2020 Mighty Moraine Man Sprint Triathlon
Race Preparation
The Mighty Moraine Man Multi-Sport Festival is a regular fall event that takes place in Moraine State Park, which is about an hour north of Pittsburgh. It’s a fabulous event, that includes triathlon races, duathlon races, adventure races, aqua-bike races and more. In most years, Joella Baker, the race director puts on multiple distance events, including a half distance race for those who like to go long. Unfortunately, for 2020, pandemic restrictions meant that races were restricted to the sprint distance only.
The past few years, I have not been able to race in these events. This has been because the timing didn’t fit with preparation for my fall Ironman races, which are typically my ‘A’ races for the year. This year however, with all of my Ironman races cancelled, I got the chance to participate.
I made the decision to participate quite late, because I didn’t want to sign up early, in case this event got cancelled too. As a result, I didn’t do any race specific preparation. I went into the race relying on the base fitness from all of my training. My biggest concern was the limited amount of swimming that I have been able to do. In the month leading up to the race, I swam in an endless pool twice, and did one very short, open water swim.
Race Day
I woke up very early on race morning. I was out of bed just after 4.00am. I wanted to arrive at the race venue early, so I would maybe have a little choice in picking my spot in transition. I ate my usual pre-race breakfast of a bagel and two small tubs of apple sauce, together with a couple of cups of coffee. I packed the final few things into my car, double checked I had everything and started the drive north.
I arrived at the race site nice and early. There were only a few cars in the parking lot, so I knew I was amongst the first there and would likely get a good spot in transition. It was however, still very dark and I realized that I should add something to my race checklist … a headlight. I ended up using the flashlight on my phone for some illumination, as I made my way to check in. I had my temperature checked (a race first) and was given the all clear to race. Next was transition, where I was able to secure a great spot right at the end of the first rack assigned to my age group.
Having set up everything for the race, I had some time to kill, so I went back to my car and chilled out for a while. About 15 minutes later, it was getting light and it was time to focus on the race. I listened to the athlete briefing, which confirmed it would be a wetsuit legal race. I put on my wetsuit and headed to the beach, where I did a very brief warm up swim.
Before I knew it, I was in the water with over sixty other male athletes, all waiting for the signal to start. Wave starts are always fun; lots of swimmers in a relatively small area for a few hundred yards. There is always a little body contact, as everyone finds their own space to swim in. The horn sounded and off we went.
The Swim
The first thing that I had noticed, once it had gotten light, was that the lake was very choppy. I knew that if it looked choppy from shore, then it would probably be worse than it looked, once I started swimming. That proved to be the case.
I am a natural left-breather when swimming. I breathe every stroke to the left. This was a distinct disadvantage, as I headed out towards the far buoy on the swim course. I was breathing directly into the waves. I am used to doing this however, so I wasn’t too concerned. About half way out to the far buoy though, I turned to breathe and inhaled nothing but water. I almost choked and started coughing violently. I stopped swimming to tread water, while I gathered myself together. I probably lost a good part of a minute due to this.
I started swimming again, but with that experience of breathing in water, I made the decision to switch sides and start breathing on the right. While this greatly reduced the possibility of inhaling more water, I soon started to get out of breath. I simply have no rhythm when right-breathing. Once again, I stopped to catch my breath. This was a mistake.. I should have just switched to breathing from my left and swum very slowly until I recovered. More time was lost but once I got going again, I made it to the buoy OK and turned around it. I made a super tight turn, so tight in fact, that I got a little tangled up with the rope holding the buoy in place.
As soon as I rounded the buoy, I sighted to get my direction and suddenly noticed another swimmer, who was breast stroking towards me. I then heard this swimmer shout ‘help’. I stopped swimming immediately. The swimmer looked to be OK but he clearly wanted kayak support. I raised my hand and shouted ‘kayak!’…. The nearest kayak was not that far away, but the person on board had not seen this swimmer looking for help. He did however hear my shout and started heading towards me. I pointed to the guy who actually needed help and the kayaker changed direction towards him. Once I knew this, I started on my swim again. I had lost a little more time again, but I had no problem with this. I have previously been that guy looking for a kayak … I know how it feels.
My swim back to shore was better. I brushed paths with someone from the novice wave, who was swimming way off line. We could have had a bad head on collision, but luckily we only just touched each other. I finally made it to the beach, where I stood up and started running to T1. My mind was a mess… I was really frustrated with my swim. I know I can do better, but once again I hadn’t executed. I told myself to ‘forget it’ and got on with stripping my wetsuit.
Swim Time : 20:43
The Bike
Apart from slipping while removing my wetsuit and falling onto my butt, I had a smooth transition. My bike rack was a long way from the bike out exit, but I did a good job running with my bike in my bike shoes. I passed the mount line, stepped to the side of the road (to avoid other cyclists), mounted my bike and immediately started to hammer on the pedals.
T1 Time : 02:15
The bike course loop at Mighty Moraine Man is about 12 miles long and it is a tough little ride. There are not any significant flat sections; you are either climbing, descending or riding on small rolling hills. This means that you can really save quite some time, if you manage your efforts appropriately. If you use the momentum gained on the downhill parts of the course, you can easily get up and over the smaller hills, without losing much speed.
With my relatively slow swim, I was in the back half of the race. Pretty quickly however, I realized I had my bike legs and started to fly past lots of competitors. I was climbing well on the bigger hills and this is where I passed most people. I reached the first turnaround quicker than I expected, and began down the first of the three big hills. I used the speed from this first big hill to get most of the way up the second hill. Once over the top, I started to ride really fast down the next hill.
This next hill is the fastest on the course, but there is quite a sharp corner at the bottom, so you have to time your braking well. Brake too soon and you lose lots of time; brake too late and the corner becomes very dangerous. I was just thinking about starting to brake, when I suddenly heard a loud hissing sound. Puncture !!! Front tire…
Fortunately, because I was about to start braking anyway, I was already out of aero position, with my hands on the bull horns. I started to slowly brake and was able to control my bike around the corner and pull off to the side of the road.
This was my first flat in an actual race. A flat tire in a sprint distance race is tough, because it costs so much time, relative to the overall race time. Looking back, I did OK in changing the tube. According to my bike computer, I was stationary for just under eight minutes. The hardest thing was actually getting the tire off of the rim to remove the punctured tube. Even with tire levers, I struggled. In hindsight, in my haste, I didn’t break the tire away from the bead all the way round the rim. Doing this would have made it easier to get the tire off and saved me quite a bit of time. I now have a goal to be able to change a flat in less than five minutes, stop to start. Nonetheless, I did OK with the tube change and was back in the race.
The rest of the bike went very well. I passed a lot of people, but was clearly well back in the race by now.
Bike Time : 46:12
The Run
I arrived at T2 focussed on a very fast transition. My run with the bike was quite long again, so that added a few seconds, but overall I was quite efficient. As I was entering transition, I saw two guys leaving transition ahead of me. As I put on my shoes, I decided my goal was to catch and pass those two runners.
T2 Time : 01:19
I was into my running rhythm quite quickly and could see the runners that I was chasing about a couple of hundred yards away. The run course is quite flat and is an out and back along a bike trail. Although relatively flat, it does wind its way through trees, so it’s not always possible to see the runners ahead.
As I approached the one mile marker, I passed one of the guys I was chasing and soon after that, I passed a few more runners. I was gaining on the other guy, I but very slowly. In chasing him however, I was still passing other runners. I thought I was running quite well, but I knew my pace was not close to my best. I am a runner at heart, and over time, you do tend to get a reasonable feel for how fast you are running. In this race I was running (and breathing) hard, but I didn’t feel super fast.
The two mile marker came and went, and pretty soon I was within sight of the finish line. I still needed to gain about 50 yards, to pass the guy I was chasing. I dug really deep but I guess he did too, because I never was able to catch him. I finished about thirty to forty yards behind him.
I really enjoyed the run. It was not my fastest 5K, but I do feel that I emptied the tank in trying to catch people ahead of me. At the end of the day, that is all you can do; give it everything you have.
Run Time : 24:12
Post Race
Immediately after finishing and receiving my medal, I found somewhere to sit down. I was right next to a guy handing out food and he gave me a delicious ‘sticky bun’; it tasted great. I got to chat with a good friend for a while, before I finally felt I had recovered enough, to go get my stuff from transition.
When I was back at my car, I checked on my phone for the results of the race. The times were about what I expected. I figured that I had lost/wasted 4-5 minutes during the swim and I knew that I lost about 8 minutes with the flat. Even with these issues, I somehow had managed to come third in my age group.
Most importantly however, I remembered that it is not always about the result. I had achieved the most important thing; I had fun and as with most races, I also found an opportunity to learn and improve.
Total Time : 01:34:41
