Race Results- Portland Triathlon 08.23.09

With all apologies to Quentin Tarantino, this was my pre-race warm up inspiration:

We’re gonna be dropped into Portland, dressed as triathletes. We’re gonna be doing one thing and one thing only… beating other triathletes. Members of the nationalist socialist party conquered Europe through endurance, speed, strength, and vigor. And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do to them. We will be cruel to the other triathletes and through our cruelty they will know who we are. They will find the evidence of our cruelty in the flabby, tired, cramping bodies of their brothers we leave behind us and the triathletes will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, at our running shoes, and the wheels of our bikes. And the triathletes will be sicken by us, the triathletes will talk about us and the triathletes will fear us. Triathletes ain’t got no humanity! They need to be destroyed. Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred bike helmets… and I want my bike helmets!

Needless to say, I was very inspired by both watching Inglorious Basterds on opening day and my great result at the Deschutes Dash in anticipation of my last race, the Portland Triathlon. I came into it feeling relaxed, and while not at my peak fitness, I’ve still been working out enough that it would be a good race. A tasty Chipotle lunch and sushi dinner the night before ensured I would have enough rice in my system to run at least five races, assuming rice is a vital component for running a race.

Swim- 1.5 K
The swim was held in the Williamette River in downtown Portland, which while not the cleanest body of water in the world, was still very swimmable. We checked it out the day before, and with all the boats the water was wavy gravy, but at 7:30am on a Sunday and no boats the water was like glass with the current never being a factor. It was a straight out and back course, which allowed me to not worry about sighting and turning too much, and while it looked a little intimidating from shore, once I got going I was able to get into my groove fairly easy. The start of the swim was havok, with everyone starting in a straight line off the dock rather than as a more spread out group like my other races, and the end of the swim was even worse, with everyone having to climb up into the same 10-foot wide spot on the pier, but all in all it was a good swim with my best 1.5K time (outside of the down-current Deschutes Dash swims, which would be comparing apples to oranges that are floating down a rushing river).

Transition 1
No problems, wetsuit came off, shoes came on. Could be faster, and something to practice for next year to start getting my time down to a more competitive level. Second best T1 time ever, though, which was great especially considering where my bike was parked..

Bike- 40K
A very unique course, with lots of twists and turns over three laps through the West Hills. I paid the price by not having driven the course beforehand, so the first lap was just trying to figure out where to go. Then at the end of the first lap my tire changing kit and one of my bottles fell off the bike, so I spent the second lap all pissed off and not thinking about the race, and the begining of the third lap seeing if I could find them again. The rest of the third lap, I finally got around to racing, but by then the damage was done. I think I could have done much better on this one, but I still passed a bunch of riders (got my 100 bike helmets!) and got my second best time of all my races, which is I did not know until just now and makes me feel a lot better about my bike split. Dang, a bit better luck and preparation and I am going to kill it next time!

Transition 2
Got those sweet no-tie shoe laces for my shoes, and this was the first time I got to try them. I usually try not to use equipment right out of the box for the first time ever at a race, but desperate times call for desperate men. Didn’t help much, as my time was slow compared to my Dash times, but oh well, at least my shoes didn’t fall off during the run.

Run- 10K
Because of the so-so bike ride, I came out of transition determined to make something happen. I had the advantage of having run the course many times when I lived in Portland, as it was the same loop I would run at lunch. The loop is a beautiful run over the Hawthorne Bridge, along the river on the east side and down the floating walkway, back over the Steel Bridge and down the other side of the river through Waterfront Park. With that, I was able to gauge much better than in previous races how much further I had to run, and therefore how hard I could run before I passed out. In the first loop I had a sub 25 minute time, which put me on pace to meet my sub 50 minute 10K time, so during the second loop I gave it my all, particularly through the last stretch through Waterfront Park. During that last 2 minutes, I honestly don’t think I have ever run as hard ever in my life. I was by myself as I approached the finish line, and the crowd was loving my effort and gave me a great cheer. Even the announcer broke from the script of reading the name and and time of the finisher to say “Look at the guy go!” which felt really good. Anyway, I finished super strong and with a full minute under my goal time, and a whopping four minutes under my previous best run time from this year’s Deschutes Dash. Wahoo!

Here’s a link to my division’s times, and here’s my splits (slightly unofficial, as my swim time and T1 got combined, so that’s off my stop watch):

OVERALL- 2:55:22
Swim- 0:34:09
T1- 0:03:26
Bike- 1:26:06
T2- 0:02:43
Run- 0:48:55

All in all, it was a great race, and a great finish to the season. My time was my best non-Deschutes Dash time and my second best time overall, and although it was ten minutes off this year’s DD time the differences in the swim course account for that, so it was all good. I placed 26/33 in my division, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I had a fun, got two feats under my belt and completed my first travel race.

Can I take a day off from training now? Please?