John Tanner Sprint Triathlon

John Tanner
Triathlon – Sprint
Total Time :1:20:42
Age Group Rank:23/32

Pre-race

Saturday morning I woke up had a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter and honey and two bananas and loaded my things into the Green Machine and hit the road. I woke up with a sore throat that I hoped wouldn’t affect me and I honestly don’t think it did. On the road to the triathlon I happened to see two cars flipped on the interstate and I was calm the entire time. The thing I did the best on the day was not let the weather become a distraction for me. After a hellish run in October, not letting the weather become a distraction is amazing. Got to park ran straight to the bathroom and headed to get my packet and set up my transition area. I somehow was smart enough to bring a garbage bag to set on my transition bag so I was lucky to have dry shoes for the bike and run.

Warm-up

Right before the national anthem (best I’ve heard at a tri) I dipped myself in the water to get rid of the initial shock and went and hung out with the group. I haven’t exactly grasped the concept of warming up. This would later turn out to be huge mistake on my part during the swim.

Swim:
Goal - sub 12 mins
Actual – 12:48.2

I started the swim and felt fine for what seemed like the first 50 meters, then it was like all of hell broke loose. I have never been so afraid in the water in my life. I could not breathe at all. I swam out to the side to avoid the swimmers behind me and still could not catch my breath. So there I was floating on the outside thinking I was on my way to see Elizabeth like Fred Samford. I’m so happy there wasn’t any canoes on the outside of the loop because I seriously considered quitting after starting a second time and still not being able to breathe. After strategizing for what felt like forever I rolled over to my back and began back-stroking and saw blue caps (my wave) behind me and that gave me the confidence to continue. It wasn’t until the last 100 to 200 meters that I felt comfortable in the water. The timing mat wasn’t at the edge of the water but rather at the beginning of the transition since I walked from the water to transition I probably came in closer to 12. I've been told since the race that you should always get in the water and go as hard as you can for a few meters to warn your body of what's to come. Next time hopefully i'm smart enough to fix this.

T1 3:22
I should probably start my race reports after the race …j/k I walked all the way from the lake to my transition and slowly talked myself back into the race. I put on my race belt in hopes I would save a few seconds in the next transition. For some reason I wanted to sit down so badly in transition. That swim really had a adverse affect on me. I am notoriously bad at transitions and definitely need some practice.

Bike
Goal
Actual 37 mins (my watch)
I started the bike rather conservative not knowing or trusting where my level of fitness truly is on the bike. The one thing I focused on during the bike was drinking. Last year I had a really bad problem of cramping on the run and I think a big part of that was not drinking until I became thirsty and that usually didn’t happen til the run and that always was too late. After playing leap frog with some guy the first 9 miles I pushed as hard as I could the last two. I really need to spend more time focusing on the bike.

T2 1:29
Thought I had a relatively smooth transition but my watch says otherwise. I thought this transition would have been much faster being that I didn’t wear socks and I wore my race belt on the bike portion. After getting my shoes on I had a problem of getting them tied but I prefer to run with laces and not the quick strings so this is something I need to practice for the future. I honestly don’t understand how I’m so slow. I really need to improve my transitions.

Run
Goal 27 mins
Actual 25:22

Coming out of the transition I felt great. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so good starting out a run. I exited the transition with a All3Sports girl and ran with her until I realized that I should probably slow down if I didn’t want to be forced to walk later. In retrospect, I wish I was able to turn my mind off and run with her longer, because I was in no pain, and she was moving. While cruising along on the run, my mind began to wonder and it convinced me that I hadn’t press the timing button for my transition on my garmin, which I had. So for the last 2.25 miles I was on my own without any idea of how fast I was running or my overall time, which wasn’t a bad thing, but I definitely needed to something to occupy my thoughts. There was one section where I had to walk and Matt came up and told me not to stop, which helped me find a cruising pace. There I was cruising along until I passed Jon Reckers on the way back in and he warned me that he was going to catch and pass me. Now, Jon is a much faster runner than I am, but the challenge to not let him catch me was very good motivation to find a pace where I was working. Needless to say Jon never caught me but he definitely pushed me to a PR on a 5K (I’ve never run a official 5K but I have had a timed 5k run and it was 26:16). Overall this was a really good run for me, made even better by teammates. Hopefully the running improvements keep coming and the injuries stay away.

What would I do different
Well I only beat my rival by seconds so I really need to work on my transitions for Chattanooga. I'm sure I gave up at least a minute in the transition. I also need work on my focus on the run. I have to be mentally prepared to race a long with the physical part. Outside of the swim and transitions, I was satisfied with my effort. I know going forward if you're allowed to warm up for the swim, jump in the water and warm up. I never want to experience a swim like this again in my life. If my schedule allows I think I may do the second John Tanner later to see just how much I have improved.