Smith Point Race Report

Swim: My swim could not have gone any better. The swim started out in the water which made things better because it wasn't a mad sprint from the beach. I found myself at the front of the starting line because my friend Louie was there and I started getting a little nervous when I looked behind me and dozens of people were lining up. But I figured why not I'll just go hard to start and find some open water. Which is exactly what I did heading over to the right of the course so I could stay away from the pack. This was the best decision I could have made because I had nice clean water the entire swim and I only bumped into people right at the start. I swam at my pace and kept myself calm throughout the swim. Making the last turn and heading towards the swim exit I saw people getting up and walking in from 20 yards out, but I kept going right until the end and then got up to high knee out of the water. I felt great heading into transition and quickly got out of my wetsuit, into my bike shoes and headed for the bike exit.

Bike: The bike course overall was nice and flat with a slight incline going over and coming back on the bridge and a few short but steep inclines out on the course. I was able to get into a groove right away and keep a high pace. My legs felt great and my mind felt great, I knew I would be able to power through the course at high speeds. A little before the halfway point I passed Louie who had a few minutes on me. This was the same thing that happened when we raced in June and he was able to quickly catch me on the run, but I was going to do everything I could to prevent that this time.

Run: I headed into transition and was out in 40 seconds onto the 5k run course. I felt decent at the start of the run and knew I had to give my legs some time to get going. Unfortunately I left my watch at home so I wasn't too sure how fast or slow my pace was. But I hit the halfway point and Louie hadn't passed me so I knew I was keeping up a pretty good pace. I still felt strong but with a little more than a mile left Louie passed me. I headed over the bridge and down the other side prepared to turn left into the parking lot for the finish but realized the course kept going to a different entrance of the parking lot. This was a brain buster because I was ready to start picking it up for the finish line only to realize I still had a good distance left. But I pushed through and made my way to the finishing straight. With around 100 meters to go someone passed me and as I quickly glanced down at the back of his leg I saw 23 (his age) and I wasn't going to let someone from my age group pass me right at the end. I was able to somehow find a final kick in my legs and sprinted as hard as I could to pass him right before the line. (I found out right after the finish as we congratulated each other that it actually said 33 on his leg!) My run time ended up being 4:30 minutes faster than my last race which was a huge success!

In my short triathlon career, this was easily my best race. I went hard and fast throughout and didn't swim, bike, or run into any problems. Louie beat me by over 5 minutes when we raced in June and this weekend he only beat me by 42 seconds. My 5k time was 10x better than last time, and my bike and swim were solid and consistent. I can also tell there is still a lot of room for improvement for next year. Now it's time to increase my training over the next 5 weeks to prepare for my first olympic race in September!

Smith Point Triathlon: 500 meters/12.4 miles/3.1 miles

Swim: 7:21

T1: 1:19

Bike: 39:11

T2: 0:40

Run: 25:12

Total Time: 1:13:40