Collegiate Triathlon National Championships Race Report ~ April 22, 2006 ~ Reno, NV
If you don’t like the weather in Reno, wait 5 minutes.
Who in the world thought a triathlon on top of a mountain where they are having SNOWBOARDING competitions at the same time would be successful?? USA Duathlon, of course!
At the race meeting, USAT announced that 53F water temp and 40F air temp was dangerous and they canceled the swim. The race turned into a 1.8 mile run (not a 5k because we couldn’t bike and run on the same part of the course), then a 40K bike, then the 10k run.
I was pretty disappointed about how they changed it to a duathlon. I have been working on my swim a lot this winter and I was very confident that among the top finishers, I’d have one of the strongest swims. I am pretty sure that if the race had been a triathlon, it would have come down to an exciting 10k run.
But I had to be flexible and I tried to stay confident in my running and race the duathlon without any negativity.
Course Details…
The run was around the marina, so it was wide open to wind, but it wasn’t too bad. Going around the marina let you see your competition pretty well, but the 10k run was only 2 loops. Except for the first run, where I ran with Justine the whole time, I felt pretty lonely on the whole course. I wish there had been either more loops or out or back loops. The run was very flat.
The 2 lap bike course was flat in the beginning, then long gradual hills, but not steep enough for me to come out of my big ring. I think people from Florida complained about the “hills” though. The main complaint about the bike course was the sand/gravel/glass/nails/debris all over the road. They told us they would sweep but there is no way they did. I saw a ton of people walking back with flats. My other friend unpacked his bike and found 3 pieces of glass in his tires today. I think the organizers should have done better with this.
The race day temperature was the coldest I’ve ever raced in (they said 45 degrees?), and before the race started I was shivering a lot. I wore gloves, which was a good choice because the bike got pretty chilly, especially because it was cloudy. I was glad on the run though, that I didn’t wear long sleeves because it got warmer.
We were running late leaving the hotel in the morning and we rode over as a team and were later than I like to be before a race, especially when I’m not used to preparing for a duathlon. It was quite chaotic lining up the wave starts and I was pretty unfamiliar with the run start style…
RUN
We waited for the first wave to go (2 minutes ahead) then our 70-ish person wave went off. I had a less-than-desirable position on the start line. The cameraman was right in my face as the starter began the countdown. I went out with Justine and Rachel Beckmann, and we were just behind this girl who took off like she was running a 200 m dash. The beginning of the run was technical, I’m glad I wasn’t out front because I’d have gotten lost. The girl out front faded off then it was just us 3 running out front. It was pretty cool actually because the cameraman on the motorcycle stayed with us. Eventually Rachel dropped and then we started catching some guys. The pace was comfortable - I wasn’t laboring at all. Our first run split was 11:45. I think it was longer than 1.8mi though because it didn’t feel like 6:30 miles. Into transition, the motorcycle stayed with me and I beat Justine out of transition and had a good mount on my bike and hammered out of there without looking back.
BIKE
I went out kind of hard, partly because I wanted to get out past some of the guys ahead of me and partly because the camera was in my face. I had previewed the first part of the bike course, and felt pretty comfortable. When I made the turn where I had turned around when I pre-rode the course, I realized I should have done the whole loop the day before – the hill was a bit bigger than my teammates had made it seem like. I had been playing cat and mouse with a couple guys and continued doing that up the hill. Then, just as I had been expecting, Justine passed me, pretty hard, going up the hill. I didn’t really react like I should have, I just was thinking to keep her in sight, not to stay with her just out of the draft-zone. I guess I just don’t like time trialing.
Anyway, the cameraman went with her and left me alone and although I was still going back and forth with that guy, I felt pretty lonely. Time trialing is such an issue for me, unless I can see my competition, I lose focus and don’t push as hard as I can. The other thing was that the descents were very long and the whole course was spent in the aerobars. Since I race mostly ITU, I don’t have a TT bike or a disc or tri-spoke or anything. I felt pretty compromised in my clip-ons. I kept looking ahead to spot Justine with the motorcycle but since it was out of sight, I knew I wouldn’t catch her. Her run is strong, so I knew my only chance would be if I came off the bike within a minute of her. I biked a 1:08, which includes both transition times.
RUN
I came into transition and the camera was there at my spot waiting for me and I had a pretty smooth transition and took off running, trying to get a split from someone watching, who said I was 2:20 down. I knew I wouldn’t catch her but I kept myself motivated by telling myself I wanted to PR in the 10K and I wanted to catch my last teammate ahead of me. But the first lap of the run course was VERY lonely. I could see a few guys ahead of me around the marina so I focused on catching them. The second lap was less lonely but most of the people out there weren’t running very fast so it was hard to monitor my own pace. It was cool to see some of my own teammates out there though. I focused in on catching my only teammate ahead of me for the last 400m and I came within 10 m of him by the finish. It was cool to finish with him. I was happy with my run split (37:35) which is encouraging because of my feet issues lately.
I was pretty disappointed about my result because it would have been totally different as a triathlon rather than a du. I know that in the big picture, collegiate nationals isn’t such a big deal, compared to the rest of my season racing ITU. ITU format seems to suit me better anyway because it isn’t a TT. This season my first ITU will be Mazatlan World Cup on May 7, which is coming up very fast! I am going to spend a ton of time in the pool this week so my swim is strong for Mazatlan. You guys should watch it live on www.triathlon.org on their TriCast.
