2017 Portage Lake Sprint Triathlon
With the Akron marathon being 6 days away, I originally wanted to sign up for the mini tri at Portage Lake Triathlon, which for me would be the last race of the season. When I looked at the registration website, the price of the mini was not much cheaper from the sprint distance. Below is the information on each distance.
Indoor cycling always kicks my butt. The intervals that we do makes me work harder and my heart rate skyrocketed to Zone 5 every time I am done. Love it.
Last week I did not swim at all due to timing and my work schedule. Yesterday (Saturday) my plan called for a long run (24 miles) but I knew I had to somewhat save my legs for the triathlon race so I adjusted it down and only ran 16 on the Run with Scissors course.
This morning I woke up at 4.45am because I wanted to set up the transition area early and had time to walk around before the race began. I arrived at Portage Lake park by 6am, went to the restroom (no line woo!), picked up the packet, and set up the transition area. My transition area was done by 7am (including applying sunscreen and body glide). I was ready.
I then walked to the beach where the swim started to look around and study the buoys and the direction of the swim. Most importantly, I wanted to calm myself down before the swim started. First, they started with the mini tri, then sprint, then olympic. After standing at the beach for almost an hour, I was ready to jump in the water. Kinda regret that I did not sign up for the mini distance. It seemed so easy and laid back. The good thing about HTP races is that they let the swimmers start in a group of 3 and each group is 3-5 secs apart. That really helped calm down my panic.
Swimming was nice and smooth. I remember passing a couple of swimmers. I did not stop to find the next buoy and sighting was perfect. I got out of the water and ran to the transition area.
Biking was challenging as there were many hills (compared to Vermillion) and some hills were so steep that some people got of their bikes and walked/pushed the bike uphill. I stayed on the bike the whole time. Have to thank ultra running and indoor cycling. My quads were firing but I managed to pass a couple of people on the incline.
Running - the first half of the course was almost all uphill. The good thing was it's an out and back run so the second half was all downhill. I took it easy during the first mile, walked through the water stop, and took the nutrition gel. After I reached the half way point, I started to feel better and increased the speed. It's also downhill so I ended up running negative splits! lol
Overall, I like the course and the distance. The organization was great and I would do more HFP races in the future.
- Mini: 250y Swim (2mi Run) — 7mi Bike — 2mi Run
- Sprint: 750m Swim (5k Run) — 22k Bike — 5k Run
Indoor cycling always kicks my butt. The intervals that we do makes me work harder and my heart rate skyrocketed to Zone 5 every time I am done. Love it.
Last week I did not swim at all due to timing and my work schedule. Yesterday (Saturday) my plan called for a long run (24 miles) but I knew I had to somewhat save my legs for the triathlon race so I adjusted it down and only ran 16 on the Run with Scissors course.
This morning I woke up at 4.45am because I wanted to set up the transition area early and had time to walk around before the race began. I arrived at Portage Lake park by 6am, went to the restroom (no line woo!), picked up the packet, and set up the transition area. My transition area was done by 7am (including applying sunscreen and body glide). I was ready.
I then walked to the beach where the swim started to look around and study the buoys and the direction of the swim. Most importantly, I wanted to calm myself down before the swim started. First, they started with the mini tri, then sprint, then olympic. After standing at the beach for almost an hour, I was ready to jump in the water. Kinda regret that I did not sign up for the mini distance. It seemed so easy and laid back. The good thing about HTP races is that they let the swimmers start in a group of 3 and each group is 3-5 secs apart. That really helped calm down my panic.
Swimming was nice and smooth. I remember passing a couple of swimmers. I did not stop to find the next buoy and sighting was perfect. I got out of the water and ran to the transition area.
Biking was challenging as there were many hills (compared to Vermillion) and some hills were so steep that some people got of their bikes and walked/pushed the bike uphill. I stayed on the bike the whole time. Have to thank ultra running and indoor cycling. My quads were firing but I managed to pass a couple of people on the incline.
Running - the first half of the course was almost all uphill. The good thing was it's an out and back run so the second half was all downhill. I took it easy during the first mile, walked through the water stop, and took the nutrition gel. After I reached the half way point, I started to feel better and increased the speed. It's also downhill so I ended up running negative splits! lol
Overall, I like the course and the distance. The organization was great and I would do more HFP races in the future.
**Note: Seems like something was wrong with my chip so the timing mat did not register the time for each leg :( I only had the overall time and I was 6th in my age group. Not too bad for a baby triathlete like me ;)
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