Finishing last at the Keuka Lake Triathlon

When I started this blog I wrote that it would be nice to finish last in a race, and on Sunday that finally came true as I had the slowest time at the Keuka Lake Triathlon. Unfortunately it did not come from pushing myself further, but rather from a lack of preparedness and some problems with my bike.

I knew that I hadn’t put in the practice for the swim or the bike, but was looking forwards to the race as it was fairly short. Then two days before the race, I got an email letting me know that my past self was far too overconfident, and that I had in face registered to compete in the longer distance. I ended up finishing the race in 4:11:36.

The swim portion actually went pretty well. 1500 meters is the second farthest that I have ever swam, only behind the 1.2 miles I swam in the 2015 Peasantman (ironically also at Keuka Lake). My time of 50:50 (while comparatively on the slow side) was very much in line with how I did in my longest swim.

The bike portion is where I had the most trouble on the course. The first ten miles went well enough. However after that there was a two mile long uphill that came just as I was getting fatigued, and where my bike started getting a bit of a vibration. After reaching the top of the hill it should have gotten easier, but it was starting to become apparent that there was something wrong with my bike, and mid-race I was unable to find the problem so I just pushed on. Fortunately the final seven miles of the bike course were all downhill so I could mostly coast into the finish, but at this point my bike was shaking so much that it was uncomfortable to stay in the saddle so even this section was slow.

By the time I got to the run I was solidly in last place, unmotivated, and a bit behind on my hydration. I felt bad on the run, but my time was actually very much in the middle of the pack. Over the 10k run I was averaging 10:42 miles. On its own this would be slow for me, but given that I was already three hours into the race, this was actually much quicker than I was at a similar point into my marathon a few weeks ago.

My next race is Wednesday night on the trails of Lucien Morin Park. Having the next few races being all running, and no biking should help me get some better results.