Cochiti was a number of firsts for me, first open water triathlon, first competitive swim in a wetsuit and first Olympic distance triathlon. My training had gone pretty well so I was really looking forward to it albeit a little nervous and concerned about pacing to make sure I had enough left in the tank for the run. Me and Jaclyn got up pretty early the morning of the race and drove down to
I did get chance to get accustomed to the wetsuit again (only one previous open water swim a few weeks ago!) with a little warm-up and then it was onto the race start. The Elites went first and then it was split into age group male/female waves. I think I was the 3rd wave to go and wasn’t really ready for the start – down by the shore it was tough to hear the countdown, especially with ear plugs in….So the swim started by the boat dock and was triangle course, clockwise around a couple of buoys. The first stretch I realized I was going a little too quick and eventually got into a decent rhythm, I wasn’t too bothered about keeping up with the faster swimmers, just concerned about keeping good technique and getting to the end without being too anaerobic. The only thing that made the first stretch a little tougher was some guy who couldn’t keep a straight line and swam in a zig-zag right in front of me, he’d have been well clear of me if he happened to swim straight! I eventually gave up slowing down to let him cut in front of me and I kinda swam over him – oops! - needless to say he didn’t cut in front of me again. As I said earlier, this was only my second open-water swim ever, my first was with Eric Lujan who ran an open water swim clinic at Cochiti a few weeks earlier and he really gave me some good tips on sighting, stroke and swimming in a group which definitely helped me out – especially with sighting and staying on course. At the first turn, I realized I’d been swimming into the wind so the second leg was much easier and I managed to get a good pace going. This had its downside as after the second buoy and the stretch back to shore, the wind had picked up a little and things got a little more choppy and a little more difficult but I kept my composure and got back to shore without much difficulty. So I took Pats advice and stripped down my wetsuit and took it off at the shore, I think people may have thought I was a little odd as everyone else was running past struggling with their suits but pretty soon I had mine off and over my shoulders on my way to T1. This did seem to help in the long run, in T1 all I had to do was worry about the usual stuff without the complication of the wetsuit and it gave me an extra little breather at the shore and of course if Pat says that’s the way to do it, who am I to argue!
T1 was pretty smooth, unrushed and probably a little slow, but not to worry. So the bike start isn’t the nicest, it’s a steep uphill for just under a mile before turning left onto the dam wall. The road surface here isn’t the greatest, it’s got a fair bit of gravel on it and these small stones were frequently pinged against the guard rails from the tires. This stretch was about 10 miles or so, and then it’s onto the road which heads out onto Highway 22 towards I-25 and after the dam wall, this was smooth and freshly resurfaces – it was a beautiful transition! I managed to keep my speed up on this stretch after being passed by quite a few people on the wall, it’s a gentle uphill to the turn around and there was a light breeze which turned into a headwind on the return leg which headed back along the road to the boat dock. This ended with a mile or so of uphill to the turn off and then that steep downhill back to the dock. My back was killing me from around mile 20 and no amount of stretching seemed to right it which hammered home the fact I really need to get a bike fit – it really wasn’t much fun! The bike was pretty much OK, as usual I’d like to have generated a bit more speed but I don’t think I’ll get a penalty for drafting Clay for quite some time.
T2 was smooth and quick, the one thing I should remember in future is not to hang the wetsuit on the rail directly above my running shoes and socks. Not that this is a major problem, but I’m convinced that extra couple of ounces of water slowed by run down by at least 6 minutes……. The run was pretty tough, it was that same exit out from the boat dock and onto the dam road, and at this stage, the sun was coming out and starting to bake us. The first mile was really tough and it was a bit of a hard slog up the hill but I kept telling myself, wait for the dam wall and you’ll get your running legs under you. It was great to see Clay powering away in the opposite direction with a great lead and high-fives were definitely in order. Of course, I didn’t quite get my running legs under me and upto the turn around was a gentle uphill which I’d convinced myself would help me get the hammer down on the return leg. At the turn around point, this didn’t happen either and I failed to get any kind of good running feeling at all but it definitely lifted my spirits to see all the Triatomics out there also having fun on the run. It progressively got hotter and before the final right turn back down the steep descent to the finish was another relatively steep climb which seemed wind free and the sun just baked me – this was probably the hardest part of the day, and I ended up walk/running up parts of it – I felt like I was burning up but nearly home and running uphill with Bill Geist ripping past me like it was a recovery run! Finally at the steep descent back to the dock I almost ran well – gravity can be kind sometimes – and dragged myself over the line for the finish.
I really enjoyed the race – I thought the organization was brilliant and the guys at Sport Systems did a really good job. The course was really well marked, with markers every km (mentally demanding on the run though!) on both the run and bike routes, the preliminary results were up really quickly with age group breakdowns too. The course was good, the bike was pretty quick and nice with a couple of hills thrown in and you might have gathered that I thought the run was tough – partly due to the weather – and another water station would have been appreciated on the run but I’m sure that’s volunteer limited. As a club we took home a bunch of silverware, Clay and Toma took the mens and womens Elite wins and plenty of others placed well in their age groups. All in all, an awesome turn out and an awesome race!
