Monster Mojo Triathlon 2017
May 14th 2017
1900 m swim, 50 mile bike, 12 mile run
A return to a race from last year - possibly the only time this occurs in this key race season. This year the Monster Mojo (almost a half iron) represents my "C" race.
Preparation week seemed smooth if a little heavy, and the day before the race I checked out the course with a slower and hence longer than anticipated ride. Generally I felt fairly familiar with the course, and not too nervous.
My hotel was literally 20 m from transition, which for me was a first! I woke up and realised the rain was coming down heavily, so nipped out with my bag and bike to set up, before coming back to my room (the proximity being a pleasant novelty, racking in the rain much less so). An hour later I was in my wetsuit and ready to go, leaving my room at the last minute to be briefed.
Stepping into the water was surprisingly cold - last year the weekend had been a hot one at 28 degrees and the water felt correspondingly warmer (18 degrees vs 16 degrees). However, due to it being so shallow it was warmer than my lakes at home (11 and 14 degrees) so I knew I could just about make the distance.
The start was fairly gentle in terms of being swum over as it was a small field of 120 or so. However, I did lose the leading pack almost instantly and ended up doing the full swim pretty much on my own. It was weedy, smelly and a couple of minutes faster than last year.
T1 was the dizziest I have ever experienced. Struggling to stay upright I gripped onto the racks, feeling glad that the person next to me was a no show, giving me some space. Not helping was the fact that I was having to fish stuff out of plastic bags, and it was still raining! However, I was soon onto the bike and feeling a bit more normal.
The start of the bike is very flat, and with little wind it was a good place to take om some nutrition, and slow down a bit to get the HR in control. This I duly did and by the time I reached the start of the main laps I was in control, albeit having been overtaken a lot. This trend continued through the first lap, but by the second the wind picked up. Combined with surprisingly tired legs, I was unsurprised that my speed was less than last year. The surfaces were also terrible. Described as "good" in the briefing, the piles of gravel, mud and huge areas of standing water made me wonder what would qualify as "poor" in their assessment...
Glad to be off the bike, I made a much less dizzy attempt at T2 (which turned out to be a winning one!) and set off onto the run. Again it took a while to settle my HR, but the first lap seemed smooth. Lap two and I noticed my pace dropping off for the same HR, but I remembered that by this time last year I was walking stints, so this was a definite improvement. Lap three was hard. The one where you want to give up. The sun was out and unwelcome, but I by now had a buddy (from Penrith) so we urged each other on and through to the last lap. My HR was now drifting up and up, but with under two miles to go and determined to beat last year, I successfully picked up the pace and eventually made the line, with "number 63 man" a little behind.
The relief of finishing was great as ever! I had hopped to be more than a couple of minutes faster than last year, but my pacing was much better, with a faster swim, slower bike, and no death by running - so overall a better race was executed.
Times
Total time: 05:26:05
Swim: 00:35:28
T1: 00:03:12
Bike: 02:59:04
T2: 00:00:56
Run: 01:47:28
Standings
Age category: 2/2 100%
Gender category: 6/17 35%
Overall category: 61/92 66%
Swim: 5/17 29%
T1: 4/17 24%
Bike: 8/17 47%
T2: 1/17 6%
Run: 7/17 41%
1900 m swim, 50 mile bike, 12 mile run
A return to a race from last year - possibly the only time this occurs in this key race season. This year the Monster Mojo (almost a half iron) represents my "C" race.
Preparation week seemed smooth if a little heavy, and the day before the race I checked out the course with a slower and hence longer than anticipated ride. Generally I felt fairly familiar with the course, and not too nervous.
My hotel was literally 20 m from transition, which for me was a first! I woke up and realised the rain was coming down heavily, so nipped out with my bag and bike to set up, before coming back to my room (the proximity being a pleasant novelty, racking in the rain much less so). An hour later I was in my wetsuit and ready to go, leaving my room at the last minute to be briefed.
Stepping into the water was surprisingly cold - last year the weekend had been a hot one at 28 degrees and the water felt correspondingly warmer (18 degrees vs 16 degrees). However, due to it being so shallow it was warmer than my lakes at home (11 and 14 degrees) so I knew I could just about make the distance.
The start was fairly gentle in terms of being swum over as it was a small field of 120 or so. However, I did lose the leading pack almost instantly and ended up doing the full swim pretty much on my own. It was weedy, smelly and a couple of minutes faster than last year.
T1 was the dizziest I have ever experienced. Struggling to stay upright I gripped onto the racks, feeling glad that the person next to me was a no show, giving me some space. Not helping was the fact that I was having to fish stuff out of plastic bags, and it was still raining! However, I was soon onto the bike and feeling a bit more normal.The start of the bike is very flat, and with little wind it was a good place to take om some nutrition, and slow down a bit to get the HR in control. This I duly did and by the time I reached the start of the main laps I was in control, albeit having been overtaken a lot. This trend continued through the first lap, but by the second the wind picked up. Combined with surprisingly tired legs, I was unsurprised that my speed was less than last year. The surfaces were also terrible. Described as "good" in the briefing, the piles of gravel, mud and huge areas of standing water made me wonder what would qualify as "poor" in their assessment...
Glad to be off the bike, I made a much less dizzy attempt at T2 (which turned out to be a winning one!) and set off onto the run. Again it took a while to settle my HR, but the first lap seemed smooth. Lap two and I noticed my pace dropping off for the same HR, but I remembered that by this time last year I was walking stints, so this was a definite improvement. Lap three was hard. The one where you want to give up. The sun was out and unwelcome, but I by now had a buddy (from Penrith) so we urged each other on and through to the last lap. My HR was now drifting up and up, but with under two miles to go and determined to beat last year, I successfully picked up the pace and eventually made the line, with "number 63 man" a little behind.
The relief of finishing was great as ever! I had hopped to be more than a couple of minutes faster than last year, but my pacing was much better, with a faster swim, slower bike, and no death by running - so overall a better race was executed.
Times
Total time: 05:26:05
Swim: 00:35:28
T1: 00:03:12
Bike: 02:59:04
T2: 00:00:56
Run: 01:47:28
Standings
Age category: 2/2 100%
Gender category: 6/17 35%
Overall category: 61/92 66%
Swim: 5/17 29%
T1: 4/17 24%
Bike: 8/17 47%
T2: 1/17 6%
Run: 7/17 41%
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