Race Result

Racer:	Keith Bohnenberger
Race:	Cape Henlopen Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, October 8, 2006
Location:	Lewes, DE
Race Type:	Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Male 40 - 44
Time:	1:20:48
Comment:	Excellent way to end the season

Race Report:

Race:

This race takes place in Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes DE. Cape Henlopen State park is a beautiful park. The beach is nice, the bath house is nice, the trails in the park are nice. The race has an ocean swim, the bike course is flat a scenic enough. The run course is through the park which is also scenic. The park is very spectator friendly.

My Race:

After my issues at Reston I definitely wanted to do one more race before the season was over. I was hoping to do General Smallwood but I had some family obligations that weekend. A few Rats were doing Cape Henlopen, a friend from work was doing it, and the husband of one of my wife's friends was doing it. Also, I have never done a tri race swim in the ocean (jones beach was moved to the bay both times I did it) so I was looking forward to that experience. I registered for the race at the last moment and started looking for the family to stay for the three day weekend. Because of the greyhound convention many of the hotels were booked. At the last moment I found a condo on Craigs list in Rehoboth.

My training was not very consistent since Reston but I was really just looking to get out there and have some fun.

We drove up saturday late morning and got to packet pickup around 2:00. Turns out we were following Stuart and family from the toll rode all the way to the race. We chatted a bit on our way to get our packets. The weather was not good. The ocean was real ugly but the forecast for Sunday was good so I was still hopeful that the swim would take place. The race director waved the bike and helmet inspections because of the weather.

The weather was beautiful Sunday morning. Unfortunately the swim was cancelled because it was high tide, there was still a small water craft advisory and one or two other reasons. This was a first for me. I never did a triathlon that was turned into a duathlon. The swim was turned into a 1.5 mile run. The triathlon was going to be the same as the duathlon. I met Miro. Miro, Stuart and I chatted a bit while we were waiting for the gun to go off.

There was a little confusion at the start of the race because they still kept the "swim" waves the same but I got in the right wave and we were off.

I wasn't sure how to pace myself for a 1.5 mile run so I just went with what I thought was a reasonable pace that wouldn't kill me and enjoyed the run.

I got to T1 and there were actually quite a few bikes left. Unlike when the first event is a swim and my bike is quite lonely. T1 was different but pretty uneventful. No wetsuit removal but a change of shoes to deal with. Our family friend finished the run just ahead of me and was in T1 when I got there.

The bike ride was flat and pretty fast but it was still pretty windy. I was hoping to avg 20mph avg in a race for the first time. Most of the ride seemed to be with a cross wind with a few short sections with a head wind. Somehow, I never seemed to get the tail wind. During the entire bike ride, I just kept asking myself if I could keep the same pace I was doing for the whole thing. I think I lost focus a few times and dropped off the effort but in general I pushed it pretty hard. I met my goal time for the bike so I was pretty happy going into T2.

In T2 I once again met up with my family friend. T2 was pretty quick and off I went on the 5K. The first part of the run was the same as the first run. The rest of the run was through the park. It was a very pretty run. There were several water stops on the run with very friendly volunteers. The run seemed to go by pretty quickly but I kept thinking how hard sprints were compared to olympic distance races. The intensity is high the whole time. I crossed the finish line and felt like I had a solid race.

I grabbed some good snacks and watched a bunch of people come across the finish line. After the race we spent some time on the beach before heading back to the condo.

We had such a nice time in the park on Sunday that we went back on Monday and I finally got an ocean swim in!

Overall I thought this was a really nicely run race. Good support on the bike course, good support on the run. It was a bummer the swim was cancelled. I hope to do this race again next year. It's a great excuse for a family beach weekend.

Splits:
R1 - 10:56 7:18 pace
T1 1:30
Bike 44:34 20.2(This really wasn't the pace. The bike was only 14 miles, not 15 so I'm still looking for a 20mph bike split)
T2 1:13
R2 22:37 7:18 pace
Total 1:20:48