Sunfish Tri Race Report

Busy transition area as athletes prepare for race start.

This weekend a bunch of the Hattiesburg Triathletes went to Meridian to participate in the Sunfish Triathlon. H'Burg was well represented! Had some great overall finishes, a grandmasters winner (I got beat by an old guy), age group wins... oh & let's not forget simply FINISHING a tri is a HUGE accomplishment! Team HAMR is looking awesome!


Meridian is only an hour and a half away, but we stayed in one of the host hotels so we could get to the race site early & not have to worry about travel.

The race was sponsored in part by our coaching business, Tri Optimum Performance. We gave participants business cards with race promotions- 3rd month free when they sign on for 3 months. Overall it was a HUGE success. Picked up a few athletes at the race & had a great overall finish- FIRST FEMALE.

In previous years, the race has been co-directed by Lori & Shannon. Lori took over this year, & from my perspective the transition was flawless. She was really awesome about letting us sponsor the race, took the time to meet me after the race was over (RD's have a lot going on race day) & just put on a great event. The race is well supported- LOTS of volunteers on the course. The bike turns are visible and on the run course the volunteers are energetic & helpful. There was a lot of energy between the spectators & volunteers, especially at the finish area, & I think the volunteers really set the tone for creating that atmosphere.

I did this race last year, just 2 weeks after moving from Virginia, and I was NOT used to the Mississippi heat. It really affected me... walked A LOT on the run. This year was MUCH better- felt a nice breeze while running over the dam at the run start & am now used to running in 95degree heat + high humidity. This has been my first repeat race since I started training consistently a year ago, so I was excited to be able to track my progress & compare results. Just a preview: this year 1:19:58, last year 1:26:10. That is a HUGE jump for a sprint tri!

Swim: 9:28 1/3 mile OR 530 meters
Sunfish does a time trial start, seeded by registration date. I AM NOT A FAN OF THIS FORMAT! I registered in April or May, so had a relatively low number, 48. It just creates unnecessary chaos, and a lot of races around here do it. I think maybe the idea is to get people to register early rather than later, which I understand, but I feel that having price increases would be more beneficial. It's not extremely difficult to seed by swim time, & it would make the quality of the races SO much better.

I expected the swim to take me right around 8 - 8:30, which would be about 1:20/100yd. The 9:28 time would put me at 1:38/100yd... MUCH slower than anticipated. Last year I did a 9:53, and I've been working hard enough to make better progress than 25 seconds over a 500. Training buddy Brinn Strange came out of the water within seconds of my time, so I feel we were pretty accurate in our pacing (we should be, we've been working on it!).  I think it's safe to say the swim was long this year.

Bike: 47:05, 21.4mph
The bike course for this race is really hilly, which I don't mind so much, but that combined with the terribly rough roads make for an rough ride. They do a pretty good job of marking the larger craters, but there are so many small holes & cracks & rough pavement changes that you just can't get away from it. Last year I saw A LOT of people on the side who flatted out, and this year was no different. My bike was rattling really bad most of the ride, I felt like it was going to break down on me!

Last year I did a 48:47, 20.7 mph on the bike. Needless to say I am disappointed with this years' split. I've been working really hard & have been spending a lot of time in the saddle, doing lots of power work, and I've made huge jumps. I've averaged 22.6 & 22.8 at recent races, averaged 24 at a local time trial, and have continued to build strength. This race did not reflect that, and it wasn't just because the course was difficult. I told Kyle my legs just felt tired, which is hardly an excuse since I've had days to recover from my last hard workout. At this point, I have about 2 weeks to get it together because I have an Olympic Distance in Nashville which is not going to be any easier, and 21's are just not going to cut it at this point.

Run: 22:26, 7:26/mile
As I ran out of T2, Kyle yelled, "FIND YOUR LEGS AND EMPTY THE TANK!". The tricky part about this run is that you can see the entire course. You run over the reserve, go around the lake, then come back over the reserve to finish. It can either be a mental challenge or a strategic advantage. I chose the strategic advantage approach this year. Took the first .5 mile to get into my rhythm, maintained for 1.5, picked it up for the last mile and focused heavily on the 800's we frequent in speed work to get through the last half mile. I was the first female coming out of the water, so there were only men around me. For the last mile, though, I saw some pretty quick women moving along, & I was nervous the might catch up to me with the time trial format. Overall I was pretty pleased with my run time. It's a little slower than earlier in the season, but I haven't lost a ton of speed from the couple weeks I took off to nurse my injuries. Looks like I'm back to where I left off, which means the running can only get better!

Again thank you to all of the volunteers who helped at today's race and thank you to Lori for keeping this great race going, I believe they said this was Sunfish's 27th year.  Congratulations to all the finishers and I'll see you at the races!

 

 

Sunfish Tri Race Results

Up next: Music City Triathlon (Olympic Distance) in Nashville July 28th.