Rochesterfest Triathlon: Race Report

I can't say that I came into this race very prepared. I hadn't swam as much, I hadn't run as much, and I'd spent the past week hiking over 40 miles of wilderness, some of those miles with a heavy pack, on Isle Royale. I had, however, borrowed a wetsuit from a friend (the water was very cold), bought a new bike, installed clipless pedals, and biked quite a bit more. Maybe those upgrades would make up for my lack of training.

After having the start delayed due to possible thunderstorms, we got underway about 45 minutes late. Laura was also doing the race, and she too had borrowed a wetsuit.

Let's just say the swim portion went very poorly for me. I could never get into a rhythm--I started too far back and had to do a lot of weaving in and out of swimmers. I was constantly bumping into other swimmers, and I think I spent as much time with my head out of the water looking for a clear path to swim as I did with my head in the water. When I finally got a stretch at the end of the swim where I could put my head down and swim the crawl, I swam way off the course and had to turn almost 90 degrees to get back on track.

The bike went much better. I was definitely faster with the clipless pedals, bike shoes, and new bike. Unfortunately, it was very windy. At the beginning of the bike I was averaging over 20 MPH, but once I turned around into the wind I was going much slower.

The run went about the same as last year. I had a little too much gas in the tank at the end, but still managed to run the 5k in 17:35. That at least lets me know that I'm getting in much better running shape as that's the same time I ran in the Autism 5k. It is, however, a little slower than I ran the 5k of the Rochesterfest Triathlon last year when I ran 17:26.

Overall I ran a 1:05:30 compared to a 1:04:13 last year. Last year my swim, run, and all my transitions were better. Though I biked faster I couldn't make up for the horrible swim and slower transitions (which I expected having to change out of a wetsuit and bike shoes).

I don't know if I'll do another triathlon. I don't really like swimming and I'm not very good at it. It takes up time when I could be running (which I actually enjoy). Still, there's something cool about the triathlon, and I might be disappointed if I stopped after two races. I may try a duathlon and see if that satisfies my multi-sport ambitions.

Happy Running!