Beaver FREEZER Race Report!

Well tri season is officially underway for me. I am excited and pretty pleased with my performance yesterday. I also made two costly mistakes, but I have walked away from this "training" race having learned something, so not too upset about the mistakes. I also read on Tribabe.blogspot.com that the bike and run course were slightly longer than years prior that led to slightly slower times but a more accurate course. It was actually pretty cold (as the name of the race would indicate). Temp would be 43 degrees by the time I started on the bike with a wind chill factor of 39(but that is just standing in place). I'm sure it was 32degrees while going 20-29mph on the bike!
Pre-Race: woke up at 5:15am and the alarm had been going off for an hour straight without myself or kelsey or the dogs waking up! Oh well, I had plenty of time still, i just wanted to be up a little earlier to take my time and hopefully get a couple opportunities to sit on the can (race day ritual!).
I left the house at 6am, after eating a huge bowl of oatmeal and went to pick up Pops from his house. Picked up Pops and we made the 1hr 40min trip down to Corvallis talking about the race, work and about the ancient Poop that was found in an Oregon cave recently. The talk about poop had us both having to go so we stopped in Albany at a gas station to handle our business.
Got to the race site about 8:30am. My wave was heat # 1 (which is the last heat to go) and did not start until 10:15am so I had plenty of time to set up transition, warm up, chat, and cheer on some of the heats that were already underway.
Swim- The swim portion of this race is a 500yard pool swim. With 350 competitors, they seed you by your predicted 500yard swim time and assign you a lane (w/3 other athletes) and heat. I was in the fastest heat which would likely contain the guys going for the win so I wouldn't have to worry about waiting around to find out what place i was in at the end of the race. I was in lane #7 and given position #1 in the lane. This is where my swim plan kind of backfired on me. When I sent the race director my swim time I purposefully predicted a slightly faster time than what I thought i could swim because I figured I would be able to draft off of one or two of the faster swimmers in my lane. My predicted time was 6:55. Well I so happened to have the 25th fastest predicted swim time, which meant I was going to be the first in my lane to take off. I had figured I could probably really swim the 500yards in 7minutes flat so i wasn't too concerned. The race started and I went out flying! Sal who made the trip down to watch me (along with his wife, and Matt and Julie) said I went out at 1:10 for the first 100yards. I never knew i could swim that fast but i paid for it the next 200yards as I could feel serious fatigue setting in. at the end of 350 yards i felt what i thought was a tap on my foot. Well that means that i am going to slow and i need to wait at the wall so the guy behind me could pass me. when i stopped at the wall i realized that he had just been drafting me and the gal behind me was drafting him, so i lost about 15 seconds waiting for them (mistake #1) to flip turn off of the wall and i cruised the last 150 yards drafting them but lost time there. end swim time was 7:22 (including getting out of the pool and running to the exit door outside.)

T1- pretty fast 1:02 i think and the fastest of the field. Had shoes clipped into the pedals already and was able to hop on my bike while running pretty smoothly.

Bike- 31minutes i think. 23mph avg. I was about 15th place coming out of transition, passed up 12 of them in the first mile. Got into my aero bars and started hammering. It was Freezing cold as expected. I didnt put on any gloves, was just out there racing in my one-piece tri suit. The 12mile course has some slight grades, headwinds, two 180degree turnarounds and 10 90degree turns in total. I slowed a lot during the 90 degree turns as i didnt trust the roads (slightly wet and not completely free of gravel). There were 3 guys that I had picked out as favorites to win....#5, #7 and #11 (Nate Smith who races this year every year and either wins or takes second). I passed #7 about 4 miles into the ride. I saw #5 leading and Nate closely behind after the first turn-around. After the second turn around I could tell I was gaining on them and the last mile of the bike I had Nate in my sight about 40 seconds ahead. I really pushed it on the bike and felt really comfortable on the new ISM Adamo saddle and my new Fuji cf-1 TT bike. Coming off he bike and doing the flying dismount, #5 and Nate Smith were still in t2 putting on their shoes.

t2- the dismount off the bike was perfect. i racked my bike and then couldnt see my shoes and realized i had racked my bike in the wrong spot. No worries it was just about five feet down, re-racked my bike put on my racing flats and that is where mistake #2 came into play. I could not feel my hands, they were sooooooo numb! Since they were so numb i couldnt feel the release on my bike helmet. i struggled with it for a few seconds while i watched Nate smith take off. Pops was standing right there asking what was wrong, and i told him. I then tried to just slide the helmet strap up over my face thinking i could just take off the helmet without undoing it. That did not work, strap was too tight. I kept trying to get it off as the clock was just ticking and ticking. Finally I slid the strap up to my mouth where i could see the release on the helmet and was able to undo it, but by that time Nate was a minute down the road. T2 time 2:00.......

run- i was pissed but i took off determined to see what i could do. I knew Nate was about as fast if not faster than me on the run. About a quarter mile into the run I saw Sal and he yelled out that I was 1:20 down to the leader (Nate). Damn! This is only a 5k run! Shortly after I passed up #5, so I knew I was in second place. After the first lap Sal yelled out the split to Nate......still 1:20.....damn......I kept pushing. After the second lap Sal just yelled out "right on pace, good job buddy"....I knew then that Nate was still 1:20 or more ahead of me, so I just maintained my 5:45 pace and took it home.

Final time was 59:41(2nd place) i think (official results not posted online yet). I finished about 1:30 down to first place Nate Smith. I am really happy about my bike split which was the second fastest of the day. One other guy who was in swim heat #2 finished with the fastest bike split (about 20seconds faster than mine) and in third place overall 59:59. My run was fast, 2nd fastest to Nate Smith. But I am sure that if I did not have the helmet problem in t2, I would have had Nate in my sight and would have pushed a lot harder on the run. Next race I will be sure to loosen up my helmet strap before the race so it is not on so tight. I think its easier to undo a helmet when it is not putting an indent into your neck. I will also practice taking it off just to be sure i know where the release is in case i have the numb finger problem again!
I feel this is a good start to the season. I swam just fast enough (even with the mistake) to keep myself in contention. I have not had a lot of high quality work on the bike and my bike times tend to get better and better as the season progresses. So having a bike split like yesterday's, given the weather conditions and course difficulty (i suck at cornering!), I am looking forward to a big year!
Another surprise at the finish line was seeing my wife, kelsey, there. She surprised me by making the trip down on her own (she hates waking up early and waiting around before the races)! It was great having her there and my buddies Matt, Sal (their wives) and Pops there to cheer me on. The volunteers at OSU and the OSU tri club put on a great race and do a very efficient job at the timing given the fact that it is all manual timing with no chips.
Next race: Spring Classic Duathlon (5k run, 15mi bike, 5k run) this Saturday!