Columbia Tri ‘Unplugged’

This is my Columbia Tri Race Report and the reason I have classed it as ‘unplugged’ is that my Polar HRM packed up, which was not a drama as I had my trusty Suunto for back up but then that too failed to register a pulse throughout the race. Confident that my heart was still beating I ran the race on perceived effort, rather than HR, which is actually a first for me.

Before I get into the ‘nitty gritty’ of the race I thought I would bring you quickly up to speed on triathlon life following the arrival of our new milk processor (a.k.a. Ben). Somehow he can take a small amount of milk and turn it into a vast amount of pee and poop.

Ben was born on a Friday and we were all back home the following Sunday. By Tuesday I felt able to get out of the house for a couple of hours and pick up my training with a group ride in the evening. The rest of the week didn’t call for any particularly long workouts and I managed to achieve 95% of my training. I was probably only getting around 5 hours sleep a night and I paid the price over the weekend. Wendy looked after Ben on the Friday so I could get some sleep and I did a long ride on Skyline Drive on the Saturday. Sunday called for a ‘hardish’ swim and another long ride. I managed the swim but then I was completely beat and could only lie on the settee drifting in and out of sleep.

This week has been slightly easier (for me not necessarily Wendy). I am back at work and able to train over my lunch. I am probably getting 6 hours or so sleep and again the volume was not too bad in light of the upcoming race. Again Thu and Fri Wendy let me sleep through most of the night by taking care of Ben. The night before the race Ben was pretty well behaved and fell asleep promptly after each feed giving us a little over 5 hours sleep. We wanted to be at the race site by 5 am to ensure a parking spot so we were not too bothered about getting up early.


We arrived at Centennial Park just after 5 am and were able to park very quickly. My bike was already racked so I went down to set up my transition and sort out my nutrition. I had done a short brick the day before and I knew the bike course was rolling and although I had not seen much of the run course everyone warned me how hilly it was. I had also met up with my Cadence Coach, Holden. He and his girlfriend Kerry were there as Holden, as well as coaching, is a Pro Triathlete and had decided to race. He was in a pretty select field of Pros which included Chris McCormack and Chris Lieto along with some other ‘big names’.

Me, Wendy, Holden, Kerry and Ben
(who does normally have a face but the pic is a little over exposed)

Ed and the Team Z triathlon club were all congregated by the start finish line and I left Wendy, Ben and Janet, Wendy’s mum, to feed Ben while I waited for my wave start. As a 30-34 age grouper I am used to my wave starting pretty near the front but at Columbia it was the other way around and the pros were followed by the older age groups first. The pros went at 6:55 and I didn’t go until 7:39.

Swim 26:39 (place 631/1722);

In water start and the temp was in the mid to high 60’s and was actually very comfortable. My wave consisted of 20-24 and 30-34 and was therefore pretty big. I lined up near the front but when the swim got underway I found myself in the middle of the worst scrum I have ever experienced so far in a swim start. I was prepared to swim fairly hard for a bit to get clear of the mêlée but I was well and truly boxed in. Every time I went for breath I was taking in water and I was really unhappy. After a few more minutes of this I had had enough, I sat up and breaststroked out of the mess. I have never swum breast stroke in a tri before and I started to think to myself that I was already blowing this race after only a few minutes. That being said, as soon as I had some open water I settled into my rhythm and actually enjoyed the rest of the swim. Strangely I was not being overtaken in the water and I actually swam 26:39.

This is not a great swim time by a lot of people’s standards (Holden posted an amazing 16:07) but when you compare it to my fastest Oly race, the Nation’s Tri at 29:26, it is a good solid step in the right direction. More importantly, my swim pace was 2.0984392975609753 mph (roughly) which if I were to maintain over the Ironman distance would give a finish time of 1:8:37, under the 1:10 goal I am setting myself (subject to change). I also got out of the swim feeling strong and certainly didn’t over exert myself.

Transition One 2:22 (158/1722);

Nothing really to report other than the pros are all doing times in the 1:20s. Obviously they save some time not putting their shoes on but that cannot account for a whole minute. Time there to be saved me thinks.

Bike 1:09:09 (78/1722) (ave 22.0 mph);

You may have seen on this blog that I have been spending quite a lot of time in my sexy new, all matching, colour coordinated Cadence Cycling gear and hanging out with some road cyclists. I was even going to do a road race a couple of weeks ago until Ben’s 13 day eviction saga, when his refusal to vacate his 9 month, small, rented pied-a-terre, put pay to the plan. Even without actually racing the fast paced group riding, with plenty of high heart rate efforts, has made me a lot stronger on the bike and I was determined to put in a good bike split.

Armed with my evil looking (in a good way) LAS aero helmet and bullet like Cyfac, decked out in all its Zipp Spead Weaponry glory, I was ready to do battle. I turned out of the car park onto the course and made the shift up to the big chain ring ready to kick butt but as I did so I heard a ‘pting’ sound and after a split second I realized that my front derailleur cable had snapped. “B@#$!@ks”, I thought to myself, I was all psyched up but now stuck in the small ring for the whole race. It’s a bit like winning a life times supply of beer but having to drink it all with a shot glass.

Long story short I rode 42km of fast cadence leg drills, pushed hard on the uphills and really went to town on achieving an aero profile for the descents. I have probably taken many 100s of miles off my chain by riding small ring front and back and many people must have looked at me funny as I passed them with my groupset clicking away horribly, but pass people I did. I felt great on the bike and with so many people having started ahead of me I was going past people in their droves. It was by far the best bike leg I have ever had. Average speed may be way down on something like the Nation’s Tri but this was not a flat course.

Even more reassuring perhaps is the knowledge that if I had of had a big chain ring who knows what I could have done. In recognition of all the high end gear I have been given I have to admit that I was a lot faster than most people on the descents, even though I was not peddling, thanks entirely to the Cyfac, Zipp and LAS aero equipment. But, if I could have used some of my spare strength on the descents I believe I could have knocked a couple of minutes more off the bike split.

In some ways I am pleased that I didn’t have a HRM as I believe that with the cycling I have been doing of late my LT threshold on the bike has probably changed considerably.

F.Y.I, Chris Lieto did the bike in 56:35 at an average speed of 26.9 mph. Wow!

Cumulative Time 1:38:09 (147/1722);

Interestingly at this stage I am pretty close to where I finished overall in terms of placings. 630 people swam faster than me but only 77 people biked faster than me. This highlights how much difference the bike can make in comparison to the swim (which is a good thing when you swim like me).

Transition Two 1:19 (231/1722);

Still wearing socks with trainers but I am only roughly 20 secs slower than pros so no biggy.

Run 45:19 (206/1722)(7:18 min/mile);

Coming off a high on the bike it was back to reality with the run. I came out of transition feeling good and I think I had pretty good form. I started to pass a few people but much fewer than on the bike. When I came to the climbs (I think there were 7 steep climbs in total) I had decided I would just take it very easy with little baby steps before regaining ground on the descents.

This strategy worked for me. My run time was OK, nothing special, but certainly solid. I could not have gone any quicker up the hills without doing myself serious damage and I am not as quick or as light on my feet as I would like. Having said all that I finished strong and on a flat course I think I would have ran a very good split.

Happy with my run.




Overall 2:24:46 (151/1722) (Age group 25/143);

Not one of the top 5 in my age group by about 15 minutes, which is quite significant, but then it was a very strong field. Ideally I would like to have gone harder in all 3 disciplines, particularly the bike and run but I am not sure how much was in the tank. That being said I am not training for short course, I am in this for Ironman and I did feel perfectly fine at the end of the race (and today) which is a great sign. I often ask myself whether or not I can possibly hope to do a 10 hour Ironman. Sometimes I think I am in cloud cuckoo land and sometimes I think that maybe, just maybe, it is possible. Today is definitely one of those maybe days.

Let me out I've finished

I enjoyed the Columbia Tri and would definitely recommend it to others. The field was very strong and there were plenty of world class athletes there but I didn't actually get to see them (obviously exluding Holden). Bare in mind that there are over 2000 competitors which means that logistically this race can be a bit harder than others e.g. parking, waiting for the toilet.

Congratulations to Team Z members Brian and Monica; Kathy and Dave who are all expecting and big thanks to Kitty and Jeff for their genourosity. I would also like to thank everyone who has already voted for me in the Cadence Kona Challenge. It was rather surreal that one of my fellow racers recognised me (I was wearing my Cadence Kona Challenge T-shirt) at the race expo and knew my name. It turned out that he too had been one of the 100 finalists who tried out for the challenge back in New York.



Please do not forget you can still vote by emailing triathlete magazine at triathletemagcontest@gmail.com, with my name (PEARSON) and the name of one other of the finalists who you would like to see compete for the chance to qualify for Kona. Voting closes at midnight tonight. For more details please see triathlete magazine on line.

P.S. Holden had a great race finishing in 7th place with a time of 1:59:55 only 2 minutes behind Chris McCormack and Richie Cunningham, not a bad day at the office.