Race Report: 2012 Rumpus in Bumpass International

Today I set a new personal best at the Rumpus In Bumpass International Triathlon in (of course) Bumpass, Virginia.  For the tri-nerds, here are the stats:

Official time:  2:26:21  -  Swim 34:11  -  T1 2:00  -  Bike  -  1:03:18  -  T2 1:34  -  Run 45:20

2 hours & 26 minutes is a great time for me, since my previous PR was over 2 hours 50 minutes.  And the good news is that I set bests in all three disciplines and in the transisions. However, I'm not sure what to think of it, for several reasons.  First, my watch showed 2:22:45.  I'm not sure how the watch could be 4 minutes off, but I must have hit the wrong button during the first transition.  But I was rather euphoric until I discovered the discrepancy!

Also, the bike leg was only 23.11 miles, not 25.  So if I normalize the bike portion, I get a corrected time of 2 hours 32 minutes.  Still an 18-minute improvement over my personal best.  In fact, the last 3 international distance tris I have completed, I've been just over 2:50, so I've at last climbed out of that plateau.

Here is the color commentary.  I had a perfect spot for my bike.  Every race is the luck of the draw -- you rack your bike according to number, and it seems like I never get the front or back row.  Until TODAY!  My bike was 5 steps from the end of the swim.  (I still had to push it all the way through the transition area, but it's nice when it's easy to find your bike.)  I also arrived 2.5 hours before the start, so the transition area looks really empty in the photo below.  The blue towel is there so that I can find my bike quickly, but it was probably overkill since it was basically in the best spot ever.

To get to the swim start, you have to walk down 400 meters of this sharp gravel-covered trail. I decided to wear flip flops to the start and sacrifice them to the race, rather than sacrifice my feet like everyone else did on these razor-sharp things.  I learned the hard way why you should never ask a 22-year old to zip up your wetsuit.  I jumped into the water to get my face wet, and the top velcro was too loose, so a big shot of cold water ran into my suit (and stayed there for the duration of the swim).  I also learned the hard way that if you put something in your pocket (earplugs) before zipping up your suit, it's huge pain to get it back out once you are all zipped up.  Lesson learned.

I gave the swim a moderate effort, and actually finished the swim portion in 33 minutes.  (The extra minute on my swim time was the run up the hill to the transition area.)  33 minutes is a personal best by a solid 2 minutes!

The swim course changed this week, and there were definitely highs and lows. On the bright side, because Boxley's Cove is a long inlet, there were absolutely no (natural) waves. That made for a fast swim. Unfortunately, the inlet was rather shallow, so the swimmers churned up all sorts of mud and turned the water dark chocolate-milk-brown. I also decided to start in the middle of my wave, just to practice getting kicked in the nose (in preparation for the mass start at IM Florida). I got just what I asked for. I was fighting other swimmers for the whole 33 minutes. I ran into one of the lifeguards, nearly hit a buoy, and got hit in the calf repeatedly until my leg cramped up. (Luckily it was 100 meters from the finish, so I just dragged my legs and tried not to let the cramp overtake me.) Did I mention that the water was cold? 65 degrees is not the worst, but it's still a little cooler than my baths. Here's a picture of the swim course from the finish, a couple of hours before the start.

Aside from cool water, the temperature could not have been better for a race.  Warm enough for me & my minimalist tri suit, but not so hot that I overheated.  I unfortunately don't have any action pictures of the bike or the run, but here are my descriptions.

Bike.  This is the maiden voyage of "The Assassin," and I decided early on that it is worth every penny that I spent on it.  The bike is super aerodynamic, and it hits 30 mph the way a roadie hits 20.  I laid down a good bike time, and not just because of the shortened course.  If the race had only been a bike race, I would have been in the top 15%.  If I could get out of the bottom 25% of the swim, I might just race with the big boys ...

I saw a little bit of carnage on the course (though not nearly as much as last year).  One poor guy went over his handlebars and asked to be taken away in the ambulance.  I nearly collided with the race official's motorcycle when he decided to peel off to the outside of a corner while I was trying to pass him.  I felt like yelling "Penalty!!!" at him.  As I was riding, I started doing math in my head (always dangerous in long-distance races), and I thought I might break one hour.  (My OCD kicked in and pushed me toward a round number.)  I didn't make it, but I at least talked myself out of an all-out effort that would have killed my run.  For the bike nerds, here are the stats:

Distance: 23.11  -  Total time: 1:02:31  - Total elevation gain/descent: 725/675  -  Top speed: 33.4 (weak, yes, but I sustained over 30mph for several sections)  There were no big hills, but there certainly wasn't any flat area on the whole course.

Run.  Although I have been tapering my runs, I have at the same time been folding hill workouts into the mix for a few weeks.  Those hill workouts paid off bigtime on the run.  The run course was totally different from last year, and it involved a few killer hills.  A 45:20 10K doesn't seem like a fast time, but the surface was very rocky and it was difficult to keep my feet under me (and to keep my ankles from rolling).  I'm not the fastest runner on the course, but I pride myself in consistency.  My mile splits were 7:21/7:32/7:19/7:44/7:48/7:03 (and 33 seconds to sprint the last .2mi).  It was my best run finish ever, but just barely.

As I was loading up my car to go home, I asked the folks in the car next to me to snap this picture.  They asked (in a rather patronizing manner), "Ohhh, is this your first triathlon?"  I said, "No, just my best triathlon."  Punks.