This past weekend I was in Traverse City, Michigan again for the Traverse City Triathlon. The race takes place about five miles from where I grew up, is put on by two guys I ran track with in high school, and was the site of my very first triathlon (in 2013). It's a great course with some beautiful views on a sunny day.
Going into the race I was hoping to improve on my time and overall standing from last year and I was hoping to place in the top three of my age group (last year I was fourth in my age group with some pretty horrendous transition times). Unfortunately the age group improvements were not to be. This year the competition was much stiffer and I went from 4th in my age group last year to 7th this year. But I moved up in the overall from 30-something to 14th. So overall I'll take it.
Swim:
The water was cool again this year but not too cold. It was an overcast day and it had rained recently so the normally crystal clear water wasn't, but it was still a great place for the swim. I'm pretty sure I did a better job of staying on course this time and had a pretty good swim overall. I'm also pretty sure my swim was about a minute slower than last year's though (I didn't do nearly enough swim training).
T1:
My transition this year was much, much faster than last year. My one flub was trying to mount the bike right out of transition, seeing the mount line was still a few feet away, having to stop getting on the bike to run up to the line and then remounting. Oh well.
Bike:
We flew to Traverse this year so I rented a bike for the race. It was a good bike, but it would have been nice to have my aero bike on this course (it wouldn't have been worth the money or hassle to get it out there for a sprint, but it would have been nice nonetheless). I had a chance to ride the course earlier in the week so there weren't really any surprises. I was only passed by one person the whole ride and he was part of a relay team. Overall a good ride.
T2:
As with the first transition, this was much smoother and faster than last year's. It's amazing what practice and knowing what you're doing can accomplish.
Run:
My run time wasn't bad and I felt a lot slower than I was. So I guess that's a good thing. But I did feel slow. Once again though, I wasn't passed on the run and actually managed to pass some people. That's always a good thing.
Here I am taking the last curve into the finish line.
Overall it was a good race and a good tune-up for the Lobsterman (Olympic distance) that's coming up in a few weeks.
