Tidewater Internation tri race report

Distance was a little odd for this race.
1500 meter swim / 21 mile bike / 10 k run - so not officially an olympic distance, but close enough.

Had to travel to Virginia Beach for this race, and it was on a Saturday so the schedule was a bit hectic, but we managed to get up there, eat some pasta, check into the hotel and get settled just before 10pm, so I was happy to be getting close to 6 hours of sleep. Woke up race morning at 4:20, watched the weather channel until 4:30 then got up to eat. That's when I realized I forgot to stop and get milk and water for breakfast. Went out of the room to check for vending options, but they only had ice. Downstairs everything was closed and I could not see anything close out the doors. Luckily the tap water did not suck and I went ahead and had my grapenuts with dried cranberries with just water. In a pinch it ended up being not bad. Then started the packing up process and was out the door right on schedule at 5:30.
Arrived at race site at 6am and parked and was in transition in no time. One snag that bugged me was they advertised on the site women's specific sizes and since my wife is small and always complains that she never gets a shirt that fits I ordered a woman's small. When I went to pick it up the lady looked at it funny, then up at me and I said, "yes I asked for a woman's small, it's from my wife" she said, "oh okay, I need a woman's small" response was we are out of woman's small but he can have a men's small. I said if you can't give me what I ordered, give me an extra large. The woman was like you can't change sizes, so I said ok, I asked for a woman's small, give me what I ordered. She looked a bit confused then went to ask someone. She came back with, take the small and come back at 7, side note race starts at 7, and we will try to exchange it. So I took it, then went back 2 minutes later to someone else and said, "they gave me the wrong size". he looked at me, then at the small and said, yes they did, what size do you want. XL please, here you go.
So luckily the rest of the day was uneventful, at least until the results...
On to the fun stuff
Total time: 2:27:07

Swim: 26:44 - The swim was a two loop 750 meter course. with a short run in the middle. The first loop I nailed my sighting and directions and swam straight to the two turn buoys, I jogged back to the start and looked at my watch and saw 13:00. The second loop was not as smooth. I had the bright idea to swim left and let the current carry me to the turn buoy. I guess there was no current as I went way left and wasted some time getting to the first buoy. I hit the turn and knew I was behind so I picked up the pace and pushed all the way back. Ended up going 44 seconds slower on the second lap so my bad directions cost me about a minute.

T1: 2:31 - long jog to transition, full wetsuit to remove, then helmet, glasses, shoes and go.

Bike: 1:00:48 - This also was two lap course and it was an out and back. It was all flat and there was not much wind, so very fast. Early on I had picked up a shadow and didn't want to get a drafting penalty so I put in a couple surges and lost him. then on the second loop one guy went by me and I tried to hand on, at legal distance of course, and this helped me pick up the pace again. Just under 21 mph ave it was one of my fastest bike splits, so I was very happy. But the run in the humidity was about to come.

T2: 1:51 - pushed hard on the bike so this transition went slower than I would have liked, but nothing went wrong and I remembered my number and hat, so I'll take it.

Run: 55:15 - guess what, another 2 lap out and back flat course. Started off ok, legs felt heavy, but not bad and after 1/2 mile I started getting smoother and feeling better. First mile was 8:35 so I said to myself when I get to mile 2 I'll walk until 18 minutes since my goal was to break a 9 min pace for the run if I could run an 8:30 with a walk every two miles I would be right on, but I got to mile 2 at 17:15 and was feeling good so I just kept running and decided to walk when I got done with lap 1 at the water stop. But once again I got to mile 3 at 25:05 and had a nice cushion of almost 2 minutes, but I just couldn't stop and walk in front of all those people, so I kept going. Mile 4, then 5 came and went still no walking, still kept saying I'll walk at the next water stop. But then finally I turned onto the final stretch with about 1/2 mile to go into a head wind and I had just gotten water and it was still in my hand so it happened, I stopped and walked while I drank and mentally got ready for the final push. started running again and hit mile 6 at 52 minutes I was thinking I would finish under 54, but someone apparently messed up the course marking as the final .2 took me 3:15. still broke the 9 minute per mile goal with an 8:53.

If you like flat and fast, this is the race for you. At just under Olympic distance, 21 on the bike instead of 24 something, you can really fly. In fact the swim had more hills on it than either the bike or run.