5430 Triathlon Race Report

2475 days ago

Journalist: “So Laurent, how are you going to do the TT tomorrow?”
Laurent Jalabert: “With my bike”

I raced at the 5430 half-ironman yesterday, and I finished 18th with a personal-best time of 4:19:46. That’s a full seven minutes faster than my previous best time, set last fall while I was getting ready for Ironman Florida.


pretty good swim: the bike racks weren’t empty

Mercifully, the swim went well for me. I’d prepared for it by swimming almost every day since Boulder Peak, and getting a new, better-fitting wetsuit. Aside from getting punched in the face in the first 150 meters it was uneventful. So uneventful, in fact, that I became bored shortly after the 1 kilometer mark. It was nice to realize that I was bored – it gave me a little confidence in my pacing – but it was boring.

I was out of the water in around 27 minutes – 27:59 to the timing mats, which were up the beach at the entrance to the transition area, and off on my bike just under the 29 minute mark. I decided to trust my powermeter again, and picked 250 watts as a nice round number I could probably hold for a couple of hours. In fact it was pretty mellow and I could probably have even gone a bit faster, but I rode a perfectly paced 2 hours 20 minutes and five seconds, with laps of 1:10:15 and 1:09:50.

Aside: Non-drafting triathlon is conducted under an extra, pro-only rule in the United States called “stagger”. Anyone familiar with triathlon knows that “stagger” traditionally refers to the run, but this rule is designed to make legal riding possible near the pointy end of the field. Here is how it works: normal bike rules specify a “draft zone” two meters wide by ten meters long around each cyclist, and that cyclists must always ride on the right. In order to make passing possible under these two oherwise conflicting rules, a third rule exists, specifying that athletes may move to the left for up to fifteen seconds in order to pass slower moving riders.

However, professionals race under a slightly modified set of drafting rules.


cruising

Although the “draft zone” is still nominally the same two by ten meter box, the rule on staying to the right hand side of the road is eliminated. The modified rule says, effectively, that the “draft zone” of each cyclist extends back all the way to the cyclist immediately behind them. That is, you must always ride two meters to the side of the next cyclist ahead of you on the road, if you are racing pro. This eliminates the safety problem of having pro riders weaving through hundreds of age group riders. It doesn’t alleviate the safety problem of having the top age group riders weaving through hundreds of slower age group riders. Even more dangerously, it takes an otherwise perfectly safe situation – two riders, separated by hundreds of meters, riding on the right hand side of the road – and makes it unbelievably dangerous. In such a situation, the trailing rider must ride two meters out into the road at all times. No fifteen seconds to move over, even to let traffic pass. During the bike ride I contemplated how USA Triathlon can possibly allow such a braindead rule on a course that is totally open to traffic. It would not be that difficult to solve: either close one lane (easier than it sounds, since virtually all the roads out here are four lanes wide), or allow riders to move in to let traffic pass.

Anyway I had a good bike ride, entirely without incident despite my fears, and charged out onto the run with my timing chip gradually wearing a tiny hole in my ankle. “Charged” is probably too strong of a word to use. I suppose I charged gradually out onto the run course. I slogged through ten and a half kilometers in 42 minutes and in my excitement, forgot to eat anything. At mile 7, I finally remembered to eat a gel, but it was too late. Everything went very dark and heavy for a few miles, and I remember struggling to keep running. I remember wanting to lie down. I remember forcing myself to drink gatorade, and I gradually came back from the brink. Sadly, that was near the 12.5 mile mark, so I had only a little time to claw my way back to pace.

 


screaming with, um, happiness

I turned the corner with 100 meters to go and saw 4:19 and some seconds, and I ran out whatever I had left. You can see how excited I am to be finished in this picture. I tried to dive in to a bucket of ice water before some helpful people brought me to the medical tent and gave me an IV. Stephanie, soul of patience that she is, waited with me the entire time. We checked out the results – I was 9th in the pro division and 18th overall – and went home. Via Starbucks.


an accurate description

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