A new PR at the 2011 Jay Benson triathlon: a race report

On Mothers Day I raced in the 2011 Jay Benson triathlon. Last year the Jay Benson had 550 competitors. Last year I felt it was slightly unorganized for such a large event. This year there were 640 competitors. I was afraid it would be too packed & I felt that even if the race was extremely well organized there would just be too many people, spectators, etc for the race to be put on without a hitch. I was dead wrong. The RD's nailed it this year! It was perfect. No problems what so ever. I was amazed at what they accomplished!

This was the 5th time I've competed in the Jay Benson triathlon, & the 4th consecutive year I've tried to break my PR set in 2006 of 1 hour 4 minutes. Every race I've done this year I have been 2- 2.5 minutes slower than I was last year, so I wasn't expecting to get anywhere near my course PR.

I felt fast on the run. Much faster than I thought I'd be. When I ran into T-1 I knew I was on track for a PR, but that's a mighty big IF because my cycling has been a huge weak point for me this year. I finished the run in a time of 20 minutes 48 seconds which was a 6:43 pace.

T-1 was pretty long because of how many athletes there were competing, but I still had a pretty decent transition time of 59 seconds!

I had a 20k bike of 33 minutes, keeping a 22.5 mph average! My bike time sure took me by surprise! Where did that come from?!?

When I entered T-2 I looked at my watch & knew I was close to my PR, but it was going to be CLOSE either way! I had a good T-2 time of 68 seconds.

The Jay Benson is famous for having the pool PACKED. This year was even worse than any of the other years! With how crowded the pool was I was finding it extremely hard to swim fast. There was multiple times that I came up to lanes with 4 people packed shoulder to shoulder all in one lane & all fighting fighting for position. I've never swam aggressively at the Jay Benson because of how many newbies triathletes there are at this race. But this year I swam really aggressive! I cringe thinking of how many people I swam over & dunked, but I was swimming for a PR that had been mocking for 5 years! The swim became a full contact sport for anyone who was around me.... I sure hope no one recognized me when I was bumping, grinding, & pushing! I knew with the way I was swimming I could easily get penalized or disqualified. Gulp. But I was on a mission people!!! Because of how packed the pool was I ended up with a pathetic swim time of 7 minutes 48 seconds, but it turns out it was fast enough to have finally broken my longest standing PR with a time of 1 hour 3 minutes 33 seconds!!!!!!!! I finished in 44th place out of 640 & 6th place in the 35-39 AG. Oh how sweet it is baby!!!