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Race Result
| Racer: |
Jose Torres |
| Race: |
Tri-It™ Triathlon |
| Date: |
Saturday, June 9, 2012 |
| Location: |
Bear, DE |
| Race Type: |
Triathlon - Sprint |
| Age Group: |
Male 40 - 44 |
| Time: |
0:51:06 |
| Overall Place: |
21 / 335 |
| Age Group Place: |
1 / 25 |
| Comment: |
just as planned |
Race Report:
Considering the number of participants; this was my best race ever. I know the distance was short, but all 335 participants completed the same distance.
Since this was quite a short race I knew I had to change my normal mindset. So my plan was to swim faster than I've ever swum in a triathlon, then completely sell out on the bike and then try to hold on to dear life on the run. Based on last year’s results I thought that if I finished in 53 minutes I could get 3rd place in my Age Group. So this was my master plan.
Swim start, I positioned myself on the inside and the front vs. normally being on the outside and in the back. My wave had 77 men 40 and older. I had my best swim ever and was the 11 swimmer out of the water in my wave. So far on plan.
Swim 440 yards
7:54 (50/335) 1:48 per 100yds
The run into T1 was only about 60 yards, but it counted as part of your swim time. T1 was non eventful, I recently cut off about 3 inches off the bottom of my wetsuit and it worked great. The last couple of races I had to use my hands to remove the wetsuit from around my feet. In this race it peeled off quickly.
T1 1:01 (16/335)
I knew this bike course was pretty flat so this is where I had planned to make my separations. I've never ridden faster than 21.7 mph on the bike portion of a triathlon. But like I said earlier, I completely sold out on this course and finished at an average pace of 23.45 mph. I was in a pack of 3 rides and we were blowing by the younger guys from the first swim wave. Still on plan.
Bike 10 miles
25:48 (14/335) 23.45 MPH
T2 was uneventful
T2 0:42 (25/335)
The run was short, but I knew it would be tough because of my efforts on the bike. Even though I finished at a sub 8 minute per mile pace, I was the slowest runner in the top 25 finishers. Still on plan!
But here is the best part, when I ran out of T2 and saw my time and I was shocked that I was on pace to be closer to 51 minutes rather than the 53 minutes I was targeting. But I still had no idea what place I was in. I had not seen another 40-44 in a while. But with about 500 yards to go on the run I finally saw another 40-44, as a 42 year old passed me. I kept thinking was this guy in 3rd place now. I just gave up third place. I was able to speed up and keep him no more than 10 yards away from me. I spent the next 90 seconds debating whether or not I should go after my first ever 3rd place finish in a race with this many participants. 2 times I said yes go get it, but my body did not respond at all. Most of this run was on a wooded path, but when we came out of the woods into the open field I could finally see the finish line and knew we only has about 150 yards to go. At this point I said to myself “Jose if you do not at least try to pass this guy and he turns out to be in 3rd place, you will be kicking yourself in the ass for weeks" So right there I took off. I tried to be as quiet as possible, last thing I wanted was to have to sprint race this guy to the finish. With about 25 yards to go I passed the guy and ended up finishing 6 seconds ahead of him.
BTW, this was also the first time I've tasted a little bit of my breakfast right after finishing the race. The best part was yet to come; my daughter was checking the monitors and told me the guy I passed was now the 2nd place 40-44 which made me the 1st place finisher. Talk about having regrets if I had not decided to chase him down.
Run 2 miles
15:39 (70/335) 7:50 p/mile
Final Results
21st overall & 1/25 40-44 age group
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