Eastside Sprint Triathlon Race Report

On Sunday morning I raced in the Eastside Sprint Tri, held behind a Honda ATV and jet ski dealership on I-10 in Baytown. It was a strange location — racing next to a major interstate — and I was apprehensive about the course, not to mention the hot, humid weather.

After driving over to pick up my packet on Saturday, I was still uncertain of what the course would be like. The feeder road that we’d be biking in and out on was under major construction west of the race site, and the idea of racing on a single lane of feeder next to cars was not appealing. Fortunately, the race was able to have the police shut down the feeder during the event, so traffic was not a concern on that portion.

I arrived at the race site with plenty of time to spare. The transition racks were open, meaning you could rack anywhere you wanted. This was a bit disappointing, since the race instructions had said that racks would be assigned by number, and discovering that they were open meant that all the good spots next to the bike exit were taken. Oh well. Since I can still jog reasonably fast in my bike shoes, I went with the next best thing in my opinion and racked my bike right next to the swim entrance and run exit.

We had to walk a few hundred yards over to the swim start. The swim was in a nice little pond behind the Honda dealership where I assume they test-ski their jet skis. The water was uncomfortably warm (nothing to be done about that — it’d been hellishly hot all week), but very clear. I entered as an Athena and was thus in the very last wave, as usual. I hate how Athenas are always placed in the last wave!

After watching five waves start ahead of me, I was finally in the water and started the race! Now is the time to mention that oh yes, did I tell you that I had run 7 miles the previous day? I knew going into the race that I’d be just racing for fun and not to PR, but I don’t think I realized how much the 7-miler would take out of me for the race. Yeah, I’m pretty thick-headed sometimes.

The warm water immediately made the swim tough. I felt more winded and tired than I normally do, and as I looked around, I saw that I was somewhere in the middle of the pack. The swim is the one event that I can usually hang in the top third, so I was a little bummed. I kept going, even though I did a fair amount of breaststroke. In the last 200 meters, the swim course became extremely challenging as it turned such that we were swimming directly into the rising sun. I couldn’t see a thing! Sighting the buoys was extremely difficult, so much that I actually paused a couple times to shield my eyes with my hand just to make sure I wasn’t too off course.

My final 500 meter swim time was 10:43. I didn’t know my time until I saw the results, and I was actually quite pleased. I expected to be slower based on how I felt. That time was 87/204 overall, which is still in the top half of all racers, men and women. Woot.

I spent 1:16 in transition and headed out on the road. I never really felt great on the bike, and it’s where I first began to feel the effect of the previous day’s 7-miler. My quads began aching within the first couple miles, and never really stopped. Despite my issues, the bike course itself was nice. Miles 4-9 were especially pretty, following a country road with tall trees, some shade, and a couple rolling hills. At one point I was mesmerized by the sight up ahead of a cyclist pedaling through the visible rays of the sun passing through tree branches. You could see the rays of light in the air, and it was really pretty.

Miles 9-13 were pretty nasty, solely because the road surface was unsealed asphalt. It was uncomfortable, and it slowed me down by 1-2 mph. I had been tipped off about the road conditions by a post on the HRTC forums, but it didn’t make it any more enjoyable. After mile 13, I saw some racers ahead of me continuing to ride on the unsealed shoulder of the road, but I moved onto the main road, where the pavement had been there long enough that there was a strip of asphalt that had been somewhat smoothed by passing cars.

I finished the bike course in 56:49. The race said 16 miles, my Garmin read 15.5, but either way I was under an hour so I decided to be satisfied enough with that. I really would’ve liked to average above 17 mph, but I didn’t quite make it. I blame the asphalt! 🙂

I spent a quick 1:03 in transition and headed out on the run. Immediately, I knew that I would be run/walking, as I felt completely zapped of energy, and the heat was not helping. The run was entirely on grass and dirt (well, mud) and was basically an extremely zig-zaggy out and back around the U-shaped pond we’d swum in earlier. Because of an isolated but heavy rain storm the night before, the original race course was partially underwater. They’d had to design a new run course that morning — which explained the zig-zags. They also had to cut the course from 3 miles to 2.5 miles, something that I was certainly not complaining about at that point.

I had forgotten to take my Garmin off my bike, so I had no indication of time or pace. I just ran, then walked, then ran, then walked, over and over. It was by far my worst run in a triathlon this year, and maybe ever. That said, I did manage to cover the course in 28:48 for a pace of 11:31. I had been certain that my pace was over 12:00 so I was actually happy to see the result.

My final time was 1:38:39. It was good enough for 1st place out of three Athena entrants, despite the fact that it was not a great race for me.

You can check out my race photos here. Just click on “next” to scroll through them. Tri shorts do nothing to minimize my giant hips, that’s for sure.

I’d consider doing this race again next year, although I’m not certain. I liked the swim course — except swimming into the sun was horrible. I liked the bike course — except the road conditions were awful in parts. I liked the run course — except for the zig-zags and mud. The course is what it is, and the race can’t do anything about the sun and the road and the run course being underwater, but I wasn’t thrilled. The race organization, however, was great and post-race was fun.