Race Report : Kinetic Half
This past Saturday I started my race season with the Kinetic Half Iron distance triathlon presented by Setup Events. I had scheduled this triathlon about midway through my training for Challenge Atlantic City as a "check in" to see which elements were working and which areas would need focus for the rest of training. I am glad that I scheduled this race, since it gave me a good sense of my strengths and weaknesses. It also provided the opportunity to practice some of my tactics in a race situation that is at least a long course event. This was my first Setup Events managed race. Setup Events runs a few triathlon series (the Virginia Tri Series, Maryland Tri Series, North Carolina Tri Seris, and others) and also manages the famous Beach to Battleship Triathlon, which is on my bucket-list of triathlons. I have heard good things about them from others in the area and those observations held true for this race. The team did a good job with a vast majority of the management and I felt very supported at the race. There was also a duathlon, aqua bike and relay option for the event. It was a medium-sized field with a cap of 600 for all events at the half distance.
Overall, my race was a success for a "B" race and for the goal of assessing my own progress. It was also a surprise success in that I set a personal record for the half-iron distance by over 15 minutes. I was nervous going into the race simply because I had been sick with a lingering head cold for about two weeks, compounded by the extremely high pollen count. I have become much more sensitive to pollen in the past few years and I am not sure why. I never had allergies growing up in Pennsylvania. Since moving to Maryland 10 years ago (and subsequently moving closer to the Chesapeake in recent years), my struggle with springtime allergies has progressed. I almost bagged the race on Wednesday after a bad health day. In the end, I decided to do the race despite the head congestion and sinus pressure.
Last week, I prepared a formal race plan, consisting of race week and race day activities. Many published coaches and a review of the triathlon literature signaled that this is a common tactic and many coaches actually do formal plans with their athletes. A formal written race plan details the actives of race week and of the race day, including race-centered events and non-race centered events (such as arrival, hotel check in, meal planning, etc). The goal is to think through the days instead of improvising, increasing the risk of forgetting a key piece of equipment or overlooking some other important element. My plan was rather long but I managed to break down race day activities into bullet points of key actions or key goals for each section of the event (Race week, Day Before, Pre-race, Swim, T1, Bike, T2, Run). One of the pitfalls of planning is the tendency to overplay and become too meticulous, creating an unrealistic plan. I tried very much to put down key elements without being too proscriptive to allow for flexibility.
I arrived on Friday evening after a nearly 5 hour trip from Annapolis to Fredricksburg, VA. Normally, the drive is about two hours with normal traffic. When I arrived in Virginia, I-95 was stopped and it took nearly an hour to go 12 miles at one stretch. The bailout routes weren't any better, according to the traffic reports. Nothing special, just normal Friday afternoon volume. Note to self: avoid Virginia on a Friday afternoon. After checking into the hotel, I headed down the road to Lake Anna for packet pick up. At 6pm, I participated in the race meeting to get the details of the course, specifics on the next morning "must-dos", and to ask any questions. I was surprised that only a handful of people were at the meeting. I make it a point to go to race briefings regardless of if it is required or not. You never know what little tidbit you will hear (such as the need for your RUN bib to pick up your chip -- oh how many people were angry they had to walk back to transition to get their bib -- should have read your packet or come to the race meeting…).
Saturday morning I arrived early and got a prime parking spot. This would be good for being able to get back to my car to prep after setting up transition. I was racked on the first row, which is astounding for me since typically I am either in the back (alphabetically) or middle by finish time. The racks were in order of registration and so I was #49. I set up my transition and made sure all bottles were filled. Then I headed back to my car to get ready for the swim. I was able to get in the water before the swim and just headed in to submerge myself and get used to the water. I probably should have taken a swim to the first buoy like everyone else but I decided against it. At the beach finish, the race team had a giant inflatable floppy arm dude as the final sighting element. As I was walking past, a gust of wind bent it in my direction and I got slapped across the face by the inflatable floppy arm guy. Not even in the water and I was already getting beat up.
Swim (48:38) - yikes
The swim was an interesting leg. It was a simple triangular swim in equal thirds, nothing odd. They had orange circular sighting buoys and yellow triangular turn buoys that were easy to see. It was a beach start and I was in the first wave. Typically, I have been in the last wave as the male 20 somethings went last. Here, we went first. Water temperature was 73.2 which is warm for this time of year. The past three years the water temp has been 65 or below for this race. At the start, I let a few seconds pass and then started. I put anti fog on my lenses before the race since I was having a problem in the pool with fogging. I started out and not 100m into the swim, my goggles were fogging. I stopped at a Sheriff's department jet ski to adjust and then tried to keep going. A few more meters down and I couldn't see again. This time they fogged up completely and I had to flip over on my back. Because I couldn't see the first thought was that I wasn't going to even get 200m into this race and I was going to DNF. My second thought was that there was another wave of people coming and I couldn't see so I might actually drown. So, I flailed a little and then headed over to a paddle boarder to hand on for a second. While there I tried to fix my goggles and ended up just spitting in them to coat the inside. Worked like a charm. No more fancy goggle anti fog solutions for me. Another note to self.
After I let the next wave of really fast women pass so I didn't get run over, I went along my way. The rest of the swim was good and I was able to get a good rhythm going. I even drafted off of a pack of people for a while in the final third. Even with my poor time, I am fine with the swum because I know that I had a bad first section. Once I got going, I felt really good. I was surprised at the clear water, for lake water. I couldn't see much but I could at least see my hands and the bubbles coming off of them for each stroke. That was better than other lake swims I have been involved in. There was a medium chop from the winds that continued to pick up as the day went on. I resisted the urge to push in the last few hundred meters since I wanted to calm myself down and make sure that I stayed focused.
T1 (00:05:17)
I took my time in T1 to settle myself and make sure that I got everything I needed. My plan was to eat a Cliff Bar while in T1. The combination of dehydration from the swim and water intake, my stomach would not handle it. Mental note was made that liquid nourishment for T1 makes more sense to avoid the shocking the stomach with solids. The bike mount was on an uphill section which probably provided some good entertainment for the volunteers. I was surprised at how steep it was at the mount line but didn't have any trouble starting out.
Bike (3:06:47)
My goal on the bike was to keep a comfortable and consistent pace. I was not racing for time and with the poor swim, any subconscious time goals would be difficult to make up. The bike was a single loop through country roads on rolling hills. The course was not easy. It was not the hilliest course in the world but there were some good climbs and some interesting roadways. The first half of the course featured pretty bumpy roads and heavy traffic, especially for a race course. Although the police were manning intersections, there were stretches of two-way road where traffic was going in both directions with no shoulder for riders. There were a few places were traffic (which very rarely yielded to the hundreds of bikers) came within inches of us. The second half was mainly newly paved winding road with little traffic. This made for a night and day difference during the race.
I started out easy and kept in line with others around me. I was not able to pass, as many riders were stuck in a long line trying not to get too close to get a drafting penalty but unable to pass. You would have to pass the whole line (8-10 riders) to avoid drafting or blocking but you didn't have the real estate to safely make the move. This made for interesting climbs where the front few would slow up, causing everyone behind to check up, but nobody could pass due to traffic. My plan was just to go with it and focus on gearing and nutrition. There were a few mega pot-holes that would certainly do some damage if you were not paying attention (there things that were mentioned in the race meeting). Nutrition during this part is key as I was refueling from the swim and giving myself a head start for the second half of the bike.
After the longest uphill climb (miles 22-28 were a significant net uphill), I was able to get ahead of many people and cruise on new pavement. I was impressed with how well my bike was able to accelerate and maintain speed on this section. I have a compact crank on my tri bike so I have a smaller top gear than I would otherwise. I tend to run out of gear on significant downhills but I keep the compact for the uphills. There were rolling hills on this section but they were pretty short, and there was a long (but not steep) downhill section that allowed me to sustain at speeds above 25mph with little effort for a few miles of the course. Around mile 40, it began to rain. I had been hoping it would hold off until the run, as riding in the rain is not fun. Luckily, it held off as long as it did. So the last 15 miles or so were pretty wet but not a downpour to make it unsafe. I came into T2 a bit fatigued but not overly drained as I had experienced in the past.
T2 (00:01:30)
My second transition was better than my first but still could be better. All of my gear was wet from the rain but that was ok. Nothing really significant in this 90 seconds of time.
Run (2:04:57)
My goal was to run around 2 hours, which is about 15 min off of my half marathon pace but a good pace after all of the biking. The run course took me by surprise. It was three loops. I was not prepared for how hilly the run course would be. The first mile of the course is up a pretty substantial hill (actually it was more like a mile and a quarter uphill) which did not feel very nice coming off of the bike. I felt much more stiff than normal and I could tell from those around me that I was not alone in that feeling. The course then went downhill for about another mile, around a small campground loop with a steep but shorter hill, back up that hill that you just ran down and then downhill to the finish. The frustrating part was that you had to run both of the long uphills three times. So in all, 6 miles of climbing and 6 miles of flat or downhill. I think part of the mental problem of looped courses is that you know what is coming next. The fact that you had to do the larger climbs again and then again played a little mental game at the end of the day. I will say that the course was very well staffed. There were four aid stations on the run course with two that you hit twice for the out-and-backs. This made for 18 opportunities for aid (water, Heed, flat coke and nutrition) on the 13.1 mile course (more support than a typical road race or other triathlons). There was no reason to be dehydrated. Knowing this now, I probably would not run with my hand bottle for this race if I were to do it again. There was enough water that I did not need to use my bottle and losing the extra weight/hassle would have been good. I am still planing around with keeping or losing the bottle for running.
Overall, the race went well with a total time of 6:07:07. I didn't fare too well in the age group rankings as this was a fast field, but the race served its purposes. Getting the first race kinks out was a good experience and the work for CAC is clear. The glaring weakness is that I need to get myself out in the open water. Now that the weather is warmer and the water temperatures in the Chesapeake have probably surpassed 60, I must take advantage of all of the OWS sessions that I can. My long swims should be open water as I can get more distance covered and I can get used to the chop, brackish water and cloudiness that I will face in AC. I may consider this race next year for my race calendar. It also has a sprint on the next day for a potential change of pace. I do highly recommend this race if you are comfortable with rolling hills on the bike and hills on the run.
Overall, my race was a success for a "B" race and for the goal of assessing my own progress. It was also a surprise success in that I set a personal record for the half-iron distance by over 15 minutes. I was nervous going into the race simply because I had been sick with a lingering head cold for about two weeks, compounded by the extremely high pollen count. I have become much more sensitive to pollen in the past few years and I am not sure why. I never had allergies growing up in Pennsylvania. Since moving to Maryland 10 years ago (and subsequently moving closer to the Chesapeake in recent years), my struggle with springtime allergies has progressed. I almost bagged the race on Wednesday after a bad health day. In the end, I decided to do the race despite the head congestion and sinus pressure.
Last week, I prepared a formal race plan, consisting of race week and race day activities. Many published coaches and a review of the triathlon literature signaled that this is a common tactic and many coaches actually do formal plans with their athletes. A formal written race plan details the actives of race week and of the race day, including race-centered events and non-race centered events (such as arrival, hotel check in, meal planning, etc). The goal is to think through the days instead of improvising, increasing the risk of forgetting a key piece of equipment or overlooking some other important element. My plan was rather long but I managed to break down race day activities into bullet points of key actions or key goals for each section of the event (Race week, Day Before, Pre-race, Swim, T1, Bike, T2, Run). One of the pitfalls of planning is the tendency to overplay and become too meticulous, creating an unrealistic plan. I tried very much to put down key elements without being too proscriptive to allow for flexibility.
I arrived on Friday evening after a nearly 5 hour trip from Annapolis to Fredricksburg, VA. Normally, the drive is about two hours with normal traffic. When I arrived in Virginia, I-95 was stopped and it took nearly an hour to go 12 miles at one stretch. The bailout routes weren't any better, according to the traffic reports. Nothing special, just normal Friday afternoon volume. Note to self: avoid Virginia on a Friday afternoon. After checking into the hotel, I headed down the road to Lake Anna for packet pick up. At 6pm, I participated in the race meeting to get the details of the course, specifics on the next morning "must-dos", and to ask any questions. I was surprised that only a handful of people were at the meeting. I make it a point to go to race briefings regardless of if it is required or not. You never know what little tidbit you will hear (such as the need for your RUN bib to pick up your chip -- oh how many people were angry they had to walk back to transition to get their bib -- should have read your packet or come to the race meeting…).
Saturday morning I arrived early and got a prime parking spot. This would be good for being able to get back to my car to prep after setting up transition. I was racked on the first row, which is astounding for me since typically I am either in the back (alphabetically) or middle by finish time. The racks were in order of registration and so I was #49. I set up my transition and made sure all bottles were filled. Then I headed back to my car to get ready for the swim. I was able to get in the water before the swim and just headed in to submerge myself and get used to the water. I probably should have taken a swim to the first buoy like everyone else but I decided against it. At the beach finish, the race team had a giant inflatable floppy arm dude as the final sighting element. As I was walking past, a gust of wind bent it in my direction and I got slapped across the face by the inflatable floppy arm guy. Not even in the water and I was already getting beat up.
Swim (48:38) - yikes
The swim was an interesting leg. It was a simple triangular swim in equal thirds, nothing odd. They had orange circular sighting buoys and yellow triangular turn buoys that were easy to see. It was a beach start and I was in the first wave. Typically, I have been in the last wave as the male 20 somethings went last. Here, we went first. Water temperature was 73.2 which is warm for this time of year. The past three years the water temp has been 65 or below for this race. At the start, I let a few seconds pass and then started. I put anti fog on my lenses before the race since I was having a problem in the pool with fogging. I started out and not 100m into the swim, my goggles were fogging. I stopped at a Sheriff's department jet ski to adjust and then tried to keep going. A few more meters down and I couldn't see again. This time they fogged up completely and I had to flip over on my back. Because I couldn't see the first thought was that I wasn't going to even get 200m into this race and I was going to DNF. My second thought was that there was another wave of people coming and I couldn't see so I might actually drown. So, I flailed a little and then headed over to a paddle boarder to hand on for a second. While there I tried to fix my goggles and ended up just spitting in them to coat the inside. Worked like a charm. No more fancy goggle anti fog solutions for me. Another note to self.
After I let the next wave of really fast women pass so I didn't get run over, I went along my way. The rest of the swim was good and I was able to get a good rhythm going. I even drafted off of a pack of people for a while in the final third. Even with my poor time, I am fine with the swum because I know that I had a bad first section. Once I got going, I felt really good. I was surprised at the clear water, for lake water. I couldn't see much but I could at least see my hands and the bubbles coming off of them for each stroke. That was better than other lake swims I have been involved in. There was a medium chop from the winds that continued to pick up as the day went on. I resisted the urge to push in the last few hundred meters since I wanted to calm myself down and make sure that I stayed focused.
T1 (00:05:17)
I took my time in T1 to settle myself and make sure that I got everything I needed. My plan was to eat a Cliff Bar while in T1. The combination of dehydration from the swim and water intake, my stomach would not handle it. Mental note was made that liquid nourishment for T1 makes more sense to avoid the shocking the stomach with solids. The bike mount was on an uphill section which probably provided some good entertainment for the volunteers. I was surprised at how steep it was at the mount line but didn't have any trouble starting out.
Bike (3:06:47)
My goal on the bike was to keep a comfortable and consistent pace. I was not racing for time and with the poor swim, any subconscious time goals would be difficult to make up. The bike was a single loop through country roads on rolling hills. The course was not easy. It was not the hilliest course in the world but there were some good climbs and some interesting roadways. The first half of the course featured pretty bumpy roads and heavy traffic, especially for a race course. Although the police were manning intersections, there were stretches of two-way road where traffic was going in both directions with no shoulder for riders. There were a few places were traffic (which very rarely yielded to the hundreds of bikers) came within inches of us. The second half was mainly newly paved winding road with little traffic. This made for a night and day difference during the race.
I started out easy and kept in line with others around me. I was not able to pass, as many riders were stuck in a long line trying not to get too close to get a drafting penalty but unable to pass. You would have to pass the whole line (8-10 riders) to avoid drafting or blocking but you didn't have the real estate to safely make the move. This made for interesting climbs where the front few would slow up, causing everyone behind to check up, but nobody could pass due to traffic. My plan was just to go with it and focus on gearing and nutrition. There were a few mega pot-holes that would certainly do some damage if you were not paying attention (there things that were mentioned in the race meeting). Nutrition during this part is key as I was refueling from the swim and giving myself a head start for the second half of the bike.
After the longest uphill climb (miles 22-28 were a significant net uphill), I was able to get ahead of many people and cruise on new pavement. I was impressed with how well my bike was able to accelerate and maintain speed on this section. I have a compact crank on my tri bike so I have a smaller top gear than I would otherwise. I tend to run out of gear on significant downhills but I keep the compact for the uphills. There were rolling hills on this section but they were pretty short, and there was a long (but not steep) downhill section that allowed me to sustain at speeds above 25mph with little effort for a few miles of the course. Around mile 40, it began to rain. I had been hoping it would hold off until the run, as riding in the rain is not fun. Luckily, it held off as long as it did. So the last 15 miles or so were pretty wet but not a downpour to make it unsafe. I came into T2 a bit fatigued but not overly drained as I had experienced in the past.
T2 (00:01:30)
My second transition was better than my first but still could be better. All of my gear was wet from the rain but that was ok. Nothing really significant in this 90 seconds of time.
Run (2:04:57)
My goal was to run around 2 hours, which is about 15 min off of my half marathon pace but a good pace after all of the biking. The run course took me by surprise. It was three loops. I was not prepared for how hilly the run course would be. The first mile of the course is up a pretty substantial hill (actually it was more like a mile and a quarter uphill) which did not feel very nice coming off of the bike. I felt much more stiff than normal and I could tell from those around me that I was not alone in that feeling. The course then went downhill for about another mile, around a small campground loop with a steep but shorter hill, back up that hill that you just ran down and then downhill to the finish. The frustrating part was that you had to run both of the long uphills three times. So in all, 6 miles of climbing and 6 miles of flat or downhill. I think part of the mental problem of looped courses is that you know what is coming next. The fact that you had to do the larger climbs again and then again played a little mental game at the end of the day. I will say that the course was very well staffed. There were four aid stations on the run course with two that you hit twice for the out-and-backs. This made for 18 opportunities for aid (water, Heed, flat coke and nutrition) on the 13.1 mile course (more support than a typical road race or other triathlons). There was no reason to be dehydrated. Knowing this now, I probably would not run with my hand bottle for this race if I were to do it again. There was enough water that I did not need to use my bottle and losing the extra weight/hassle would have been good. I am still planing around with keeping or losing the bottle for running.
Overall, the race went well with a total time of 6:07:07. I didn't fare too well in the age group rankings as this was a fast field, but the race served its purposes. Getting the first race kinks out was a good experience and the work for CAC is clear. The glaring weakness is that I need to get myself out in the open water. Now that the weather is warmer and the water temperatures in the Chesapeake have probably surpassed 60, I must take advantage of all of the OWS sessions that I can. My long swims should be open water as I can get more distance covered and I can get used to the chop, brackish water and cloudiness that I will face in AC. I may consider this race next year for my race calendar. It also has a sprint on the next day for a potential change of pace. I do highly recommend this race if you are comfortable with rolling hills on the bike and hills on the run.
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