Race Report: Rev 3 Williamsburg Sprint

I decided to do the race since I was going to be there anyway.  My wife was doing the Olympic distance race and it was her goal race for the season.  The sprint was a day before the Olympic/Half courses so I participated that day so I could be Sherpa on race day for her.

Race Week

This was a two-fold trip.  On one hand, we were heading up to do the race.  On the other, we visited family in Maryland.  Family visits are pretty full so it was a pretty busy time checking all of the visit boxes while in the area.  Also, driving from Florida is much worse as I get older.  Even broken up, it is still such a drain on your body and mind. 

We met two friends there and stayed at the historic Powhatan Resort.  This is a very nice place with town-home style rentals available.  It reminded me of a colonial DVC, complete with salespeople trying to sell us vacation shares.  It was nice to have a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a full living room in our suite.  We were able to go to the local Harris Teeter (miss these down South!) and get some groceries for our weekend stay.  

Race Day 

Morning of the race was uneventful.  Since the race started early (6:30am), I got up and went right to the venue.  Once there, it was only a short wait until we were ready to go.  Enough time to put on a sharkhead.  Sometimes you have to wake up and say "today I'm going to be a shark". 

Swim (23:04)

The swim was a two leg triangle around the tip of a peninsula at the park.  We started downriver at a fishing pier and swam along shore toward a fork in the river.  Then we turned right toward the park's boat ramp.  For a sprint, the 0.7 mile swim was longer than typical short distances.  There is no way to really do a shorter swim since a circle would not be possible with current.

Since the river is a tidal river, the current was heading upriver when we started.  Unfortunately, the wind was headed in the opposite direction so there was a bit of a surface chop against us.  Altogether, it was a bit of an assist in the swim but the waves did provide a challenge.  I was certainly not trained for the distance as I had assumed a 400-500 meter swim (quarter to half mile) until about a week before the event.  I knew I'd make it through a longer swim but this swim was 1400 on my Garmin, so almost the Olympic.  The distance did make me a bit more tired when I got out of the water.  In the end, I managed 1:44/100 yards which is not too bad. 

T1 (3:30)

The run to T1 was more than a quarter mile.  We needed to run from the boat ramp back to where we started the swim. Originally the course was reversed so we came out right at transition but due to the tide, they reversed the course.  

Bike (46:55)

The bike is a simple out and back along the John Tyler Highway.  This includes a short climb (one each way) across the Chicahominy River bridge.  The road is relatively flat but still has ups and downs compared to our coastline rides in Florida.  The road surface was average with some rougher sections but also some very smooth tarmac.  

My goal was to hit hard but also keep it reasonable so I could run afterwards.  I tried to keep my power close to 200 watts.  In the end, I had a normalized power of 188 watts over the course, 19.6 mph.  That's a bit slow but I was pretty cooked from the swim.  There was a crosswind during most of the course so my speed was a little below what I had hoped for.  It was not crowded on the course for the race.  I had plenty of space to myself and the traffic was not that bad.  There were cars on the road (two lane road with cyclist going both ways).  However, they were not misbehaving during the race. 

T2 (1:26)

Uneventful T2.  Drop the bike, pick up the shoes. 

Run (23:55)

The run is also an out and back along the same road, except on the adjacent running/biking trail.  The trail is very nice but once again, you had to scale the same river bridge twice.  I was appreciated some of the tree cover and nice pavement on the trail.  

I just could not get my legs to move on this run.  I didn't feel like the climbing hurt my form as I probably wouldn't have had any form regardless.  My body had one speed and it wouldn't go any faster.  I am using my time here from my Garmin because official race time has me at 19:00.  I did not run 19 as that would be a PR at that distance.  I think the timing mats were not quite right on that one.  In the end, 24 minutes isn't a terrible time but it is the slowest 5k I've run in a very long time (in or out of triathlon).  

Overall (1:38:51)

This wasn't my best showing but I did what I could.  Honestly, I was fried from the swim and never really recovered.  I hadn't trained for that long of a swim and I just put myself in a deficit for the whole race.  That said, it was a fun time with friends in Williamsburg.  I was happy that we went to the race as it was the last year.  It will officially become IRONMAN 70.3 Virginia next year.  The sprint and Olympic are gone.  So we closed out this race.  Maybe I'll revisit in the future as a 70.3 since the weather is usually nice and the area is very accessible.