2009 Cohasset Sprint Tri Race Report

Cohasset is the first of three sprint-distance tris, part of the new Commonwealth Triathlon Series. Last year it was the lone race by Race Director Bill Burnett but this year he has teamed with Tim Crowley, Jarrod Shoemaker and Janda Ricci-Munn to include Marlboro July 26th and Gloucester August 9th (both of which I am also entered).

Anyway, training has been going pretty well since Ashland and I was really looking forward to this race as it was to have a stacked field of elites and pros racing and I wanted to compare my splits with theirs.

Got to sleep pretty late the night before (12:00am) due to having friends over – that wouldn’t leave… we had a wine “drinking” I mean tasting party – I was good though having only maybe a total of 1.5 glasses of vino – but the late hour gave me reason to believe I might bag this race. 4 hours later I was getting out of bed, pretty tired, but ready and willing to race.

Pre-Race
For a change, on race morning it wasn’t raining - barely. But it was foggy in Sudbury so I could only imagine what it was doing on the Cohasset shoreline.

The applesauce trick worked great! Had 4 little cups around 10:30 the night before - that plus an old favorite I forgot about years ago (drink a cup of very warm to almost hot water when you get up) helped get things “moving” along in the morning, if you get my meaning…

Got to the race site parking lot with no issues – hit the bathroom, then packed up and rode the 1.5 miles to the beach where transition was set up.

Side bar: I drove down Saturday morning for packet pick-up and to ride the course = next year I will not do this as I got caught in the charity ride traffic jam, never rode the course and didn’t get back home until almost 10:30am. I did learn however the roads were in bad shape and were narrow, like most beach roads. This information played a part in deciding whether I rode my disc with power or just the dishes… went dishes as I wouldn’t be reading the Tap much and as it was only a12 mile bike so I knew my pace was to be “balls-to-the-wall”! But all in all the early pick up was not worth it and duly noted for 2010.

Aside from the short bike to transition I didn’t get a warm-up ride in – took too long to get into transition, get numbered and set up. I did get a good stretch and warm-up run however – felt pretty well. Got back into transition and decided to set my bike shoes on the bike as the run from my rack position, thru transition to the mounting area was easily a couple hundred yards. Then I got my wetsuit on, had another gel and walked down to the beach.

Holly Crap it was choppy – the wind was blowing and it was misty with a little fog – not ideal conditions for a race and almost worse than Ashland’s rain due to the wind. The race start was delayed almost a ½ hour as they awaited a safety boat and other organizational issues. The delays lead me to get a little cold and tighten up a bit – tried to stretch that out waiting for my wave (#3) to go off.

The Pros/Elites would go first - they swam a ½ mile vs. our ¼ mile – which I think was short… and thankfully it was.

Swim
It was a beach start and I got to the water with the lead group; executed a few dolphin dives through the shallow waters while getting slammed by the 3 foot waves. I struggled to break free of racers and ended up getting hammered all the way out to the first buoy. Going out there was the hardest swim I’ve ever had due to the chops. I drank some salt water and could not get any semblance of rhythm going. I cut the first buoy perfectly and continued to fight for positioning as we made our way along the long-side of the counter-clockwise rectangular swim. I passed right next to the 2nd buoy and headed to the 3rd and final, now feeling like I had some rhythm. Once I turned at the 3rd buoy the tide pushed us in pretty quickly. I exited the water with a pretty high HR from my estimation – again, the hardest swim I’ve experienced. Thank goodness it was only a ¼ mile (or less). I kept my run from the beach into transition composed and paced- trying to settle the HR down a bit.
Swim Time – 5:37 (32nd AG - slow)

T1
This was not a good transition. My rack was very close to the swim exit so I didn’t have far to run but once there I couldn’t get the wetsuit off the ankles, it bunched up and I lost time pulling it off. In addition (as with Mooseman) the cold water temps and high HR left me very disoriented and wobbly when I got there and tried to relax myself. It was so bad I very nearly fell over twice and was very dizzy. I finally got the suit off both ankles, snapped the helmet grabbed the bike and headed out. The timing mats were a ways away, and the mount area was that much further again, so as mentioned before I didn’t put my shoes on for the run thru transition, I felt time would be saved running barefoot = it was as I passed 3 guys in bike shoes on the way.
T1 Time – 1:26 (too slow)

Bike
The bike didn’t start out well… I had trouble getting on with my shoes already snapped in. I unsnapped the left shoe before I could even get going so I had to get off, go back and grab it. I put it on (as I should have originally – on the ground), snapped that foot in and started out, slowly getting my right foot on that shoe, then in and tight. MRC-mate Greg Crist passed me during this whole fiasco. He would be the only bike to pass me this day – matter of fact we went back and forth several times on the course before he stayed out in front for the last several miles – always in site though. The bike was along some narrow beach roads and slightly inland where you could get aero and open it up a little more; potholes, cracks and overall poor pavement were issues throughout the ride. The worse of it came when the route took us through a golf club – this was very tight, very winding and led us to climb up the backs of many other riders from the first wave (not the pros of course). There were a few really well spectator-supported sections of the course, through Cohasset center – always nice to see cheering crowds line the streets. Greg and I went back and forth several times, passing a number of other cyclists along the way, but always staying out of each other’s draft and respecting the rules. The bike was for the most part uneventful, and as I think back – even before seeing my split, I don’t know that I felt the best out there, possible my legs were a bit fatigued from the swim, possibly my position on the bike still wasn’t right – Dunno. But I finished the ride strong and entered T2 looking forward to the run.
Bike Time – 29:49 (4th AG)

T2
Actually had a little trouble getting my shoes off believe it or not; finally successful in getting them off and the DS Trainers on, I took the time to suck down a gel (based on the last 2 races where I got leg cramps), a sip of water, picked up the Garmin and headed out (no, I didn’t forget my race number - I had my race belt and number on under my wetsuit from the beginning). I had the long run again from the rack to the timing mat but felt pretty good heading out.
T2 Time – 1:13 (still too slow)

Run
As I’ve mentioned in early notes, I want to improve my run the most this year – race in and race out I see where I am losing time and places because I can’t run with the elites or really even the top age groupers. So this was going to be my focus this year and I think there have been some improvements thus far.
The Wednesday leading up to Cohasset I raced a hilly 5k in Marlboro as a “speed workout” and to get some new 5k HR data (for Pat Wheeler to use with my coaching plan) - averaged about a 6:30 pace for the race. Knowing this would help me with Cohasset’s run as the distance was the same though with fewer hills than the RR, I went out a little strong as the Garmin read at the ½ mile mark I was running about 6:10. Again I was chasing Greg Crist out of transition who was about 50 yards up on me – though not in my AG I knew if I could run with him it would be a good day on the road, so he was my target for the most part.
I settled down, got into a rhythm, passed a few folks (none my age I don’t think looking at the final splits) and hit Mile 1 at 6:32. Keeping my form and technique intact (quick turnover, good posture, efficient form from what I could tell) I continued on to Mile 2 at 6:41. I passed a few more runners and hit Mile 3 at 6:45 – I finished the race running a 5:51 the last 1/3 mile. Good thing I paced well throughout cuz the 3rd placed age grouper finished only 7 seconds behind me (in reviewing the numbers I had a 51 second lead on him after T2 = he was certainly closing on me… NEED to work on my run)
Run Time – 21:50 (42nd AG - way too slow)

Final Results
59:53
2nd Age Group
12th Overall
4th Fastest Bike Split

Overall I am happy with the final results but there were too many mistakes in transition that need work, and I would like to fell better coming out of the cold water. This is the second race where I was disoriented due to the water temp and accelerated HR. Need to figure this out.
This was a nice race in a beautiful seaport town – the roads need major work however. RD Bill Burnett and his crew were great – very well staffed and supported. I would recommend this sprint to anyone (just hope they do something with the roads…) and will report back on the other two races in the series. I suspect they will be handled just as well as this one was.

Inside the numbers (thinking out loud…)
- 59 seconds off 1st AG.
- 1:16 off 2nd place OV.
- The first place age grouper won by over 2 minutes (2:11 to be exact).
- Including myself, there were 10 guys all within 76 seconds of the 2nd place guy OV.
- Of the Top 30 finishers there were two 22 minute runners, a 21:51, my 21:50 and a 21:48. All the rest were at or below 21:40 with the majority in the 20:xx range.
- Thus my run was one of the slower of the top finishers.

Final Analysis - the run is where I'm really losing my races; I currently don’t run with the faster AG racers and will need to lower those times to move up the ranks.