Hawthorn Farms is the race that started it all for me three years ago. A 500 yard pool swim, followed by a 13.2 mile bike ride, and finish with a 5k (3.1 mile) run. Now, in my third year in the Hawthorn Farms Sprint Triathlon I got seeded in the final fast wave - wave #10. It was tough going out with the fast swimmers since that is my weakest link in the race. I think my inexperience in swimming played a role, since I think I went out too fast on the first 50 meters to try and draft off the lead swimmer, my heart rate spiked up and I needed to back off. Does anyone else notice this problem? You try to go fast, and in doing so, you're not efficient and burn up a bunch of energy without really going any faster.
Overall, I think I had a decent time of 1:07. I improved 7 minutes over my time last year, and 9 minutes faster than my first year. Here is the breakdown:
- swim: 0:08:19 (avg 1.40 per 100m)
- bike: 0:36:57 (avg 21.43 mph)
- run: 0:19:58 (avg 6:26 per mile)
The swim improvement was the least, shaving only 10-20 seconds each year. Transitions for both T1 and T2 hovered around a minute each, so that isn't bad. I ended up 15th overall out of 205 finishers, and 3rd in my division. I would have had my first top 10 overall finish ever, but this year the Ironheads invaded our little club triathlon in force.
The Ironheads are a competitive triathlon team that you have to apply for. My team by contrast, the Tsunamis, will take anyone who wants to join. Personally, I enjoy the work/life balance the Tsunami team provides. I don't want to go off the deep end on one extreme or the other. After the race, I saw the Ironheads gathering for a post-race bike ride workout. I opted for Mexican food over at ¿Por Qué No? Taqueria. I heard they are going to open one over on SE Hawthorne soon.
It was good to challenge myself against stronger athletes. However, it wasn't the type of motivation that pushed me further since they were so far ahead after the swim I could barely see them at all during the race.
