Ocean Shores Sprint race report
07-09-06, 10:17 PM
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Ocean Shores Sprint race report
This was this past Saturday morning (7/8) in Ocean Shores, WA, a town that is literally on the Pacific ocean coast 75 miles east of Olympia. It was a whole weekend of racing, with an Olympic distance race 2 hours prior to the sprint, a 5/10K run afterwards, and a 1/2 IM and 1/2 marathon on Sunday. This was the first year for any of these races at this location, and the sprint at least went very well; no registration hitches and the bike and run courses were well marked. No results have been posted yet.
The 1/4 mile swim was an open water start (we treaded water for a few minutes before the gun went off), swam out to the left side of a buoy, made a counter-clockwise turn and came back on the right side. The bad news is that I breathe on my left during races and didn't do a good job of sighting the buoy so I went a far way off course. The really good news is that all the open water swimming I have done since early June has finally paid off - this was the first race ever where I did the whole swim leg without any backstroke, so I was really pumped about that.
The 20K bike leg was completely flat, except for a few bumps where the road went over the lake. Traffic was held for us so we didn't have to stop. There were no stop lights and no stop signs; I might have touch the brakes twice in total, on 2 tight corners. This was my first race using my new Rotor Q rings (ovalized chain rings) on my P3, and between those, the flat terrain, and a 95 RPM cadence I had an absolute blast - my legs never tired and think I set a bike leg PR; I'll have to check the final results to be sure. Passed lots of people.
The 5K run leg was also completely flat out and back down to the beach from Duck Lake. The Forrunner 305 I used for the run took a long time to get a satellite lock so I ddn't get a good run time out of it. Apart from a 100 yard finishing sprint to re-pass some folks that passed me near the end, the run was uneventful.
I knew several other folks that were there (my coach and his wife, among others) and expected them to get awards from the prior Olympic race so I hung around for the ceremony. I got to talking with the guy standing next to me, a father of one of the younger athletes, but listened with half an ear for names I recognized as the awards were given out. Much to my surprise I heard my last name and town being called out in 2nd place in a time around 1:21, which is a big sprint PR for me (by 7 minutes). Since it wasn't 2nd overall, it must have been age group; I'll know for sure once the placque arrives in the mail.
The 1/4 mile swim was an open water start (we treaded water for a few minutes before the gun went off), swam out to the left side of a buoy, made a counter-clockwise turn and came back on the right side. The bad news is that I breathe on my left during races and didn't do a good job of sighting the buoy so I went a far way off course. The really good news is that all the open water swimming I have done since early June has finally paid off - this was the first race ever where I did the whole swim leg without any backstroke, so I was really pumped about that.
The 20K bike leg was completely flat, except for a few bumps where the road went over the lake. Traffic was held for us so we didn't have to stop. There were no stop lights and no stop signs; I might have touch the brakes twice in total, on 2 tight corners. This was my first race using my new Rotor Q rings (ovalized chain rings) on my P3, and between those, the flat terrain, and a 95 RPM cadence I had an absolute blast - my legs never tired and think I set a bike leg PR; I'll have to check the final results to be sure. Passed lots of people.
The 5K run leg was also completely flat out and back down to the beach from Duck Lake. The Forrunner 305 I used for the run took a long time to get a satellite lock so I ddn't get a good run time out of it. Apart from a 100 yard finishing sprint to re-pass some folks that passed me near the end, the run was uneventful.
I knew several other folks that were there (my coach and his wife, among others) and expected them to get awards from the prior Olympic race so I hung around for the ceremony. I got to talking with the guy standing next to me, a father of one of the younger athletes, but listened with half an ear for names I recognized as the awards were given out. Much to my surprise I heard my last name and town being called out in 2nd place in a time around 1:21, which is a big sprint PR for me (by 7 minutes). Since it wasn't 2nd overall, it must have been age group; I'll know for sure once the placque arrives in the mail.
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2005 Cervelo Soloist
2007 QR Lucero
2005 Cervelo Soloist
07-10-06, 08:19 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
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Great report, Chris...and another piece of wood for your "I LOVE ME" wall! Great job!
