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Race Result

Racer: Keith Bohnenberger
Race: Columbia Triathlon
Date: Sunday, May 22, 2005
Location: Ellicott City, MD
Race Type: Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group: Male 35 - 39
Time: 2:59:43
Age Group Place: 122 / 169
Comment: still a tough race but finished with a smile



Race Report:



Pre-race goal - Finish in less the 3 hours and feel good enough to walk and talk. Try to go fast through transistions.

Race Morning:
Woke up around 4:00am. Ate a bagel and a banana and some fig newtons. Through all my stuff in the car and picked up Dave Cascio a little before 5. Got to the race right around 6:00. Set up my transition area and walked around and chatted with various people, Steve, Jereon, Doug Steel ... Made a late bathroom break and hurried over to the swim start.

Swim:
Jumped in the water with a few minutes to go and tried to relax a bit. The water was a little cold but not too bad. My sleeveless wetsuit was fine. The first part of my swim was ok but it felt like a bit of a struggle. I had some goggle issues and had to stop several times to empty them out. I did have a few moments where I felt like I was going along pretty good but I still dont know how to site well so everytime I looked up I lost my stroke a bit. The good news is that I can swim a lot straighter than I used to be able to. The other good news is that I love open water swimming. No turning around every 25 yards! Just at the end of the swim I saw some gray caps pass me. I hopped out of the water, glanced at my watch: 32 minutes. About what I expected because I havent been swimming as much this year as last year.

T1: Nothing too eventfull. Faster than last year but still slow. I need to get much faster at taking off my wetsuit. I'm still a weenie and want/need socks so that takes a little extra time. Much better than last year so I'll take it.

Bike: It seemed everyone in the race passed me. It was a little slower than last year which was once again expected because I havent been able to ramp up my bike miles. I love this bike course even though I crawl up each hill. The downhills are great. I especially like the windy downhill under tree cover. A few miles into the bike course I began thinking that Dave Cascio should be blowing by me soon. Sure enough a bit later, Dave went zooming by. Not only did he pass me but he zipped by about 20 people in front of me too. Towards the latter part of the race a fellow rat passed me up hill like i was standing still. I yelled "Rat" and he responded, "Rat with a flat." My first thought was, damn a rat with a flat just blasted passed me. My next thought was, do you need anything. I passed him my mini pump which was zipped up in my shirt pocket. I almost felt like a real biker making the exchange on the go. Overall the bike felt good. I drank one bottle of weak accelerade and half a bottle of water. While slow the course is comfortable based on my training.

T2
I cruised into T2 feeling pretty good. I got to my bike spot and spotted Jeroen snapping some pictures. Danm we left T1 around the same time and he looks like he's been here a long time. Because of injury issues Jeroen wasn't able to do the run but kept up good spirits and cheered us on. I got out of T2 pretty fast (14th in my age group so I was real happy with that).

Run
I was emotionally scarred from the run last year but coming off the bike I felt pretty good. I glanced at my bike computer at the end of the ride and new I was on pace for 3 hours. As soon as I started to run up the first hill I got a reall sharp pain in the muscle that runs from the knee down to the ankle on the outside of the shin. I barely even have a muscle there but it was tight and not very happy at all. I tried to pull over and massage it a bit but that didnt help. I tried to walk but it didnt feel any better. I repeated the massage and walk a few times and finally gave up. It hurt while walking so i might as well run and see if it loosens up. I struggled big time through the first 2.5 miles of the run and had long gave up on my 3:00 race goal. At that point things started feeling better and i started to run faster. I picked up the pace quite a bit but still didnt think 3:00 was in the cards. I saw Matt Taylor who I havent seen for a while out there. Then I saw Amanda. That lifted my spirits a bit but the hill after mile 5 sucked once again. As I got close to the finish line I glanced at my watch: 2:58:??. Damn I think I can make it. I pushed the run the rest of the way. Heard Steve cheering me on and crossed the finish line at 2:58:47. Just made it! If not for the leg problem I think I could have chopped another 3 minutes or so off of my run time.

Post finish line
It was good to be able to walk and talk after the race. I sat on the hill side with my daughter and cheered on the other racers. I ate a lot of food, chatted with a bunch of rats, ate more food, hung out with the family and enjoyed the beautiful day.

Many thanks to my wife and kids for making it to the race and for supporting me while a blew off a weekend to race.

Thanks to Cascio for riding along with me. It made the trips back and forth go by much faster.



Technicals:

HR info
Race 163
Swim 138
T1 151
Bike 169
T2 158
Run 169

It seems strange to me that my bike and run avg heart rate was the same.

Traning up to the race:
January:
Swim 10000 yards
Bike 199 miles
Run: 11 miles

February:
Swim: 4000 yards
Bike: 190 miles
Run: 15.5 miles

March: (week off for vacation)
Swim: 6700 yards
Bike: 155 miles
Run: 21 miles

April:
Swim 9100 yards
Bike: 262 miles
Run: 31.7 miles

May: (up to race day)
Swim: 7600 yards
Bike: 137 miles
Run: 9.1 miles.

I thought my training was going well until the end of april. My legs felt tight and dead and my knee was a bit sore. I didnt run much at all for the month before the race and I only did recovery rides on the bike.