Morgan Hill Sprint Triathlon

By Benoit Pelczar

Morgan Hill Sprint triathlon 5/16/210

Since I have been doing most of my bike training this year with the Team, I wanted to acknowledge that contribution and had my trisuit branded with the Bicycle Trip name. Yesterday was my first triathlon of the season, the Morgan Hill Sprint. My strategy for maximum sponsor exposure was to swim slow then pass as many people as possible so that they could have a good look at my Bicycle Trip branded back. My swim was perfectly executed and by that I mean slow, exciting the water in mid pack (it is pure coincidence that my swim training has been minimal this year)

Out of the water, I am in my element, as a member of the species that scientists refer to as land triathletes and it was time for me to go to work.

The bike was a 16-mile loop. Studying the elevation profile I took note that the course reached its highest elevation at mile 5, after a long gradual climb. That profile helped me devise a plan to take it relatively easy to mile 5 then push it hard to the finish. That worked very well and I moved up the field, passing too many racers to keep track off while being overtaken by less than 5 of them.

The run course was an out and back 5 miler, climbing the first half. I started it strong and reached the first (uphill) mile in 6:40. Mile 2 came exactly at 13 minutes. After that, I stopped looking at my watch and focused on my effort, passing racers right and left without being overtaken. Shortly after mile 2, I heard some steps behind me. I was decided to not let this racer pass me and jumped at his side. This young runner was out of high school, headed to West Valley College to run cross country and track, doing his second triathlon ever. It was nice to have his company as we pushed each other and avoided falling asleep while running. We stayed together all the way to the finish where I told him to go for the sprint, as I had no illusion to overtake his young legs and he had already beat my split since coming from behind.

The results have me 7th in my age group, with the 4th fastest bike and 2nd fastest run splits (out of 65), which I am very happy with. Not only has my bike improved since joining the Team, but the extra speed did not come at the detriment of my run. Now, if Mark could start a swim workout, I might become a more complete triathlete?