I tried to race
Well I tried to get the triathlon season started last
Saturday, but I only succeeded to start about 60% of
it. I was signed up to race in a smaller OLY triathlon
on Saturday out on the southeast side of Orlando. I
planned to get there quite early to ride a loop of the
bike coure, run a loop of the run course, and get a
good swim in before the start.
Somehow absolutely none of the above happened and I
found myself in the transition area setting up my bike
with just a couple minutes before the start. I didn’t
even have my wetsuit on yet. So much for warming up. I
got over to the start and heard the race director say
“we didn’t mark the bike course very well.” Awesome. I
didn’t get a look at the bike course map either.
The race started and I felt pretty crappy until the
first loop of the swim was done. Missing a warm up
hurt me, but that’s what first races are for: getting
used to feeling uncomfortable again.
I got out in a decent position to the leaders and hit
the bike hard. I was making good progresss, but
eventually I realized I had cut the bike course.
Instead of backtracking I decided to ride hard to the
finish to get some power data, turn my timing chip in,
and run 90 minutes on my own. I felt really good on
the bike so this was rather unfortunate.
After running one loop of the bike course on my own I
came back to the post-race tent to get a snack and it
appeared that everyone in the Elite wave had cut the
course and continued racing. The problem was that
everyone cut it in a different way (not
intentionally). A lot of them were angry with the race
director and I don’t blame them, but, at the same
time, I also don’t blame the race director. At least,
I don’t place the blame solely on either party.
It is an athlete’s responsibility to know the course,
but I think its also the race director’s
responsibility to mark a course well. Thing is, he had
the course marked very well on every turn (with
flaggers, cops, etc), except the one everybody missed.
A simple cone with an arrow would have solved
everything
It happens. I didn’t let it get me down. I got some
good training in regardless of what happened. I’ll be
racing on the first weekend of April so at least I got
a little taste of what’s to come.
-jd
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