This past Sunday I kicked of my triathlon racing season with an Olympic triathlon outside of Columbus Ohio. It was the Deer Creek State Park Triathlon put on by HFP Racing. Overall I was really impressed with how the whole race was run from sign up to packet pick up to race morning. Columbus is about 3 hours away from Pittsburgh which a little bit longer of a drive than I like to make for an Olympic triathlon but most of the local races are on weekends I have wedding or I’m out of town. Plus I figured racing in Ohio would be good practice for taking on Ohio 70.3 in a month and a half.
My goals for race day were to finish under 3 hours and have a strong performance on the bike. I’ve been doing a lot of strength training in the off season and I was really hoping to see that power pay off on the bike course. My expectations for my swim was to go sub 30 minutes, which is generally achievable for me, I feel like putting in the extra time to be a top swimming really only cuts a few minutes off my overall swim time so I haven’t spent much effort there. For the run I took most of the winter off from running and my long run now is only 5-6 miles so I knew I wasn’t in awesome running shape- hoping to start doing some speed workouts to pick up my pace.
Per usual my husband was with me on race morning. We left Pittsburgh Saturday am, stopped for lunch at Alchemy once we got to Columbus and then headed off to packet pick up. HFP was offering a $35 tune up on site during packet pick up so I was sure to take advantage of that since no professional has inspected my bike in almost a year and I tend to bang it around traveling and such. Also I have basically zero knowledge of bike maintenance. Pat and I checked out the course, got my packet, bike inspection completed and headed off for our hotel about 30 minutes away. The race takes place in middle of nowheresville Ohio so the nearest hotel was about 30 minutes away, which was fine since the race was small and transition was open until 7:30.
After checking into the hotel and relaxing for a bit we set off for dinner. I didn’t have the energy to figure out a fun place to eat or go into the city so we settled for Olive Garden. I haven’t been to Olive Garden in years and I was actually pleasantly surprised. I had salad, a couple breadsticks, and ate about half of my pasta dinner (portions were enormous) before tapping out. I had cereal, a bagel breakfast sandwich, and a smoothie earlier in the day so I felt that I had fueled up adequately. We ran into Dicks for some Gels and Target for cereal/milk and water for the next morning and then headed back to the hotel. The room had a hot tub so Pat got in and I soaked my feet followed by a few episodes of Sex and the City and an early bed time.
I slept well and got up at 5:00am for race day, ready to go! We arrived around 7:00, I got body marked, set up in transition, and participated in a group prayer before heading down to the beach for the race start.
Luckily the race was wet suit legal (not sure of the exact temp but water felt really nice). The lake was incredibly shallow and you can see a few women ahead of me running/walking in the water while I immediately started swimming. I was always taught that swimming is faster and less energy than running through water and sure enough I immediately passed these women. The lake water was mostly calm and was two loops. The swim went off 3 people at time so it was hard to tell how I was doing overall during the first loop. The second loop I ended up passing a ton of people (most likely people who started out too fast and gassed out) so I felt pretty good. I was wearing my new Garmin watch for the first time racing and did stop to note my time at the halfway mark which was 14:00 minutes. I felt like I could easily keep up my current pace to finish strong. I finished in the top third of the women completing the Olympic course so I was overall pleased with my time.
Swim 1500m: 28:00
Quick shout out to the best husband ever for being an amazing Sherpa and making sure I was set for race day and taking all these great pics. My race basically took up his whole weekend which I know is the not the ideal way most people like to spend their weekends and I so appreciate this. One of my friends actually said to me Friday that she couldn’t believe Pat comes to all my races and how bored he must be because she rarely goes to any of her spouses races. I felt this was a fair point and of course I realize how lucky I am but suggested to Pat that in the future maybe he only needs to come to 3 races a year and the rest I will fly solo or with friends/family. Would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this… Pat has never complained or anything like that but sometimes I feel bad because this took up the only free weekend he has had in weeks.
Anyways back to the race… bike time!!! I took my typical long time in transition (although I should note I had to run up a HUGE hill out of the water which added about 1:30 to my overall time) and then hopped on my bike and pedaled out of the park. The first part of the out and back course involves a few hills…. the first down hill something sounded and felt off with my bike. I quickly realized my front brakes weren’t working! Somehow they must have become misaligned but when I braked with my left hand (the front tire) it wasn’t clamping down. I knew the first part of the course were hills so I figured I should be on the safe side and try to fix this issue. I begrudgingly hopped off my bike very anxious and frustrated and attempted to fix the issue, unfortunately I think I needed a tool to tighten it so after a couple minutes I decided to risk it since I still had my rear brakes and the course was mostly flat. I felt like my front tire was rattling a bit so I just decided I would take it easy and not push it.
This was pretty upsetting because I really wanted to push it hard and see what I could do on the bike. I was passed by a handful of people when I had stopped and another handful taking it really slow the first few miles. After a few miles without any issues I decided I was going to push it and try to make up the time I had lost. Around mile 10 I got into a grove and slowly starting passing all the people that had passed me. In the past I rarely pass anyone on the bike because I’m not a strong biker but I was hoping all that strength training over the winter that had built up my glues and legs would pay off and I really think it did.
My 5 mile splits were:
Miles 1-5 19:54
Miles 6-10 18:26
Miles 11-15 16:36
Miles 16-20 14:48
Miles 21-25 15:30
Since it was an out and pack you can really tell how much slower I had started out in the beginning and how I was able to pick up the race the second half of the race. Pat surprised me by coming out further on the bike course and catching me during the last couple miles. You can see the dam in the pic below and the people running across it which was part of the run course, more on that in a minute. I was really pleased with my bike finish and battling back after having to stop and lose time as well as momentum. I think if I didn’t have any issues I could’ve gone sub 1:20.
Bike 25 miles: 1:25 (17.5mph pace)
Now it’s time to run! Running is typically my biggest strength of the triathlon since I’m a runner but I will say this is where temp and heat plays the biggest factor. On the bike I usually don’t realize how hot it is since I’m getting a breeze. Once I’m off the bike I start to feel my skin burning and might feel slightly more tired. My race goal for the run is typically to hit around 9 minute miles and finish in 55:00-56:00. Spoiler alert- that did not happen on Sunday. I’m still trying to figure out why the run felt so hard but I definitely didn’t feel great and struggled a bit.
The out and back bike course starts off by running out of the park from transition. My transition time was decent this time especially considering I changed my socks (OMG do this- it feels amazing to put on fresh socks after the bike!). The first mile of any triathlon I typically just tell myself to put one foot in front of the other… your legs are really like jello so my goal is just to be moving. I like to try to up the pace in the second mile and hit around 9:00 into the third mile.
The first mile of this course is rough, you run across the grass covered hill of the Deer Creek dam which is bit too cross country to me. As you can see the grass isn’t super short and it’s definitely a difference from the pavement. I don’t have bike splits because I accidentally hit my watch during the first mile which signaled it to finish the triathlon. I wasn’t sure how to undo it and I’m new to using this watch so I just hit a button to give me an idea of my current pace. Miles were marked so I used that as a gauge for my speed. I did pick up the pace for miles 2,3, and 4 but by mile 5 I was definitely feeling the heat and slowing down big time. Mile 6 I willed myself to get through and picked it up a big once I was back on the pavement and even passed some one a quarter mile to the finish. I finished strong but I knew my run time wasn’t great.
10k/6.2 Mile Run: 58: 36 (9:27 min/mile pace)
I finished with a smile and quickly started refueling. I think I may have under fueled on the bike and run, and lacked enough water. Dealing with the bike issues distracted me and consumed about half the fuel I had planned to consume. On the run I probably should’ve had a gel in the beginning but just grabbed some Gatorade and water at each fueling station. I’m usually pretty OCD on my fueling and find that I’m in the minority of stopping at every station for any race I ever do. I didn’t feel like I was bonking on the run I just felt really hot. Which it was a hot and humid day, not atypical weather for June though. It was sunnier than the weather was supposed to beand I had forgotten suntan lotion and got burnt pretty bad so perhaps that was why I felt so drained, who knows.
Since it was a small race (I think around 150 people?) I learned I had finished third in my age group. Woo! The first and second place winners had finished about 15 minutes ahead of my so I didn’t have a prayer of catching up with them. I got my medal, got a quick post race massage, and then spoke with the gentleman who had tuned up my bike the previous day. He inspected it again and made a few adjustments, fixing my front brake. We are still not sure what happened there but I fault myself- always, always, always take your bike for a quick spin before racking it in transition!!! Lesson learned. Overall I really enjoyed the course and will likely race with HFP racing again, maybe even coming back to Deer Creek next year . They do several races throughout the Ohio region during the summer. I will definitely keep them in mind for next season. For now my sights are set on Ohio 70.3 and amping up my training. I feel good overall where I am right now but want to be able to PR the course so I need to start pushing my paces a bit, especially on the run. Any local friends that want to go for a ride this summer, reach out! I’m always looking for new bike buddies!
What races do you have planned this summer?? Would you ever do a triathlon???
