TriFIT Challenge - Olympic Triathlon (1st AG)
TriFit Challenge - Olympic distance tri in Columbus, OH.
I wanted to use this race to practice bike and run nutrition because I have been trying to figure out how to get enough calories on the bike. Many people mentioned Infinit. So, I talked to the company and got the customized mix for my bike and run. I tried each of them once but never at a race. So, I figured this would be a great opportunity to test the nutrition.
The race was on Sunday, July 31st in Columbus, OH. Pre-race check-in and packet pick up was on Saturday and there was no race-day check-in/pick-up. The week leading up to the race day I was pretty busy with work so I did not pay much attention to all the RD emails and race details. It turned out that the race was a point-to-point race where T1 and T2 were in different locations. I found that out at the packet pick-up!
P. came home from a company trip on Saturday morning. I asked him if he wanted to go with me to Columbus in the afternoon and he said ok as long as he did not have to drive (because he was tired from the overnight flight from CA). We left home about 12pm on Saturday, stopped for lunch at Culver's and arrived at the packet pick up around 3pm. I attended the race briefing. Then, we checked in at the hotel and I used the rest of the afternoon to get my gears ready (while P. was napping).
Race morning - I woke up at 4:45am, had breakfast and coffee. I arrived at the finish line (Ohio state football stadium) around 5:45am. Set up my T2 area and got on the shuttle to T1 and the swim start area. Everything went pretty smoothly and I would say the race was pretty well organized and communicated.
The Challenge (Olympic) distance started first, then the Sprint, and Super Sprint. While the male athletes started by age group, all female athletes started at the same time (because there were not many of us). They also had Duathlon and Aqua Bike athletes. I would say my swim was pretty calm. I had to do 2 loops of the swim. The first loop went fine as there were not many people in the water. However, when I started the 2nd loop, all the Sprint athletes were already in the water and it was really hard to sight (see the buoys). I also swam into many people and some were doing breast strokes :( Before I exited the water, I was kicked in the face by someone in front of me (yay. The glory of open water swimming/triathlon).
The distance between the swim exit and T1 was quite a walk/run. I took off my wetsuit, put on the helmet, sunglasses, shoes and dropped the bags at the drop bag area. The bike was pretty flat (hooray) and road condition was pretty nice so I was able to go faster than I thought. Also, the Infinit bike mix did not give any tummy issue. T2 also went fine. I went in and out of T2 pretty fast and started the run pretty strong (IMO). Originally, I thought that I would slow down after 2-3 miles into the run but it turned out that Infinit run mix worked well for me and I felt energized throughout the whole run. The run was pretty flat as we went through the Ohio State campus. The average run pace was also better than I expected.
Throughout the race, I did not pay attention to my pace at all. I only looked at the distance on my watch to see when I should be drinking the calories. I was pretty surprised to see that all my times were faster than I expected. I had to give credit to cooler weather and some rain. I told myself that I would not work too hard for this race and it's just a race for me to try out the Infinit mixes.
I did not expect the AG award at all but it was nice to get it :) After picking up the award, I drove back to the hotel, showered, and checked out. P. was already up (he slept in because he was tired from the trip). Then, we went to a yemeni restaurant before we headed home.
Next is Tri CLE Rock Roll Run. I signed up for a sprint because my coach did not want me to do anything too long before the big race in September.
Comments
Post a Comment