Well, this race was breaking new ground for me. I had never done a reverse triathlon. Not knowing what to expect, I was pretty upbeat about the new opportunity to race the Telos Timp Triathlon on April 14, 2012.
Race morning was frightful. I woke up around 4:30am to tons of rain; things were not looking good. I prepared myself for the worst (race being canceled) and hoped for the best (slight drizzle for the race). Well, it turned out even better. As I left for the Orem Fitness Center, the rain began to stop. By the time I arrived at 6:30, the rain was gone. Awesome!
Packet pickup was scheduled for the morning of the race from 6-7:30 am. I picked up all my stuff and went to set up transition. One of the benefits of a run, bike, swim order is that transitions should be lightning fast. We had a race briefing about 10 minutes before starting and then headed to the starting line. Since the race started with the run, I worried about getting stuck in a big group of people, so I headed to the front of the pack. As the race started, it was sheer madness; fortunately I escaped with a pack of about 10 runners at the front. We started off quick and ran the first mile at about a 6:20 mile pace. The 2nd mile of the run has some uphill & we saw more runners drop back- 6:38 mile pace. The last mile seemed to be the toughest...as you head towards the transition area, with still about ¾ of a mile to go. You have to run around a track before heading back to the transition area... done. Finished the run—averaged a little over a 6:30 min/mi.
Transition from run to bike was simple; throw on bike shoes, helmet (tough for me as I tried to do it with gloves on) and off I went.
Did I mention this race has a great bike course? The course was very well marked. The bike course starts off flat and then picks up speed as you head towards UVU. Everything is smooth sailing until then. It was not bad maneuvering through the roads on campus until the 2nd loop, when it was congested. The bike course has a couple of decent hills and you hit both within a half mile. Not long hills, but some good grade to them. Second loop was more of the same, just more congested.
Transition from bike to swim was fast; take helmet, shoes off and go. One problem, this transition was new to me & I ended up bringing along my race belt, heart rate monitor, watch & socks—throwing them aside as I went.
The swim was a mess for me. First of all, the pool was super warm. In addition to that, I was worn out. It seemed to be 1000 degrees in there & the 50 meter lanes seemed to be 100 meters or longer each. Nevertheless, the swim was not actually long and was shortly over.
The race had some great post-race snacks—trail mix, bagels, oranges, bananas, water and Swedish fish. Did I mention that the support crew for the race was fantastic... led by many from TriEdge?
The award ceremony and raffles were great as we basked in the nice warm sun (it rained later in the day). All in all, it turned out to be a great race—very well organized and lots of fun! I would give a very strong recommendation for all to give it a tri as it is a great way to start the season off!
