Heart of the Sound

Heart of the Sound SprintTriathlon
August 26, 2007

1st in AG/4th OA

Swim 13:37
T1 1:15
Bike: 48:37
T2: 00:38
Run: 25:48
Total: 1:29:56

One more USAT sanctioned race was needed for the required 3 if I wanted to earn a ranking for the season. I figure, if I'm going to race and compare results, I might as well choose races that earn me another way to compare myself to others at year-end via the ranking system. Also, it's good to choose races that are fun, interesting, have nice courses, attract a good mix of triathletes and have decent free food and goodie bags.

So I chose the Heart of the Sound, a sprint triathlon on Vashon Island. This one mainly filled the requirement of being a needed sanctioned race and also I was curious to try a new one. One of the things that made this race a bit different than others I had done so far included a salt water swim. This would be Quartermaster Harbor, an inlet of Puget Sound (pictured above). The water was colder than most lakes I'd swum in, but unlike the open water in Puget Sound, being rather protected and I assume, shallow. I think the temp was in the low 60's. We waded into the water at low tide and there were plenty of barnacled rocks to step around and soft squishy muck to sink into. One guy felt something in the water and pulled up a big starfish. Alright then! So the swim was fine, really, just salty and cold on the face.

The bike course was around 14 miles and had some longer hills than I had encountered before. A long one up, and thankfully a long one down. That was a pretty exhilarating descent - I got my new max speed of 41.2 mph.

The run was a double loop around a small peninsula with rolling hills and was close to 3-1/2 miles.

For the women, I was 5th in the swim, 6th in the bike and 6th in the run. So how did I make it to 4th overall? My transitions were pretty good and must have made a difference: I was 1st in T1 (remember, I am the USAT Age Group National "T1" Champion, after all - [there's no such a thing, really; it's just my little joke]) and 3rd at T2.

Tracy O. and Lisa W., a couple of women from my Wednesday night track workout and fellow "masters" competitors, took 1st and 3rd many minutes ahead of me. They are way too far ahead of me to even have on my radar screen or know their many accomplishments other than something about "Age Group National Champion" and "placed first at Danskin" and "has done Ironman Hawaii" and stuff like that.