2012 Pumpkinman Sprint Triathlon

Friday 9/9.

To rest up for the Pumpknman Sprint Triathlon, I took Thursday and Friday off from work. I did get some rest of Thursday.
Friday morning I met Dave, John, and Dan at Knights Pond for a 6:45 swim. As we headed down, we noticed fog on the pond. Down on the shore, we could not see the buoys.
When we started to swim, we headed towards where we thought the 1st buoy would be.
We found it, but we couldn't see the 2nd buoy.
We tried to follow the shore but we could barely see any trees or the shore. About 2/3rds of the way there, we saw the buoy.
The fog started to lift and we had no problem heading back to shore. It felt good to get a last swim in before the tri.
After the swim, John and myself went up to Spring Hill and saw Kat. We grabbed some no parking signs and we went out to sweep the Sprint and 1/2 Iron bike and run courses.
There was a lot to clean up on the Sprint bike course. The 1/2 Iron course wasn't bad.
We finished up around 12:30pm.
My parents visited for the Pumpkinman Traithlon Festival. Around 4pm I went with my Mom to Spring Hill for early packet pickup.
When I got home, I took down my bike and put my race number on it. Then I leaned it on the compressor so I could put it in my truck in the morning.
Saturday 9/10.
When I woke up at 4am, I was surprised. I slept through the whole night.
After breakfast, I went out to put my bike in my truck. When I went into the barn, my bike was on the floor. It fell during the night. I picked it up and didn't see anything wrong so I put it in my truck. I gradded the rest of my gear and headed to Spring Hill.
I pulled in at 5:45am and headed down to the volunteers parking.
After parking , I did my triahtlon warmup drill sets. Then I did a 16 minute warm-up run.
After stretching, I set up my bike on the trainer.
Once on the bike, I started my warm-up. I tried to shift to the front large chanring and I couldn't. I tried to adjust the cable but it didn't work.
"Bob, the race is up there" I heard. John Sutherland was there. I said that I was giving everyone a head start. I told John my problem and he suggested to bring my bike up to Papa Wheelies tent. "Great idea John, thanks." I wasn't sure if I should bring it up now or after I do my warm-up. I figured that I could do a warm-up on the middle chainring, then get the bike checked out after body marking. So that 's what I did.
When I brought my bike to Papa's, there was a mechanic there and I told him the problem. When he was checking out the bike, he asked if I took off the back wheel. I said no but it did fall down overnight. He said that was enough to move the back wheel so it wouldn't shift. He fixed it! "Thanks Papa Wheelies."
I headed over to tranisition.
I started to set up transition when I heard "5 minutes before the prerace meeting". "Great". I came here earlier so I would have more time in transition.
I rushed to get everything set up and wetsuit on. Then I headed down.
The nerves started.
When I got near the shore, I saw Dave. We chatted a bit, then I headed closer to the water.
After the meeting, "I got a feeling" was playing on the speakers. The Elite were going to start soon.
My wave started a minute after theirs.
"GO!". The Elites were gone.
So my age group headed into the water. I was in the middle of the back.
"GO!". I started to freestyle.
I got bumped many times. Once the chaos was over, I was 1/2 way to the 1st buoy. When I went up for air, (the water was so choppy from all the swimmers) I got a mouth full of water. I had a hard time after that.
My plan was to swim freestyle and when I needed to, I would side stroke to get my breath back. Then freestyle again. But now I was in survival mode. I couldn't clear the water out of my throat.
I got to the 1st buoy and headed to the 2nd. About a 1/3rd of the way there, I saw all these green swim caps racing to the first buoy. "Great"
I continued to side stroke towards the second buoy. It felt like my legs were sinking. I didn't think I was gonna make it. "I'll never do this again".
If the green swim caps passed me, I never saw them.
Once I got (luckily) to the second buoy, I felt a little better. I did some freestyle but I still couldn't catch my breath. I heard "Looking good Bob" and I had no idea who said that. Then I seen Jason in a canoe on the course. I freestyeled a few more times but near the finish, I side stroked.
Once I felt the shore, I had a hard time walking. It may have taken me a minute to finally get out of the water. I started to run up the hill but I couldn't find the zipper cord in back of the wetsuit so I started to walk. I had to walk up Powderhouse. When I got to the top, I ran to my bike.
It took me a little while to get my focus back.
Once on the bike, I started to get better.
The bike race went good. No problems on the course and I went up Great Hill faster than ever before.
After a 48 second T2, I was on the run.
The run started off tough. Once I turned onto Junction Road I was feeling good.
After passing Spring Hill and heading towards the hill down to the finish, I had two 40's in front of me and I wanted to pass them. I attempted a pass in front of the garage but I didn't have it in me.
"Finished!"
I grabbed a water and seen Jenifer, Ryan and my parents.
After I cooled down, I went to check the results.

I came in 123/401 overall and 16/29 in my age group.

My swim was almost 2 minutes faster than last year. How?
I also moved up 49 spots from last years finish.
It was an excellent triathlon but it was also my hardest yet.
I learned a lot and I have a lot to work on for 2012.