Portland Triathlon Results

I ran the Portland Tri this morning. It was fun but extremely hard.

The swim felt great. This was definitely my weakest portion of the Hagg lake triathlon. I sucked it up and joined LA Fitness so I could have access to the pool to train. It paid off, and made me feel like it is money well spent. Not only was I able to reduce my swim time (see below for results and analysis) I found I actually quite enjoy being in the pool. It is one of those exercises that I feel refreshed when I am done.

The bike was difficult. Both Sean (my training buddy) and I underestimated the biking portion. We had ridden on several occasions the portion of the bike route we had access to, and it didn't seem that difficult. However on race day, they had the necessary streets closed and we were exposed to the entire course. It was like a smack in the face. The course started out with a nice steady climb and then just past the 2 mile mark turned to a very steep climb 15% grade. Once I reached the top of this section my legs were spent. Then it was a mostly down hill back to the river front and on to lap two.

The run was mentally challenging. The bike took a lot out of me, and my legs didn't want to move any more. I had to convince my legs that it was going to be okay. This section felt like it took forever, and was painful every step. I managed to put one foot in front of the other and make it though. I wasn't really smiling at the end this time though.

Below are my results for the Portland Tri and Hagg Lake Tri. Since I am a big math geek, I have included some analysis to compare the results. Please note, that the pace results below are based solely on distance vs. time, and don't account for environmental factors such as swimming up stream in a river.

I tried like hell to get a table put in blogger to present my data nicely, but after two hours of trying, I give up. So in a text format here is a rundown of my results:

Hagg Lake vs. Portland

Swim: 0:20:40 vs 0:18:35
Pace: 1.45 mph vs 1.48 mph
T1: 0:04:17 vs 0:03:52
Bike: 0:51:26 vs 1:03:46
Pace: 14.58 mph vs 15.47 mph
T2: 0:02:27 vs 0:01:27
Run: 0:31:26 vs 0:29:35
Pace: 5.91 mph vs 6.28 mph

Some further analysis, to compare my results to the other competitors reveals the following.

Hagg Lake within my age group (30-34 Males), I finished 27th out of 31 competitors or I beat 12.9%. Overall I finished 241st out of 303 competitors or I beat 20.46%.

Portland within my age group (30-34 Males), I finished 14th out of 18 competitors or I beat 22.2%. Overall I finished 160th out of 274 competitors or I beat 41.64%.

Even though I didn't reach all of the goals I set for my self, I am proud and satisfied of my performance.

With my second sprint triathlon under my belt, I am convinced that I really do find this sport very satisfying. My long range plans are to complete an Olympic triathlon next year (twice the distance as the sprint). With a solid winters worth of training, I am excited to see where my times can go.

If you would like to see pictures from this race, please visit my flickr page. The link is on the right.