Race Coverage

The "Rust Buster"...

Tuesday, 11 April 2017 05:10

By Gaby Bunten

South Beach Triathlon Race Report –

Ahh… MIAMI! The city’s colors, culture, energy and beachfront simply can’t be beat. Needless, to say I didn’t think twice about signing up for the South Beach Triathlon back in December. I knew I’d be making a couple of trips down to Miami to visit my coach, so why not do a race?!  ...

Our trip began on Tuesday, March 28th. We flew down early to allow a few days before the race to acclimate, as best as one can, to the humidity that Miami is known for.  In Miami, you know how quickly summer is approaching by the amount your hair grows when getting off the plane. My parents came down with me to “Sherpa” and experience Miami’s culture with me.  Meanwhile, my better half, Kris, stayed back home to watch our child, errr… dog, Zoey.  Isn’t she cute?!

The days leading up to the race were all about staying loose and distracting myself as best as I could. We toured Wynwood Walls, which I highly recommend visiting if you make the trip down there.  You can read more about the walls here: http://www.thewynwoodwalls.com/overview. Also, for those of you who know me, you know I’m a HUGE foodie. So, of course pre-race included fueling well with FANTASTIC food and enjoying the dining experience. Here were a few favorites: https://zakthebaker.com/, http://casatualifestyle.com/mobile/miami/casatua-miami-restaurant.html, http://www.matadorroom.com/, http://coyo-taco.com/, and http://www.panthercoffee.com/. Saturday, however, was all about race prep, packet pick-up, bike drop off, transition walk through and FEET UP.
My alarm went off promptly at 3:30 AM, Sunday morning. I quickly snarfed down my “eggy” oats and we piled in the van to head to transition. When we arrived to transition, you realized you truly were on Ocean Drive. The nightclubs in Miami are open until 5:30 AM and were still booming at 4:30 AM when I got into transition. CRAZY! It did calm my nerves a bit to get a laugh from the stragglers stumbling out of the club at closing time. I did a quick shake out run to the swim start, which was a mile from the transition and popped on my Blue Seventy Helix for a quick warm-up swim. Race start was delayed from 6:30 AM until 6:50 AM due to sunrise. Luckily, this was NO surprise.

Swim:
+    The swim ended up being wetsuit legal, just barely! Water temp was exactly 78 degrees. Needless to say, the swim was a hot one.
+    There were only TWO of us in the premier wave, so we both had a clear shot to the first buoy. Once, we made a right turn past the first buoy it was a straight shot to the finish. We swam up current to the final buoy to turn into transition. However, the water was smooth as glass, so I can’t complain about a slight current!
 +   I did my best to make my way up and catch as many premier men as I could. They had started two minutes before the two of us had started, so I knew I’d have a good swim if I used them as bait.
 +    I exited the water somewhere sub or at 19:00, according to Sherpa #1 with a Garmin, to trudge up to the timing mat, into T1, grabbed “Big Red” , helmet and off I went!

Bike:
 +    The bike was fairly flat with its hills coming from the bridges that crossed the ocean. I knew there would be a nice tailwind on my way out and a small head wind coming back in. So, I took advantage of my tailwind on the way out and enjoyed the extra push. I quickly realized I was alone on the bike. This is SO rare for me!  I’m typically passed up or caught quickly and spend the majority of the ride doing the chasing. However, I knew I was being chased, so I tried to capitalize on that feeling.
 +    The mid-race fog set in when I made the turn around for the bike. Typically, I’d take my 2nd Surge gel close to this time, however, with the heat, I shied away from the 100 mg caffeine boost. I truly wish I had bitten the bullet and taken the caffeine, but hindsight is 20-20.  My last few miles were lack luster, but I didn’t see any females chasing me, so I cruised into T2 focusing on a good run.  

Run:
 +    The run was along the boardwalk on Ocean Drive. Well, Ocean Drive and all of its active Sunday walkers, runners and bikers. The course was not closed to the public, so we had an extra challenge darting in and out of the crowd.  But, the course was very flat, so we all had that in our favor.
 +    I thought I’d struggle with the humidity on the run, but with my visor and frequent water dumps on my head, I survived! This was a huge win for me. I didn’t do any heat training leading up to race besides the two trips down to visit my coach  during the winter months. WHEW!
 +    I did race blind to get a true idea of where I was at starting the season. My only goal was to truck along a good pace, keep my cadence up and SMILE. Diaa, my coach’s partner in crime, was out on the course taking video and cheering which helped break up the stretches without my Sherpa #1 & #2.
 +    The last mile I was lead by Frankie Ruiz, on his bike, where he plowed the way for me. This was much appreciated, as I was tired of yelling, “ON YOUR LEFT!” A second kicker this run course added was its half-mile finish in the sand. OUCH! It ended up being about a half K long, but the energy on the run course could not be beat!

Overall, I’m happy with how my first race of the season went. You can never walk away from a race with an overall win, with a frown on your face! But, when I first analyzed my splits, I was honestly disappointed. I had high expectations leading up to this race with my biggest and best training block, EVER. However, as my coach would say, your first race is the “rust buster.” At this point in the year, I’m still learning how to be comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.  A big thank you to all of the support from my Sherpa #1&#2, my coach Leanda, her boyfriend Diaa, my boss Kris Swarthout, my TEAM LC teammates and my main squeeze, Kris (AKA K3PO). This sport would be no fun without you all!   RESULTS