Winnersville Triathlon Race Report

Here is the skinny on the Winnersville Triathlon in Valdosta, Ga

We got all set and ready to start the race. I was in the first wave of the swim. As they were lining us up a fog was quickly rolling in over the lake. By the time they said go you could hardly see the first buoy. I took off hard for the first 100 yards and was in the lead pack. After that I slow my pace down and started drating off some of the other swimmers. It was a good thing I was drafting because you couldn’t see more than 20 yards head of you because to the fog over the lake. I just followed the guy in front of me.

When I got done with the 440 yard swim I was pretty tired. The bikes were about good tenth of mile away from the lake. During T1 I felt like I was going so slow because everybody was flying thru there.

The bike course was an out and back of 14 miles. The first mile or so was thru some neighbors and the rest of the course was long and straight. Immediately on the bike I notice my computer was not working. So, I had no idea how far I had gone or how fast I was going. But since it was a 14 mile ride I figured just go hard and worry about it later. The fog still had not lifted and it stayed overcast which keep it from being so hot. The course had a few rolling hills but it was pretty much flat.

Not sure about my bike split but I felt good about it. Only a few guys past me and I past a few myself while on the bike. However there was one group of four that I saw that were drafting. How lame. There we ZERO race officials out there to keep people from drafting. Hopeful they will get this fixed by next year.

T2 was pretty simple rack the bike, change the shoes, and swap the helmet for the visor.

The first mile of the run was the hardest coming off the bike. It took me a minute to settle into my pace. The run was a out and back around the lake. One thing that was frustrating was on the website it said that the run was going to be 3.6 miles. But that was not the case today. It was a 5K. Now if you are going to change the distance on me going shorter is always better than going longer but why didn’t they announce the change at the pre race meeting. If I had known it was a 5K I would have picked up may pace soon than what I did.

The race was fun and the location was great but they had several things that they need to address. One - We had to park about ¼ of a mile from the start finish line. Now I don’t know what else they could do about parking but I think I walked about a mile before the race started just going back and forth to the truck. Two - They have to find some way to enforce the No Drafting rule on the bike. The need more race officials to out on the bike course. Also the people that did timing had some issues. They were missing a lot of racers times including mine. They did get it corrected but the guys that were doing the timing shouldn’t have had as many issues as they did.

The race director said that he was going to work to make the race next year better. I hope so because this race has lots of potential to be very good. They had great volunteers and great sponsors. One thing that I’m looking forward to is that fact that they will add a Olympic Distance next year. Bottom line is I had a good time at the race. I finished the race with a time 1:20:55 and came in second in my age group.

Life Is Good!