Capital of Dreams Triathlon Race Report

Apr 22 - Apr 28
S:  12,423 yds - 3hr 6min

B:  68.51 mi - 3hr 28min

R:  25.10 mi - 3hr 6min

Total:  9hr 40min 

The first race of tri season is always an interesting one.  You never know what to expect.  I mean, you kind of do but at the same time you don’t.  I knew my winter training was on target.  Running is at an all-time fastest level, bike power is where it needs to be, and swim fitness is as good as it has ever been thanks to some increased yardage so far in 2013.  BUT, how all of these plays together in the context of a race is a different story.  On paper I should be faster than last year, but it seems like there’s always some season opener rust to knock off while racing the intermediate distance (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run).  All that being said, Lori and I traveled 90 miles south of Birmingham to Montgomery, AL for the Capital of Dreams Triathlon.  This would be the inaugural race, so I was excited to see if a race this close to home would be any good.  Rumor had it that the bike course would be fast...awesome!  The goal for this race was to win.  I knew that Birmingham local and a training partner of mine Jeffrey Shelley would provide some stiff competition, but I thought I might have the slight nod.  I recognized a few others on the list but no one who I thought could run away with it.  However, you never know what kind of no-name hot shot might show up on race day.  All that being said, I was feeling confident and ready to race fast!  Here’s how it went:

Swim - 20:57 (6th) 
The swim was a point-to-point 1500 meter course in the Alabama River.  One hour prior to race time, all the racers loaded up onto a tugboat for the ride up to the swim start (pretty cool, actually).  After stopping at the 400 meter mark to let all the sprint racers start, we made our way to the 1500 meter point.  On the way to the start line I chatted with a guy (Ben Reynolds) who had just moved to Birmingham from Montgomery.  He had a swimming background and looked pretty fit so I figured this guy would be in the mix for sure.  The start was of the time trial format (so dumb) and I was the 5th person to start, with Ben 3 slots in front of me.  The water was pretty chilly (~68 deg) but felt really good after a minute or two.  With no chance for a warm up I tried to avoid sprinting straight from the start.  After a minute or so I seemed to find a good rhythm and the rest of the swim was pretty boring.  I remember being passed by a guy and hopped on his feet for awhile but then he started swimming zig-zags all over the place so I gave up.  He was swimming faster than me but never really gained any distance because of his bad line.

T1 - 2:08 (2nd) 

T1 was an long run from the river to a cool little train station covering with multiple staircases and turns to navigate along the way.  I got my wetsuit down to my waist as I exited the dock and as soon as I did that I stopped, took off the wetsuit, and then starting running the rest of the way to transition.  Lori yelled at me that the leader (Ben) had about 3 minutes on me.  Crap!  After quickly grabbing my helmet, I was off to try and reel him in.

de-wetsuiting

Bike - 59:25 (2nd) 

Considering I was 3 minutes down, I decided that this was going to be an aggressive bike.  If you want to win you’ve got to give yourself a shot.  With 3 minutes to make up I knew I had to go hard.  After navigating out to the main road I put down my head and started to hammer.  Local Birmingham guy David Meadows had a superb swim and was out in front of me, as was one other guy about 20 seconds up the road.  After passing David I gradually started reeling in the other guy and passed him a few miles later.  At the first turnaround of this 2 loop 20k course, I could see that Ben was a strong biker and that catching him was going to be a tough task.  But I was feeling good and my watts were high, so I knew I wasn’t out of it.  The rest of the bike was uneventful.  I made up 2 minutes or so on Ben, but also knew that I had Jeffrey Shelley and one other guy right on my heels.  Coming to the end of the bike I was hurting but feeling like I could lay down a good run.  My nutrition was the normal 2 watered down gu roctanes, 3/4 of a bottle of water, and 3/4 of a bottle of EFS with a few extra salt tablets dumped in.

finishing the bike

T2 - 0:40 (2nd) 

T2 was smooth and fast.  No mistakes here and I was quickly on the run course. 

Run - 34:50 (3rd) 

I did my homework before the race.  The 10k run course was a 2 loop 5k.  Each 5k started out flat for a half mile, climbed for a mile, and then was flat/downhill for the rest.  I knew I could push it on the climb and then would still be able to maintain speed on the downhill while recovering a little bit.  For the first lap I was completely alone but settled right in and clicked off miles 1 and 2 in 6:29 and 6:21.  After finishing the first loop I noticed I was only at 2.85 miles…I knew the loop was supposed to be 5k because I had studied the course…did it change?  Did I cut the course?  It was pretty much the worst feeling ever, not knowing if I had cut the course or not.  I said screw it and kept running (nothing else to do).  Mile 3 was 6:07 and about that time I noticed a guy making up ground behind me.  Mile 4 was 6:28, and then I got caught as we were still on the climbing portion of the course.  The dude passed me hard and I went all in to stay on his feet.  Maybe I was slacking off earlier in the race or maybe I just needed some motivation, I don’t know.  On the dude’s heels we ran the next mile in 5:49 and then he really started to turn it up.  At this point I noticed that he had started about 30 seconds behind me, so I would need to gap him by 30 seconds in order to win.  Considering I was at my limit sitting on his heels, it was not going to happen.  Then he really started to open it up and we covered the last 7/10 of a mile in 5:18 pace.  As we neared the crowds and the finish I sprinted around him and crossed the line ahead, even though it was of no use since he would have had to lose 30 seconds on me.  As it turned out the run was 5.67 miles...about a half mile short of 10k.

on the podium

Total - 1:57:58 (3rd OA) 

I ended up 3rd overall, only 12 seconds behind Ben and 27 seconds behind the other guy.  Unfortunately, the run was a half mile short of 10k which could have easily changed the final podium (although we will never know).  Oh well, it is what it is.  I was pleased with my swim, although I still have some work to do in that area.  Bike watts were at the upper end of where I thought they would be so I can’t complain there.  Props to Jeffrey Shelley who out-split me on the bike by 12 seconds.  Transitions were smooth and flawless so no problems there.  The run went as well as expected.  I feel much stronger off the bike than last year, and I was able to really dig deep when I had to hop on feet.  Based on how the last 1.5 miles went, I might could be a little more aggressive early on.  All in all it was a great first race of the year, capped off with a stop at the Peach Park in Clanton, AL for some cobbler!


about to crush some cobbler!