The reverse sprint is exactly what it says. You run first, the bike, and then swim last. It, for some people seems a lot harder than a regular triathlon, but for me, it actually works out to my advantage. You see, my worst event out of the 3 is the run. So if I can run at the beginning of the race while I am fresh, my time will be alot faster.
Last year my splits were as follows: 5K run - 24:36, T1 - 1:20, 20K Bike - 36:36 (20.2 mph), T2 - 1:45, 550 meter swim - 16:45, Total time - 1:21:00. Placed 6th out of 12 in my age group and 48th out of 116 overall. So of course my goal was to beat my times from last year and hopefully place higher than last year too.
The weather was very nice and sort of cool that morning of the race. This is always nice because the temps and humidity can be brutal this time of year. It had rained the day before, so I thought the humidity would be a factor, but it wasn't.
I got up around 6:20am and loaded the car and headed to Fort Benning at about 6:45. All visitors have to go to the check point off of I-185 and get a one day pass into the base. So I have to do this and get there and get set-up before 7:45. The race is to start at 8:01 sharp. I get there with plenty of time so I start to look around to see if I recognize anyone.
I see Terry Miller, Brian Abeyta, Joanne Cain, Gabe Denes, Jose Solis (both), Brad Spenney, and Wesley Williamson. Brian, Brad and Wesley are in my age group and usually beat me. Gabe and Jose are on teams and only doing the cycling part of the race.
So now I am all set-up, signed-up and ready for the race. The pre-race speech and rules description and announcements are given as well as the National Anthem is played. And of course this race will have a lot of military people participating in it and they are usually very fast.Ok, they tell us to head over to the start line and the count down begins. We are off! I start on the second row this time so I won't get run over by the fast guys. I set into my pace (whatever that is) and think about being consistent. About a mile into the race my left side begins to hurt a little, but I try to not let it bother me. As long as it doesn't get any worse, I can live with it. I am now wondering if I ate too much that morning. Oh well, maybe it will come in handy for later on in the race. I even took an extra Potassium pill to help ward off the cramps.
About mile 2 my heart rate monitor starts to beep as we start going up a very slight hill. I look and it is reading 183 which is not too bad so I keep on my pace. While running I always try to keep my eyes on a competitor in front of me to sort of give me something to follow and try to chase down. So I have no found this person and I am going to try catch them before the end. I do catch him on the home stretch, but I think that he now has the same thought as me and so the race is on. I cross the finish line into the transition area in 23:58. My third fastest 5K time! YAY
So now I have to find my bike, throw on the sun helmet, change the shoes and head out the gate. I do this without any troubles and am out in 1:13.
The bike being my best part of the tri I race out of the transition parking lot and immediately start passing people. It is the funniest thing, but there are 2 guys on a tandem bike racing!!! I have never seen that before. I now see Terry Miller and he is having trouble getting his feet into his bike shoes. So I blow by him and never see him again.
The first half of the bike section starts out with a slight downhill. I hit around 27-28 mph and hoping to maintain a 22 mph pace as long as I can. I turn left onto Sunshine, which is very flat and start to crank it hard. I look up and there is Terry Witbeck. He is not in the race so I pull up next to him and we start to chat. I can't talk much while riding as it takes my precious oxygen away! LOL I end up dropping Terry when we get to the hills past the steel bridge. By now I am still averaging 22 mph, but it is starting to go down. I can handle the hills, but it does take the speed away.
So I hit the turn around and head back to the transition area. Terry turns around ahead of me and we again ride together for a short while. I drop him again as we climb the next hill and never see him again until I get into the pool. The last part of the bike is going back up the long hill by the airport that I came down so fast earlier. My speed has now slowed down to 21 mph. By the time I get back it has decreased to 20.7 mph. Still faster than last year though.
As I am coming down the last stretch to the transition area, I decide to take my feet out of my shoes so that I can get a quick dismount and transition time. As I pull my right leg up and reach down to release the Velcro, my calf cramps! Shit, I knew this was going to happen, just not right here. So I push my heel down to stop the cramp and am about to get the shoe off. I do the same thing with the left shoe and my left calf cramps too! WOW, this can become a very serious problem real quick as I had the same problem in the swim last year.
So I hit the transition area running right off of the bike. I hang up my bike on the rack and throw off my helmet and sunglasses. Take off my shoes and socks and grab my swim goggles and run out to the pool. My transition time is 1:38. It is about a 100 yard run over to the pool, so I decide to take it a little easy so that I might be able to catch my breath some.
I get to the pool and there are 3 guys in front of me waiting to get in the water. It is a single file entry one at a time. My legs are feeling ok now and I hope that they don't cramp as soon as I start to swim. So I hit the water and take off. I can feel them trying to cramp so I decide to not kick and just drag my legs for while. This seems to work and soon I am able to begin my kicking.
I am going at a pretty good pace and I am trying to keep my focus on my breathing. I swim about 4 laps before I decide that I need to slow down and take a little breather. So I stop swimming and start walking in the water for just a few feet. I have to do this about 4 times before the swim is over. My time was 13:46! 3 minutes faster than last year!!! A BIG YAY...
My official finish time was 1:16:26. 4:34 faster than last year. I finished 10th out of 22 in my age group and 53rd out of 171 overall. I though that this was a very good race for me and I really enjoyed it, especially besting my time from last by so much.
