Tri AC-Olympic Distance

August 13, 2018 by South Jersey Belle 1 Comment

Race Recap! Another race to analyze and review! Last year I did the Tri AC sprint. Its a great race location and really fast! This year in preparation for my Ironman Atlantic City 70.3 I raced the Olympic distance. So let’s break it down

1 Mile swim in the bay

22 Mile bike ride on the Atlantic City Expressway

6.2 Mile run on the boardwalk

This was my first olympic distance race, last year I skipped this distance and went right for the 70.3! With IMAC 70.3 coming up toward the end of September this race worked perfectly as a benchmark in my training-to see how I felt and really target what I need to work on for the remaining time.

We arrived Friday afternoon in Atlantic City to pick up race packets and get settled for the night. With an early morning wake up call its much nicer to spend the evening there then have to drive down the morning of which is about an hour away.

The Swim-1 mile-35 mins

I was most nervous about this leg. I’ve swam a mile before, but I felt like I just didn’t have enough open water training as I wanted to prior to this. (The pool will never compare)  I just kept talking to myself saying you got this, you have swam here before and loved it. Just take it piece by piece. Well the mile swim should be approximately 1760 yards, my garmin told me I swam 1847 (1:54/100) ! Haha, so I went a little off course. But still, I was extremely happy with my swim time and actually felt really great during it. I did get elbowed in the face, but it didn’t stop me. Also had my feet tickled a few times, but nothing you can really do about that either. All in all I was excited to get out of the water and on to the bike.

T1-2:10

The Bike-22 miles- 1:09

If you have read any of my other blogs, you know the bike is something I will always be working on to get stronger and faster. The course is flat and fast and you get to bike on the expressway and go thru a toll booth, pretty fun! You ride 2 1/2 loops and back to transition. There was one really tight hairpin turn about half way thru, but otherwise its a really solid bike race course. I kept an average speed of 19.3 which is great! Love to see those numbers improving!

T2-1:50

The Run-10k (6.2 miles)-56 mins

The run is usually my strongest leg, but not this day! I started out pretty strong, finding my pace, not to fast, have to get my legs acclimated after the bike. Delmosports signature thing is running a piece of the race on the beach, oh that sand is a killer, the short piece had my quads on fire. Putting that out of my head and getting re-focused I tried to gather myself and really focus my eye on the prize, last piece of the race. At this point in the day it was getting hot and humid, a storm ready to roll in. You really felt like you were walking into an oven. I had some honey stinger chews with me and I really wasn’t feeling like eating them, but after I did and they kicked in I felt better. The moral here, definitely use your nutrition sooner than later! I finished out the run strong and did pick up my pace, but not at my normal race speed.

Overall time- 2:45, 7th place Age Group, 28 out of 185 gender place, and 141 out of 509 overall. I have to look back in retrospect and feel good about this race. I have shown improvements over the season, I am getting stronger and the fire inside is fueled to continue to work harder. I love everything about triathlon and that includes the people I meet and race with. There was so much encouragement out on the course and it was great to see familiar faces and meet new ones! I really need to dial in my nutrition a bit more for IMAC 70.3 I want to feel strong throughout the entire race. A little over a month left to go for training and its time to get focused!

xo

Leann