Below is my race report for the Oh My Goddard Olympic Triathlon from June 21st, 2015.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Ron P.
Oh My Goddard Olympic – 2015
““The rain to the wind said, You push and I’ll pelt.!” – Robert Frost
Sunday was the Oh My Goddard triathlon at Goddard Park in Warwick, RI. This event has both a Sprint and an Olympic on the same day, at the same time and share parts of the same course. I was participating in the Olympic. The weather called for heavy rain and unfortunately, the weathermen were right. I can only assume by all the space at the bike racks, there were a lot of no-shows. Truth be told, I thought I might be one of them and was thinking of racing the Will Speck 5K instead. Alas, I’m not very smart so a triathlon during a tropical storm was the choice I was to live with.
The Swim:
The swim was in Greenwich Bay. The beach faced North and the wind was coming out of the Southeast keeping the water flat and calm. I was in the first wave and there couldn’t have been more than 30 of us. In looking around at my fellow pink caps (second year in a row I was in the pink cap wave) I didn’t recognize all the normal people who would beat me at such a race and this gave me a bit of optimism. Then, BANG, the gun went off and the race began. There was far less pushing and jockeying for position than usual. By the time I hit the sharp turn at the first buoy about 150 yards out the pack had spread out. There were about 6 or 7 guys in the lead pack with the rest us plodding behind. About half way through the swim it began to pour. The rain was falling at such a rate I had a hard time seeing the big yellow buoys. I’d look up and all I saw was water and white splashes. At one point, I caught myself swimming straight for shore. I probably lost a good minute or so in total by not navigating well. When I rounded the last buoy the rain had slowed, but not stopped. I saw the lead pack of swimmers getting out of the water well ahead of me. I knew I would have my work cut out for me on the bike if I was going to finish well.
Swim time: 23.59
The Bike:
The 20 mile bike course was flat and would have been fast if not for the rain. There were a lot of corners in those 20 miles and my first goal was not to get hurt. With that said, my second goal was to start tracking down the amphibious people who got out of the water ahead of me. I think I passed 4 of them in the first 4 miles and slowly started closing on the rest. About 20 minutes in, I think it was Davisville Road, the rain and wind combined to create conditions bordering on biblical. The area was industrial and wide open and there was nothing to block the wind, which at this point was doing its best to shove me off the road. I may have even seen frogs falling from the sky….but I digress. The rain made visibility horrible and potholes were especially hard to spot. The flip visor on my Louis Garneau aero helmet was key. When biking into the wind, the visor was down, reducing visibility but not eliminating it by keeping the rain out of my eyes, and with the wind at my back the visor was up. At one point I was soft pedaling close to 30mph on flat ground with the wind at my back. The wind was insane! And there was so much water on the streets, there existed the possibility of hydroplaning. I passed a couple of other riders by mile 12 and by mile 15 I passed a volunteer who told me there were only two people ahead of me, and one of them I could see! And yes, I’m the ass who said to myself, “bitch, you’re going down!” I continued to try and track him down as we merged onto the Sprint bike course which provided even more riders for me to pass. I finally caught the rider from my wave as we got into T2 and I made out to the run course ahead of him.
Bike time: 56:55
The Run:
Both the Sprint and Olympic run courses started off in the same direction for a half mile or so. Out of T2, up the stone stairs and off into the woods; the wet, muddy, soft trail through the woods. As I ran out of T2 I knew there was only one other person in my wave still ahead of me and shortly after the split from the Sprint course, I saw him. His stride was long and his balance was suffering in the soft mud and slight ups and downs of the trail. I opted for quicker, shorter strides and tried to be careful where I stepped, especially considering all the wet horse manure I wished to avoid splattering all over my legs. It took another half mile to close the gap and after a brief exchange of friendly comments like, “nice job” and “this weather sucks,” I passed him. A few minutes later I was all by myself and I didn’t see another runner until the last 1.5 miles of the race when we merged back onto the Sprint course to the finish. It was nice to see people again.
Run time: 42:50
Overall:
Overall it was a fun day! To be clear, I did not win the race. I did however, finish first in my wave and thus I won my age my group. Overall I was 7th in a small field on a bad weather day. But hey, you can only race against the ones who are there! (-:
Overall time: 2:06:25