[NECTC] Buckman Sprint 2010

Finally! A sprint! This is the first repeat race of the NECTC season. The Buckman race was the first one of the season last year. This year, it is the third of the NECTC season. It was fun to repeat a course because you can see how much you’ve improved or where you’ve stayed consistent.

0.50 Mi SWIM --- 17 Mi BIKE --- 3.1 Mi RUN

This race was super thrilling because the Stevens Triathlon Team had its largest showing! We had a record 15 Stevens triathletes come out to race this morning. There were a total of 51 collegiate athletes at the race, so we accounted for almost 30% of the collegiate field! That’s crazy for how small of a school we are.. but we did get lucky because the race was so close to campus.

Now let’s jump into this sprinting domination.

Swim= 11:47 – 4th out of the water behind Luke, Matt, and Nick! Stevens 1,2,3,4!

Well this swim was fantastic!
We thought we were going to be in the first wave like last year, but they had put us in the last wave for some reason.. Later we found out that instead of the quarter mile swim, we were doing two laps of the swim course for a half mile swim! Hooray!! That made the day so much better! Because not only were we swimming a half mile, we were running out of the water and running back in at the end of the first lap! So much fun! It was going to be like an ITU race where they get out and run back in!

Marc was signed up for the age group race, so he was off in the first wave and we all cheered as he ran out of the water in first place!! Adding extra enthusiasm to the air, we all lined up and got ready for a running start into the water. I should not have started so close to the rope because I got shoved over pretty hard and the elbow throwing ensued yet again. Finally out of most of the mess, I freed myself after the buoy and focused on covering ground back up to the swimmers. I saw Matt at the run turn around and stayed close behind til the end of the swim. I came out of the water 4th for a Stevens 1-4 sweep in typical fashion.
Overall it was 20 seconds slower than last year’s swim, but it was a completely different course, so that doesn’t matter too much. It’s similar enough. I was happy with the swim and started to focus on cranking out the short bike.

T1= 1:02

Bike=:49:56 – 8th fastest collegiate bike time!
Average power = 194
Average speed = 20.48 mph

This power was significantly higher than Quakerman.. mostly attributed to the shorter distance, steeper hills, and more rest for my legs. The bike course was the exact same as last year. Luckily I didn’t fall and scrape up my leg like I did last year and everything went smoothly. Can’t say the same for Kim, who scraped her leg up badly after falling on the first turn and subsequently breaking her wheel’s rim. She’s fine now though, it just shook her up a bit and taught her to never pass on the right!
The hills were just as brutal as before, but I was way stronger getting up them. Last year, I remember focusing on the last hill and thinking it was so brutal as I was going through it. This year I floated up it and wondered if that was even the right hill I remembered because it was so much easier!
It was nice to focus on a race that was going to take less than an hour and keep my eye on my Power meter to make sure I was pushing hard all the time.
There’s quite a good improvement here. Last year, I went a 53:46 on the bike. So that’s a good 4 minute drop!
Swim & Bike Average Hear Rate = 182

T2= 0:49

Run = 23:10 – 21st collegiate run time – @ a 7:29 pace!
Average Run Heart Rate = 191

Well this run was brutal. Luckily my legs hadn’t cramped up like they did last weekend. I just ran as fast as I could and moved my arms as fast as possible and made my feet keep up. Getting up the hill was tough, but coming downhill was blazing. I was really just trying to run as fast as my little legs would let me, hence the ridiculous hear rate average.
Last year, I went a 25:54.. so I ran way faster! That’s pretty evident from my crazy heart rate average. The uphill section really made it tiring. This was just a little sprint practice for Westchester 10k next weekend!

Overall time = 1:26:43

I ended up with 1st place Collegiate Female Finisher and the 2nd overall female at the race!
Since every woman in the race besides the collegiate athletes were in the waves ahead of us, that means I passed a majority of the women during this race.

The awards section was fun because Patanella is crazy. He had a lot of stuff to give away, so he was making up weird competitions to give stuff out.

After the awards, we got our stuff out of Transition and went back to the cars. Marc’s car and Nicole’s car went to the closest Wendy’s and then we all went back to Hoboken. Great races always end in a frosty : )

Westchester is going to be a blast next weekend! My mom’s coming to the east side to visit me and watch the race!