Jamestown International Triathlon 2016 Race Report

VTSMTS Jamestown International Triathlon is the place to go when you want to PR your International race distances (1500m Swim; 40K Bike; 10K Run)! That is unless the heat out side has raised the water temperatures to 82˚ F (making the race wetsuit non-legal), you have 10 mph winds to create some chop that is exhausting, and then you get to run in 90˚ F in the blistering sun… then it is not the place to PR¹.

Swim

My anger at myself is unparalleled while I’m thinking about my performance on the swim. The first 600m was all against the current, but if you were having issues (drowning) the water was shallow enough you could just stand up and you’ll be OK. But then we had to return back to the start line that was 100m out farther into the James River where I hopped from one boat aid to another, because I was so tired and I mentally had checked out from the first section. I’m not giving this section anymore space as it would be all negative.

• Training Peaks Swim Data

Transition 1

I learned from my last race, KISS. Only issue was all the athletes had to run nearly a 1/4 mile to get from the river to transition, so my time is long… but so is everyone’s transition.

Bike

“Want me to drop the hammer, I’ll drop the hammer!” I loved riding this super flat course that had only one tiny hill, a bridge. The path was an out and back with one sharp 180˚ turn at the mid-point. If you can stay in aero and crank out watts, you will do great. Plus, since everyone passed me while in the water I was picking off slower riders one by one (pew pew pew). I had a smile during this section of the race.²

• Training Peaks Bike Data

Transition 2

I’m happy with T2 as I was able to rack my bike somewhat quickly, strap on my running gear and head out. It will be nice to learn how to do T2 while keeping my bike shoes on the pedals as this would have shaved off a couple of seconds, but I can’t complain as I had the fastest T2 of my age group.

Run

Picture provided by Arnel

I was feeling good! Fun bike, great T2… but I may have felt a little too good as my first two miles was definitely too fast for a 10k in the heat. I had a 7:30 pace for the first 1.5 miles, and I knew that wouldn’t last long so I tried to bring myself back down to a more reasonable level of 8:00 pace. This lasted for only another mile before I started to NEED the aid stations. After mile marker 2.5 I stopped at every aid station for water to “sip, spit, sip, swallow, dump on my head”. The heat was brutal. I began to be concerned about what my heart rate around mile 3.5, and that is when I noticed my watch said 182 bpm. I usually feel like puking when I hit that number, so I forced myself to walk even though I didn’t feel tired. The remaining three miles were a repeated pattern of “run till my HR was too high, walk”. I’m trying to convince myself that I was racing smart and essentially saved myself to ensure that I finished by listening to my HR, but I’ll never know what could have happened if I just pushed through. The good news is my knee and hip issues didn’t surface during this run (not sure if it was due to the flat course, or the double dose of Advil).

• Training Peaks Run Data

Post Race Thoughts

The three hour drive back home I was simply pissed. I know I could have done better on the run and WAY better on the swim. The guy in my age group that was 10th place in swimming beat me by over 10 minutes for that portion of the race. The difference between 3rd and myself on the run was only three minutes, so I know everyone gave it all. I hope to get some more Open Water Swim time with my Speed Sherpa team mates in the next couple of weeks before Colonial Beach… which reminds me I need to change that from the International distance to the Sprint… because SCREW SWIMMING!

Rankings

• Overall: Placed 131st out of 332nd (top 40% of all racers, blah).
• Gender: Placed 107th out of 217 (top 50%, still pathetic).
• Male 40-44: Placed 15th out of 26th (this makes me sick, and it’s all due to the swim).

Among the Male 40-44 category there were 26 athletes

• Swim: Ranked 24th. F U swim!!!
• Bike: Ranked 10th (the difference between 3rd fastest cyclist and myself was 4 minutes)
• Run: Ranked 11th (the difference between 3rd fastest runner and myself was 3 minutes and 36 seconds)

Updated 2016-06-14 (Race Photos)

Splits

Jamestown	1500m Swim	T1	40k Bike	T2	10k Run	Total
Goal Times3	30:00	3:00	1:14:30	2:00	52:30	2:42:00
Actual Times4	44:02	2:47	1:08:06	0:47	50:29	2:46:10

Footnotes

1. I actually PR’d by one minute compared to my 2015 Reston, VA (hilly) performance vs. the flat course. I’ll take that to help me sleep tonight. ↩

2. Dear race volunteer, I will not slow down on the turns… it’s a race! ↩

3. First time I’ve done this course, so times were based on results from Reston Olympic and Kinetic Half: 2:00/100m swim, 20mph ride (Kinetic 2016 Bike), 8:27 minutes/mi run (Reston 2015 Run). ↩

4. Official Race Results available at VTS/MTS Jamestown International Results page. ↩