Here is a little write up from Doug on the recent trip to Redman Triathlon in Oklahoma for the Halfmax National Championship…
The USAT National Championships is an interesting race to attend for several reasons.
First, it is the ITU Long Course World Championship qualifying race where the top 20 in each age group earn the opportunity to race on Team USA in the next Long Course World Championships. The next one will be June 1, 2013 in Belfort France and long course is typically 3X Olympic distance or 2.7mi swim, 87mi bike, 18.6mi run.
Second, this competition is held at different independent (non-IM) race venues each year.
Third, the USAT Club National Championships is historically held at the same time. CLubs complete against each other in 5 different divisions based on the number of members.
Fourth, there are several race options/distances that all count for the club championships. At Redman this year there was the Long Course Nationals (Half Iron distance), a sprint, an Olympic, a half IM distance, and a full IM distance race all going on.
Ok, here’s my short-ish race report. The race this year was held in Oklahoma City, I’ve never been to the Midwest for anything more than an airline layover so this was a first for me. Everything about OKC turned out to be easy, Southwest flights were convenient, OKC airport was similar to Hartford (small and quick to navigate), and the hotels, downtown, and race venue were all within 10 minutes of each other. The first thing I noticed was how really flat OK was, this was soon proved wrong but for now it was very strange. From our hotel room on the 9th floor we could see the transition area and swim buoys that were almost 4 miles away. We flew in on Thursday for the race on Saturday which didn’t leave much time for exploring but since race check-in didn’t open till 1pm on Friday we had plenty of time. We attended the practice swim on Friday morning and the drought out there had the water level very low. The concrete boat ramp where the swim start and finish used to be is now about 100yds from the waters edge! It was a good idea to swim since the water was very brown and dark, visibility was almost nothing. You don’t realize how good we have it in New England until you try swimming somewhere else. The swim buoys hadn’t been placed yet so there was nothing to sight on since the horizon was so flat, I was practically swimming in circles because every direction looked the same. The water was about 70 so wetsuits would be legal and that was some relief to us all. Later that day we registered and met Wendy Peel the USAT Club administrator and organizer of the upcoming NCC winter training competition so that was a nice bonus. We then found out that all Nationals competitors would be starting together in the first wave as a mass start, all IM athletes would be in the 2nd wave as a mass start, then all the regular half IM racers would be in waves after that….interesting since for awards all half IM racers would be grouped together. This meant that for age group awards you were racing against people who were starting 30 minutes later so you wouldn’t know how you were doing till after you finish. Now I know that triathlon is pretty much an individual time trial but I still like to be able to see and hopefully pass the people I’m competing with, I also saw a LOT of drafting in those later packs while the refs seemed to be only watching us in the first wave. The good thing was that to be eligible for the National Championship titles you had to have qualified to be in that race and in the first wave.
So, onto the race. Start was at 7:15 just as it was getting light out, it was a bit chilly and breezy but not too bad. The swim was similar to practice with poor visibility and difficulty sighting, people were swimming all over the place and times were all quite slow with I think only 2 swimmers breaking 30min. I got a great start and just kept the swim steady, I just wanted to get to dry land. The run to T1 was a bit slippery through wet red clay. We didn’t pre-ride anything but the first 2 miles of the bike course…we just expected it to be pretty flat…wrong. The bike course was an out and back with only a couple turns and was pretty much a 56 mile stretch of small rollers, some of which on roads in horrendous condition – very bumpy, frost heaves and amazingly large pot holes. You know you’re in for a tough day when the bike feels uphill and into the wind in both directions. The wind wasn’t too bad but it seemed constant no matter what direction we were headed. This was a bit disheartening when we (at least I) secretly thought this would be a good PR course. Since it was an out and back course I saw Jill after the turn-around but missed Tom and Mary while I was concentrating on not biking into one of the canyons in the middle of the street. By 10 o’clock it was getting hot, it had been in the mid 90’s all week and today was heading in that direction, the 2nd half of the bike was all about getting back to T2 with something left in my legs and keeping up with my nutrition/hydration.
Due to a great rack placement T2 was easy and I felt good heading out on the run. The run course was two laps, out and back, that followed the old shoreline, now it was just a sidewalk that you could sometimes see the water from. It was mostly concrete (tough on the legs) and twisty with lots of 90 degree turns and very little shade. After the turn around it was nice to finally be able to see Jill, Mary and Tom and we saw each other 3 more times which really helped to see them all moving along well. After the first lap all the other half IM people started mixing in so you had no idea who you were racing you just had to keep plugging away. The run also got congested quickly and passing was tricky at times with many walkers.
All in all it was a great experience, it’s so much fun traveling to these new venues and to see how some of these independent race organizers run things. A lady commented to us after the race that she was disappointed because they didn’t have any pickle juice out on the course…pickle juice? I’d never heard of that before and not sure I’d really like to drink any during a race either. Coming home with a couple of National Champions was a nice bonus too, congrats to Jill and Mary!!