Whaling City Tri

I had been thinking about signing up for a triathlon on the weekend of 7/24-7/25. It would be a nice little refresher before the Boston Urban Epic on 8/8. I wasn't sure which one to sign up for, though. I had narrowed it down to two races: NJ State Triathlon and the Whaling City Tri. I was considering heading to NJ so I could do the race with my buddy Colin. He was thinking of signing up for a tri, and the NJ State Tri worked for both of us, geographically.

We let some time go by, and didn't sign up for either one. As the weekend got closer, it seemed less and less likely that Colin would be able to do the NJ tri, so we ditched the NJ idea, and I signed up for Whaling City.  Really, this race wasn't very planned.  I had been thinking about it for a while, but didn't really commit 'til about a week prior.  It took the pressure off a bit.  There was no big build to the race.  Just another weekend

We got a late start heading down to New Bedford, which is more than an hour from Boston.  Not a problem, as long as we don't get lost.  We got lost.  Rather, I missed a major highway exit near the beginning of the ride down, and we rode for a good 15 minutes before I realized the mistake I had made.  oops.  We doudbled back, and pushed to get to the site in time.

As is typical when you arrive late to a triathlon, you spend a lot of time in the registration line.  They are always under-staffed, and the line slowly grows and grows until it gets so close to race time that everyone panics and rushes through registration, or, if the race director is smart, they push the race start back 10 or 15 minutes.  I got through registration, and headed over to transition.

It was hazy and muggy, but there was a good amount of cloud cover.  If it's going to be humid, I'm grateful that its not also blisteringly hot.  I racked my bike, set up my area, and ran off to the bathroom during the race meeting.  I had studied the course a little bit, so I didn't feel that I was missing much.  Still, not something I like to do.  If anything had changed, they would've announced it at the race meeting.

I decided against a wetsuit.  It was warming up, and the humidity was enough to get me sweating, even without the wetsuit on.  Plus the water was supposed to be warm.  I eyeballed a few other racers; a bunch were going without wetsuits, so I figured I was okay.  There was about a 200 yard walk to the swim start, so changing my mind was not an option.  I hopped in the water and got a few practice strokes in.  The water was nice.  I think I made the right decision.

My wave was the 3rd wave, behind the elites and women.  I tried to gauge the actual distance of the swim, since no two races ever seem to have the same swim distance.  It seemed like more than 1/4 mile, but maybe I'm just no good at eyeballing distances in water.  The shape was kinda like a trapezoid: Straight out; 90-degree right turn to the next buoy; then a slight right turn back to land.  It was good to see that there were two sea-worthy rescue/police boats monitoring everything, in addition to kayakers.  Boats with motors are always a relieving site.  Quicker rescue, should anything bad happen to anyone.

The start was on land, but only about 10 feet to the water line.  We were packed, and when the gun went off we all sprinted and jumped in.  In felt like a really tight pack all the way to the first buoy to turn.  There was a big pile up at the buoy.  Everyone was hugging the course, so the turns were very tight.  At least I was in the thick of the pack, not getting left behind.  But lesson learned: take wider turns, its worth it to keep momentum and stay out of the pack.

I tried to focus on my bi-lateral breathing, but was falling into the comfort of breathing to one side.  It was tough to break out of that.  I turned at the next buoy and was feeling pretty good.  Now we had the current and the waves working in our favor, so you could sort of float your strokes and let the current take you a bit.  I'm sure there's some technique to be learned (maybe lengthen out with the current, but shorten up against the current?).  By the time I got out, I felt like I was at the back of the pack, but I couldn't tell for sure.

I ran at a good pace to my bike.  It was an interesting flow, you had to run all the way around transition to enter in the back so that you could come out with your bike at the front.  I almost ran right past my rack: They had removed the trash cans that I was using to spot my rack.

I threw my shirt on, which was a little tough, especially with the pre-pinned bib on it.  I need a bib belt.  I threw my helmet and sunglasses, and ran out with my bike.  The transition practice that I did the week before really paid off.  I was able to run well with my bike, and got a rolling start, making up what felt like 30 seconds on some people.  Getting my feet in wasn't the smoothest, but I was able to do it without any major issues.

The bike course was 3 laps. I got passed by a guy initially, but kept him in my sights.  He was good for pacing to make sure I wasn't slowing down.  I passed a bunch of people and was feeling good.  The course was fairly flat, but some parts were windy.  Still, that wasn't enough to keep me from falling into a bit of trance a couple times.  I wasn't focusing and was getting too comfortable with my pace.  There was a little bit of traffic coming around to the transition area for lap #2.  I passed the guy who had initially passed me right around the start of lap 2.  He tried to overtake me quickly, but I sped up.


I found myself continually spinning, even into the turns.  I think it would make sense to take that time to let my legs relax a bit.  Something to think about.




I raced into transition area, and didn't notice many bikes.  It felt like I made up some time, but I wasn't sure how I was doing.  I hopped off the bike, went smoothly enough.  I dumped my bike, threw on the shoes, and got to running.  I felt like I had a good pace going.  Usually, the first 1000 meters off the bike is the slowest.  You have to tell yourself that you'll be able to pick up the pace.  You eventually find your legs, and feel better, and you have to make sure that you pick up the pace accordingly.  There were some unsturdy planks off the curb right out of transition.  It was almost more of a hazard having them there.

I quickly got passed by a guy with the Ironman m-dot tattoo.  And then I got passed by a younger girl, but was able to keep up with her for a bit.  I dumped some water on my head at mile 1, which gave me a little boost.  That short feeling of shock/shortened breath makes your body forget about what it was doing for a second, and you're almost able to reset and start fresh.  The girl who had passed me tripped on the sidewalk and almost fell into the water (the sidewalk followed the "shoreline", which was a rock wall about 5 feet down to the water.  We joked a little about it, saying that'd be a nice relief: To be in the cool water.

Mile 2 started somewhere in the park, rather than the sidewalk leading up to the park (you're still on the sidewalk, but now you're surrounded by some trees and grass on both sides.  I was somewhere in the 14:00s, time-wise, so I was doing alright.

Near the end of mile 2, there's a short out and back on a pier, and then about 250 meters to the end.  I knew I was close, but wasn't able to pick it up until after making the turnaround.  I felt that I finished strong.

2nd place for my age group, and 38th overall (out of a couple hundred, I think).  Not too bad.

I was hot and tired, but was able to recover nicely.  We found a place to grab some lunch and a beer, and then called it a day.