Jay Benson May 9th 2010 Race Report

This was my first Jay Benson and I thought it was a pretty good race. I decided to drive down that morning which meant a pretty early start but it did mean I could get a proper breakfast! The organizers recommended leaving an hour to get through the guard gates so we left at about 4.30am to get to the gate at 6.30ish, an hour through and a race start at 8am. The traffic was clear as expected, although heading out for a race while people were on their way home from a night out was quite amusing! Getting through the guard gates was quick (10 mins!?) so we were there well before the start. This was quite good though as it gave me plenty of time to set up and relax before the race (and gave Jaclyn time for a nap in the car while I fussed about at transition). I bumped into Laurie on the way to the transition area and we both managed to get bike slots by the bike exit meaning less running in bike shoes and Clay later joined us in the same rack so we had a nice little Triatomics line up. Getting the packets and number was really easy that morning and they were doing a bagless packet pick up so as to minimize the amount of junk handed out and the number of plastic bags going to waste and it was really good, just get your number and chip, pick out a water bottle and get your shirt and away you go, no sifting through 20odd flyers just to put them in the trash.
Andy before the race:

and giving thumbs up at the start line of Wave 2:

So onto the race. It started in several waves, the first to go were the teams and elites and then waves at 3 minute intervals sorted by age groups with males first, then females. I thought this worked pretty well, but I was in the second wave so things were relatively clear for me but I guess AG women may have a different tale to tell. The run went out onto pretty open roads and was pretty quick, it starts with a very gradual downhill and then heads around and then back to transition with a very gradual uphill. The run went pretty well, I managed to keep a reasonable and steady pace at a good effort with still leaving some in the tank and it was easily my best run in a Tri and only a little slower than my current best 5km time at sea level so I was really pleased with that – putting in the miles over winter for an early spring marathon seem to have paid off. The transition was pretty smooth for my first race of the year, but seeing as we’d managed to get a bike slot near the exit, the bikers for the relays we blocking my bike rack and exit and seemed a little oblivious to my presence until I “gently persuaded” them to clear a slight path for me to exit with the tact and diplomacy only an English man could muster……

The bike was a nice loop actually, the majority of the road seemed to be pretty freshly resurfaced apart from one section which had SR4 characteristics but we’re all used to that kind of surface right? The route is quite quick and it was possible to keep a pretty good pace up, the first half is relatively flat and then the second half has some gentle hills in it. I’ve not managed to spend as much time on the bike as I would have liked so far this year and my legs did begin to get a little heavy with about 4 miles to go so probably slacked off a little and would ideally have liked to be at least a minute or two quicker and should have just cranked it but I wanted to save something for the pool. The second transition was quite nice, racking the bike near the exit where there were now no relay people to get in the way - either they’d all gone or my diplomacy had worked better than I’d expected. It was a short run to the pool entrance and I forgot to unclip my race belt but left that poolside. The pool’s pretty nice and it was a standard snake style 400m pool swim. It was pretty clear, only two spots were congested and I managed to clear through those pretty easily and there were a few folks doing nice wide breast stroke to navigate. With hindsight, I’m glad I left a little in the tank on the bike leg as the last 50m I was gasping pretty hard for air, then it was out of the pool and over the line.

L-R: Laurie, Miguel, Bill B.

All in all it was a good race, I was happy with my performance (did I mention the chest infection for the 2 weeks prior?) and it was a good marker for the other races I’m planning on doing this year. All the other folks seemed to have good races too – Clay took 3^rd overall and Laurie, Dina and Amy all got 2^nd in their age groups. There were also a bunch of other Triatomics there (Mehdi, Bill, Scott, Randy and probably a few others – my apologies if I forgot anyone!) and everyone seemed to have a good race. It was well organized and there was plenty of course support.

Clay and Mehdi before the race: