I compete in the Oshima Triathlon again this year and just like in 2011 the swim is cancelled, and just like in 2011 I capture 12th place overall and a place on the podium (5th place age-adjusted).My time of 2:18:35 for the 5k run / 40k bike / 10k run is a full 11 minutes slower than in 2011. The slower time is due to the big theme of this year's event - a brutal headwind which slowed everyone's bike
times. In fact I seemed to have performed relatively better versus the (larger) field in 2012, an improvement which I would like to attribute to my better training in 2012. But the improvement may be largely due to my not being so ridiculously inept on the transitions this year.
Swim -
In the weeks leading up to Oshima I just presumed the swim section might be cancelled as usual. When our overnight boat pulled into the
island harbor on Saturday morning and the waters were glass calm I was a bit concerned -- "we may actually have to swim" Then, as expected,
the winds start to pick up as race time approached and the waves started getting larger. Still there was no announcement of swim cancellation and the participants all dutifully marched down to shoreline shivering in our wetsuits in the fierce pelting rain, staring at the
dark, angry roiling ocean. Only at the last second did the race officials announce the swim had been replaced by a 5k run.
Run 1 -
So I tried to follow my strategy of trying to pretend the first run is the only race of the day -- be tough and forget about the subsequent bike and 10k run. As you can see from the adjacent picture I did struggle pretty hard on this 5k run... however my time of 19:42 hardly represents a great time for me compared to numerous other 5k runs I have done in the last six months.
I found myself struggling into the wind on each of the 4 outbound
loops of the bike course, but then passing other cyclists on the
faster return section. Maybe my silly, waste of good money, aero
helmet helped after all.
Run 2 - Then the start of the 10k run was unusually tough - my first
kilometer took close to 5 minutes. Somehow, thanks to support of
teammates, I managed to settle into a decent pace into the wind and
finish reasonably solid.
Total - 2:18:35 (12th overall out of 346)
Run 1 - 19:42 (13th)
Bike - 1:18:24 (25th)
Run 2 - 40:29 (12th)
