April 5, 2009, 26th Annual Great Clermont Triathlon - Race Wrap-Up

PHOTOS

26TH ANNUAL GREAT CLERMONT TRIATHLON SPRINT -
Swim .75K * Bike 22K * Run 5K
April 5, 2009 -
Clermont, Florida
By SOMMER SPORTS

1:13:37 made me 1st in the 30-34 Age Group of 10, 8th of 76 men and 8th of 110 people

Finish Swim Swim Trn1 Trans Bike Bike Bike Cum Cum Trn2 Trans Run Run Pace Place Name Age City/State Time Plc Time Plc #1 Plc Time Rate Plc Time Plc #2 Plc Time /mile
1 CHAD PILSTER 32 DELAND FL 1:13:37 1 12:11 3 2:38 1 34:51 22.7 1 49:39 2 0:57 3 23:01 7:25

Triathlon season has officially started and it started out on a pretty good note. I started training a little later this season than I had planned for and some of that showed, but otherwise I had a pretty good race.

The first race off was the Olympic distance. Since we were kicked out of transition when their race started I had to bring my wetsuit with me. This made it tough to warm-up my run, so I spent my warm-up focusing on my swim, doing some in water running and stretching. It's not the same thing as if you could get on a bike or put on your running shoes, but sometimes you have to make do.

The start went off great, I was up towards the front of the pack and kept a decent line through most of the race. It took me about the first half of the swim to get into a rhythm though, and once I was there things went smoothly. First-triathlon-of-the-season problems didn't arise until I was in transition. My wetsuit came off quickly, but getting my Rudy Project glasses and helmet on weren't as smooth as I would of liked. Then as I pulled my bike away I noticed something dragging. My wetsuit had caught on my bike and I had to back-up about 10 yards to put it back in my area.

Once I was on the bike I cruised. The course was pretty decently marked and slight hills at the beginning gave me a chance to catch my breath after the swim. There was two significant climbs, and I powered up them both with relative ease.

There wasn't any particular thing wrong with my transition off the bike, but it just didnt' feel smooth. I think I may work on transitions when I have a few extra minutes to spare during the day. If I can make my transitions smoother, I think I can bring 30sec-1min off my time.

Finally we came into the run. I felt like I was moving at a decent pace, but I definitely am not where I was last year at this time. This could be a good thing too. I think I had peaked a little bit too early last year. This year my goal is to peak at St. Anthony's in St. Petersburg in a few weeks and then go strong until the middle of my season when I hope to take a little bit of a break.

I have to say that I was a little irritated that the Sprint Distance race was looked on like the red-headed stepchild. We were kicked out of transition as soon as the Olympic race started (Which is understandable and I am used to) and then we weren't given awards until after the Olympic awards. This made for a VERY long day for a very short race.

Last years 25th anniversary event was one of my favorites of the entire season and I was looking forward to coming back, but after the way the event was run I don't know if I'm going to race any more Sommer Sports races. The race was great, but the event had it's issues. Some other things of note is that I found that there was a HUGE shortage of volunteers. Water stations that had 3-4 volunteers only had one. They ran out of filled goodie bags! The BBQ was one guy on one grill having trouble keeping up with the line of 20+ athletes. I also overheard a lot of chatter about how this may be the way these races are heading.

Hopefully this is just a recession blip, but I'm interested in hearing from others.

On to St. Anthony's!