Five Decker Triathlons

Over the past two years and six weeks, I’ve finished five triathlons at Walter E. Long Park, following substantially the same course – swimming in Decker Lake, biking on the hilly roads around the lake, and running on the rocky, grassy, muddy trail inside the park. Three of the triathlons were Couples and two were Danskins. The first three at this venue offered a 12-mile bike course, while the two most recent cut the bike course to 11.2 miles. It’s interesting to compare my most recent race with the other four.

At long last, a week has passed and I’m free to look at my splits from Couples last week. Though it was hard not to peek, I’m glad I could keep my promise to myself to focus on fun and to stop obsessing over every tenth of a second. Overall, I’m happy with my race. The 11 people who took longer to finish probably had difficulties with their equipment. Enough time has passed that there’s no point in beating myself up for making mistakes. Of course, I shouldn’t beat myself up even in the heat of battle. I’ll practice taking a positive attitude to everything I do because there’s very little I can control on race day (or at any other time, for that matter). Things just happen, like my dead battery this morning, a frantic call to my son for a jump, and a hasty trip to an auto parts store for a new battery. Glad it wasn’t worse.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, so to speak, the story continues. Although I prefer a clockwise swim and this one was counter-clockwise, I thought I’d had a good swim, and I did because I was able to draft a lot. This was my best pace ever at Decker Lake – 4:06/100 M for 800 meters with a total of 32:46. For me, that’s smoking fast! Thank you, fast swimmers in later wave starts. You pulled me along. I’m also happy that I did freestyle the whole way and didn’t have to stop to catch my breath.

My T1 was right in the middle of these five races at 3:46. I need to practice my transitions a lot more than I do. I need to develop a sure-fire way to lay out my gear instead of proceeding in somewhat a haphazard fashion. I sense another checklist in the offing.

I thought I’d had a better bike than it turned out to be, so it’s good that I was focusing only on the fun of the race. I love those big downhills! Not even the stinging insect in my bike glasses bothered me. I just whipped them off and stuck them down the front of my jersey. My average speed was 11.5 mph for the 11.2 miles with a total of 58:30. Last year at Couples, I was quite a bit slower on the bike. I’m happy to have improved over last year, though my speed was faster in the first three Decker races.

If I can indulge in one gripe, I think my bike would have been a few seconds faster if a guy hadn’t cut me off at the hard right turn just before the first short, steep hill that we call Little Mr. Tard. I was going moderately fast and wide, gearing down, and preparing to muscle my way up that unforgiving hill. Instead, I had to brake like crazy and lost momentum. When I dropped to 3 mph, I got off the bike and walked it the rest of the way to the top. Oh, well. He was racing while I was out for the fun. I used the walk to take in water, electrolytes, and shot blocks. I also encouraged others who were walking their bikes up. That’s a tough hill. None of the others bothered me at all.

This T2 was my slowest ever for this venue at 4:48, so ditto on practicing a lot more. I might as well have phoned in for pizza and had lunch. Since getting into my running socks and shoes takes so long, I’ll practice running without socks and will look for a long-handled shoe horn in order to avoid plopping down on the ground to put on my shoes. I’ll also look for some better shoe laces.

I knew during the race that my run/walk was a struggle, so I wasn’t surprised to see that it was my second slowest on that course – 17:07 per mile for 3.1 miles with a total of 53:05. Not only was the weather hot and humid at 10:00 a.m., but also for the first time in my racing life, I experienced gastrointestinal distress and really needed a porta-pottie. I kept looking for a big bush to hide behind but there were too many runners and volunteers around for me to find enough privacy to pacify my nudity timidity. I know, I know. I should get over that hang-up. Maybe next year. Consider yourself warned.

Looking at all five races at Decker Lake, I’m happy with my most recent results. This was my second fastest finish. At 2:32:56, I was only 1:04 slower than I was at Danskin a year ago. I’m not sure how to factor in the slightly shorter race course this year, but I’m just not going to worry about it. I have the evidence I need to convince myself that, although I’m not getting any faster, I’m not slowing down much either. There’s something to be said for finding your happy race pace and just being consistent with it. Racing is fun and I want to keep it that way so I can do it as long as possible.

I’m now keeping my training and motivation logs in a different location because I write them every day in pencil in a notebook. There’s something satisfying about writing my accomplishments in cursive. It’s highly satisfying to have made a series of small decisions leading up to what amounts to a serious commitment to doing the necessary training for Worlds. Some time ago, I was freaking out about Worlds. Now, I’m much calmer and much more focused on what I need do. That's progress!