Motor City Tri Report

Yesterday was my favorite tri:  the Motor City Tri put on by 3 Disciplines racing, a company owned by my high school pal Kenny.  It's held on Bell Isle, in Detroit, my hometown.  It was also my pal Ken's first time doing this tri. 

The distances and my times from last year:

1500 meter swim: 32:25.
T1:  2:10.
23.8 mile bike:  1:14:17.
T2:  1:20.
6.2 mile run:  1:07:43 (last year was an odd distance, 6.6). 

My goal was to go sub-3 hours with a specific goal of 2:47.

The wetsuit legal swim is about 500 meters upstream/nearly calm, then 750 downstream, finishing up with 250 with almost no current.  The first 500 always seems hard because you can't wait to get to the downstream part where it feels like you're flying.  I finished up the swim in 31:27, shaving nearly a minute off last year and a new PB for the distance.  Very happy.

A decent run to T1 and since there are no wetsuit strippers, you're on your own in getting it off.  I came into transition with my wetsuit at my waist and stripped off the rest with some struggle.  T1 total:  2:06, almost exactly the same as last year.

The bike is 4 almost flat laps around the island but this year was a little harder due to some wind and much warmer temperatures compared to last year.  I was also having bike computer issues so even though I knew I was pushing, I had no idea fast I was really going.  The goal was 20 mph.  Ended up finishing this leg is 1:12:03 or a 19.6 average.  More than 2 minutes faster than last year.

T2 was basically ripping off my helmet and bike shoes and putting on my visor and running shoes.  It's a rather large area so some of the time is wasted getting to your gear and then exiting transition:  1:23 this year, the same as last year.

The run was a new but still flat course this year.  I guess I did push rather hard on the bike as my run ended up being 1:07:30 or a 10:52/mile pace.  Also did this without knowing my exact pace but that's no excuse, really.

Grand total was 2:52:20, smashing the 3 hour mark and about 5 minutes above my pre-event goal. 

There's always next year, right?