Sunday, July 12, 2020

Finally a race!!!!! STTC Race 2:

Way back in March I had huge goals and some big races to look forward to, but as the Covid-19 virus change the world for all of us most of my "A" races had gotten canceled or postponed. However July 1st that changed a bit. Mark Wilson, coach and race director, sent out an email stating that the state and the town were at a point and agreeable to allowing us to race but with restriction. Things like size of race, face coverings, no day of sign up and a few more but.... we were racing!


So there we were July 1st and for about 60 of us it was our first sprint triathlon of the season, all trained well and just waiting for a race. We were told by Mark that this was the 2nd triathlon in the country this year.. I did not research that but seems right. The tempture was about 80 degrees at 5:30 in the evening. Since I knew it was going to be hot I put the Hammer Nutrition Liquid Endurance to the test along with my normal serving of Hammer Nutrition Sustained Energy. 

We all had to keep proper social distancing during packet pick up, along with wearing of a mask until we were in transition. A side effect of Covid for us was more room in transition, we had to keep a bikes width and flip flop bikes to keep proper distance. Of course it was great to see the normal racers, but we also had a decent amount of new folks. 

After getting my transition area all set up I put on my wet suit and made my way to the water... I took advantage of being early and swam the course to try to ease the nurves a bit. Though I am well trained, the swim and T1 are by far my weakest area's. Once the nerves calmed down I was ready to race. Mark had a quick race meeting and mentioned the race sponsors (Hammer is one).  after Mark took count as we entered the water we had a countdown then the first race start of the year was underway.

The swim was pretty basic, straight out, around a boat and back, but I did struggle a bit due to the angle of the sun and glare on the water... I kept I pretty decent pace and found a grove quickly and like a flash I was to the turn-around. Coming back I could not keep straight for the life of me, I lost time going left and right. Before long I was at the beach and stripping off my wet suit getting ready for T1. 



T1 wasn’t bad with the extra room, and surprisingly there were a lot of bikes left so my swim wasn’t too bad. I got out of there and got to the bike mounting area, clipped in and started to hammer the pedals to make some time on the leaders. I have raced on practiced on this course so many times I almost know it like the back of my hand. Between the first 2 turns ( less than half mile) I had already passed 2 people, a gentle hill starts after 2nd turn and I crushed it. Now we are on a long straight road with some decent rolling climbs, I was able to catch a few more folks before the next left turn. On this turn we are greeted with a huge downhill. I mashed the pedals to try and gain more speed and with a blink I was at the bottom and just before the turn I over took another spot, still not sure where I was in the over all, just knew I had to keep passing people. The next section is kind of like a "S" curve for about a 1/4 mile and it spills us out on ton a main road with about a 3 mile climb. I just shifted to a sustainable gear and put my head down and just worked, I can’t even tell you how many folks I passed but most of them were pretty gased. As I passed a guy I know wearing his Base Nutrition kit I made sure to sit up and pedal harder and take his soul...lol  

After a long bit of climbing the road is a slight downhill through town and then another left turn for 1 block and then the final turn to the transition area. As I dismounted and made my way to put bike away I started to count bikes, came up with 14 or 15. I had a great T2 and was out in a flash. This is only a 2 time run so I had my work cut out for me. About 1/2 mile in folks were coming back towards the finish I counted the ones heading back until I got to the turnaround myself, I was in 12th spot. Over the next mile I was able to pick off enough to make a 9th place finish and won my age group. I later found that I was only 1 min off my PR on that course. The finish line was a bit barer due to the Covid rules. We were not able to use podium boxes either, we just stood in place and raised out hand as our names were called. 



After all is said and done I was pretty happy with this race and how it unfolded, was great knocking off the racing rust. I am sure the trial of Hammer Liquid Endurance gave me the edge I needed late in the race

Fuel:
-1 Hammer gel pre-race, one on the bike
-Hammer Sustained Energy and water in water bottles
-Hammer Race Day Boost and Hammer Liquid Endurance (pre load leading up to race)
-Anti-Fatique Caps and Endurance Ammo's pre race
-Hammer Recoverite after the race

Gear:
-Suunto 9 watch
-Ventum Z tri bike
-Hammer water bottles
-Hammer tri kit
-Garneau tri bike shoes
-Hoka OneOne Claytons
-S-Works helmet
-Tifosi glasses
-Stages Dash M50 bike computer

-Blue Seventy wet suit

Photo Credit: Mike Frame, enclosed photos were purchased by me for use.