Race Report- 2013 TriRock Triathlon

One more triathlon in the books!  I signed up for TriRock in February of this year and it was post Ironman 70.3 and Chicago marathon, therefore was a nice sprint race to just have fun.  That’s exactly what I did!  The race was a sprint with slightly longer distances than your typical sprint.

Swim: 500 meters, Bike: 12.2 miles, Run: 3 miles

Results Summary:

The morning of the race was a nice cool 70 degrees and the water temp was measured at 73!  Which meant it was wet suit legal!  This was the first sprint I ever wore a wet suit for and it a great swim.  It was right out of Clearwater beach right next to pier 60.  The current was moderate- you had to swim against the current going out, but it was at your back coming in.  It was also moderate in terms on being a technical swim; I swam in/out at an angle and it involved 2 turns.  Having a wet suit on and it being saltwater made the swim actually fun.

The bike course was the most challenging of the 3 sports.  It was 12.2 miles long and involved the 3 highest bridges in Clearwater.  For being a sprint, I would have to say the course was a 7 out of 10 as far as difficulty and being technical.  There was a lot of steep climbing, about 30% of the bike course the roads were not closed and you were riding along with traffic.  The last bridge also had a 90 degree left turn about 100 feet after the bridge therefore you were not able to leverage that energy of going downhill.  Although, challenging the bike remains to be my favorite sport, so I enjoyed the bike the most.

The run was a fast and relatively flat out and back course.  TriRock is put on by the Competitor group, same company who puts on Rock N Roll half and full marathons, so there was plenty of portable free standing music columns along the course.  The weather actually held out for the entirety of the race, so the run was incredibly enjoyable.  I averaged a 10:12 min/mile pace with ease.

Overall the race was great!  There happened to be an Arsenal game that day, so I left as soon as I was able to get my gear out of transition.  Which means I didn’t stick around for the concert afterwards.  This was one of the best races from an organizational standpoint.  At check-in we were given our timing chips and race tats, so I didn’t have to worry about chip pick-up or body marking the morning of the race.  Also each racers slot on the bike rack was marked, so it made it simple and i knew exactly where my space was in transition.  This is definitely a great race for all levels of triathletes.  And the medal was awesome!