To round off my 2011 triathlon season, I started at the Tägi Tri sprint triathlon about ten days ago. The 2010 edition of this race was my first triathlon ever (including getting lost on the bike), so I was curious to see how I would have improved in the meantime.

My start was at 10:30, so without getting up at an ungodly time I managed to get to Wettingen around 08:15. My trusty (upgraded) bike got its own compartment in the train:

Tägi Tri is a sprint triathlon, where the “long” race is 1 km outdoor pool swim, a 36.8 km bike and a 7.6 km run. I did the “short” race (half of all that) because my company sponsors a special category where all their employees can start for free, but only on the short distance. Fine with me.

After checking in, getting marked and setting up my transition, I went to watch a few of the waves starting before me. Every thirty minutes, about 30 competitors started at the same time, four or five of them sharing a lane for the swim. Quite a lot of ASVZ tri camp people were competing: Karin, Henrik, Marcus and Yonca (all doing the long one), and I watched them all swim. Some swimmers were incredibly fast, like Marcus who clocked 17:07 including the very long transition to cycling!

I had still some time to drink coffee and get really nervous. With my starting time approaching, I went to the swim start to get my lane and listen to the briefing, then warm up a little and swim one lap before things got serious.

We were just four in our lane and sorted out roughly who would be how fast so there wouldn’t be too much passing in the beginning. After the start, two of the guys were gone quite soon, and I was on the feet of the third (who was breast stroking, but at a decent pace). My goal was to swim freestyle for all of the distance. As usual, the first few laps were no problem, breathing every third stroke and all, but around half the distance things became a little more laborious. After 200 metres I sprinkled in about four breast strokes but then changed back, determined to not “fall back” again.

I switched to breathing every second stroke and my form was probably terrible, but hei, I managed. Unlike the year before where I had the pool all to myself in the end, there were still some people swimming when I left (“left” as in “rolled myself over the pool edge”). The transition zone was super slippery and I had to take tiny steps, but without too much hassle I could leave, jump on the bike and was on my way.

My swim time (including T1) was almost two minutes faster than last year’s and faster than one third of the other contestants. For me, that’s quite an accomplishment, but for the moment I was mainly happy with swimming (almost) everything freestyle.

Now the actual fun part began. Because I was far behind the really fast people, nobody passed me during the whole bike and at times my cycling felt pretty powerful. The course was a bit longer than last year, and the extra bit was all flat and straight, perfect for me. Thanks to intense study of the course and realising that it was almost the same as last year, I did not miss the right turn at the end of the first lap and went by the transition zone to start my second lap.

I really tried to go all in, considering the run would be very short, yet still the bike speed was not much faster than what I had for example at the triathlon in Zug, where the bike was more than twice as long. But good enough to progress a bit in the ranking.

T2 was no problem, still the same super slippery ground, but managable.

The idea was to go really fast in the run, 3.8 km being really short. I managed to have a quick first kilometre (3:45), and also the second was okay (3:54). I passed a few people, but now they were few and far between. The slight slope on the third kilometre took its toll in the shape of a 4:22 split; the last bit was faster again (3:45 pace).

The finish stretch was all straight and you could see until the very end; one guy in front of me was looking back for a long time before taking the last turn and I tried to hunt him down, but no chance. Good for a fast finish though.

My run split ended up being the 4th fastest of the 38 in my division (the “sponsored short course”), and overall I finished 13th. I was really happy with that since usually I struggle to even place in the better half, and that was already scratching “fastest third”. Plus I was content with the swimming.

We stayed for the awards (Marcus came in second on the long course), pasta and cake, and soon after I left. Good way to finish my first full triathlon year! Off to Autumn running, Winter swimming and 2012 plans.