I think I've competed in close to 20 races and I've been pretty fortunate with the weather. The heat and humidity at Patriot's Half in 2011 was rough. I've had close calls with rain but have never actually raced in it.
On Thursday, Set-Up events announced that the water temperature in the lake was 56 degrees and that it would likely mean the swim would be reduced to 400 meters. It didn't really warm up at all and at racetime on Saturday I believe the outside temp was only 49!
In order to get used to the cold, I decided to swim the entire swim course as my warm-up. 400 meters is about what I do as a warm-up in my typical swim sessions anyway. My wetsuit is sleeveless and towards the end of my warm-up I knew I was in trouble as my shoulders were numb. The bad thing about being in the first swim wave is that you have to stand around for a while after you warm-up as the pre-race ceremonies go on. By the time the gun went off I was literally shaking from being so cold.
The first 100 meters went okay, but after the turn buoy is was like that not only my body was freezing but my brain as well. For some reason I could only breathe to my left side and I was disoriented. I even had to resort to the backstroke a few times just to calm down. What should have taken me less than 7 minutes took just over 8.
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| What's cooler than being cold? Ice cold! |
Into T1 and I had even more trouble. Because of the cold I decided to wear a long sleeve shirt and gloves. Putting them on wet is hard enough but my hands were so cold it made everything take twice as long as it should have.
Finally on the bike and I immediately hammered it to make up time.
I've never rode this hard in a race and all those threshold rides paid off. For the first time in a race I didn't get passed on the bike. In fact, after the swim I never got passed once the rest of the race. I was almost a full minute faster than last year, which is a lot given it was only just over 12 miles.
T2 was uneventful and I stormed onto the run. The plan was to hold back and let the last mile be my fastest and I executed it perfectly. My first two mile splits were right at 6:30 and my last was 5:58. My total time of 20:04 was a 5K personal best and over a minute faster than last year!
Despite the cold I did have a good time. It's pretty clear I'm not a cold water swimmer and I may need to think about buying a fully sleeved wetsuit.
Smith Mountain Lake Sprint
1:08:10
13th out of 196 men
2nd out of 15 age group
Swim
8:18 - 62 overall/8 Age Group
T1
2:46 - 82 overall/10 Age Group - OUCH!
Bike
36:04 - 16 overall/3 Age Group
Run
20:11 - 10 overall/2 Age Group
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