute mile, and my half iron down to an 8 minute mile.  That would be pulling one minute per mile off of each average over this year.  If I could do that, my sprint run would be on par with the top runners, my olympic run would be 1 minute per mile short, and my half-iron would be just less than two minutes from the top runners at last year’s event.  I have not yet run a 6 minute mile, but I feel that I could.