The Perth Triathlon has been going on for over 25 years now as a fundraiser for the Perth Stingrays swim club. A couple things make this event unique: its short distance, the post-race potluck, and the prizes.
The race is a short sprint - 500m swim, 16km bike, 3km run - which makes it a great first Tri of the season to test your fitness and practice transitions without worrying about handling longer distances. It's also FAST if you want it to be, as the short distance are conducive to all-out efforts. There is also a "double" option, for those who can handle the longer distances and/or are prepping for an upcoming Olympic or Iron-Distance race, but the sprint is the main race here.
The race begins with a 500m swim in the Perth pool. Rather than do the serpentine start where swimmers go off one at time at set intervals, this swim is done in waves. Swimmers give a seed time (the time they expect to take to swim 500m) and are placed in waves. Two swimmers split a lane and there are 5 lanes per wave (one lane is left open for warming up). They start with the "double" racers, then move on to the slower waves. I was in wave 9, so it took quite a while before I started. The event kicked off at 7:30 and it was certainly after 10am when I got in the water.
It was great to see lots of Ottawa-based teams out supporting each other. Team Triumph was out in full force, OTC had some representation, and the UofO Triathlon Club was loud and proud - most of my wave seemed to consist of UofO team members.
The swim went well - I had given a seed time of 9:30, and I likely came in under that (didn't look at the clock on my way out) as I was out of T2 by 10:32. Thanks to Melissa and Lily for counting laps for me!
It was cold and drizzly - temps were down around 3-4 degrees factoring in the windchill. Some people put on jackets and gloves for the bike and run, while others chose to HTFU and just go for it. I chose the latter. Coming right out of the warm pool and quickly getting up to speed on the bike was... unpleasant to say the least. It was cold as hell. After a while it wasn't too bad except for the hands. Pretty much everyone I passed coming the other direction had a grimace on their face.
The roads are relatively smooth for the first part, with a few cracks once you get down towards Glen Tay. Roads are not closed to traffic, but drivers seemed curteous. Pretty flat course overall, but there was some wind - mostly a crosswind and what turned out to be a headwind on the way back (hence the grimaces).
Ride went well - I passed quite a few people and averaged just 35.4km/hr. Normally a 16km bike ride would feel way too short, but in these conditions the end couldn't have come soon enough. When I got back to transition I found that my hands didn't work. Getting the helmet off and changing shoes was very difficult with my useless, frozen fingers.
Once on the run it took me a while to get my breathing settled. I was understriding as I wanted to protect my knee and wasn't sure how it would hold up to an all-out effort. I was fully prepared to be passed by several of the people I passed on the bike, and indeed, all those UofO guys had far better run splits than me, but my bike was strong enough to give me a good cushion, so I didn't get passed after all.
Overall a good start to the season - I finished first in my age group and cracked the top 10 overall. Most importantly my knee felt fine and I did not aggravate it. The potluck afterwards was great and as the male 30-39 winner, I got to take home a prize of some giant peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies.
Melissa was kind enough to give my legs a good massage back at her parents' place, so the day turned out pretty well.
Race Goals:
1) Stay injury free
2) Swim under 9:30
3) Finish under 1 hour
Time: 52:52.2
Place: 1/5 AG, 9/99 OA
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