The Nation's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

2:17 pace, felt pretty good about that. I knew I'd finish between 36-40 minutes so being on the lower end was positive. Was definitely a lot of bodies and splashing for the first few minutes, but after that things mellowed out. It probably helped that I was in the first wave of women, so the men were far ahead, and just women behind us to catch up. I did catch up to one guy early on doing breast stroke who knocked my goggles askew and the poor soul stopped to apologize. I took the time to respond and so no worries. About 2/3 of the way to the bridge I started to freak out, breathing was labored and my body wasn't warmed up yet (takes me forever to warm up!)... So I did backstroke for a minute or so until I felt my breathing return to normal. Under the bridge and around the buoys was fine. On the back stretch I expected to feel the current helping, but didn't. Still I was so excited I made it to the bridge I started to sing the Laverne and Shirley theme song in my head "we're going to make it after alllllll". The last tiny stretch where you swim towards the shore was weird. Got crowded and lots of waves. I started to feel see sick and couldn't tell if I was going forward or backward. Whenever I looked up I could tell I was going forward, but as soon as I put my head in the water I felt like I had swimming vertigo. Anwyays, made it to shore with a decent time, so it probably wasn't as bad in reality as it felt in my head!

Sighting went great, didn't need to sight nearly as much as I had in my practices. I did find I was way on the side, which started from the very beginning, where literally the second I jumped in the water the horn sounded so I didn't have time to think about where to position myself. Spent a good deal of time swimming left but again, time was decent so probably better then I thought!

Nothing, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

I took my time in transition, forgot to put my bike computer on and scrambled to find it in my stuff, couldn't so gave up. I thought I was in transition like 8 minutes, so am pleasantly surprised at 4:32. Rank was 159 in my div.

Make sure bike computer is on before the ride! Would've saved at least a minute or two.

Am unbelievably happy with bike time. I ride on a hybrid and in practices I would struggle to average 15 mph.

Nothing with the bike I was on. Would like to upgrade to a nice road bike next season, but we'll see.

Ride with feet on top of shoes? People do that??? I'm learning much about triathlons... Anyways, Transition went ok, my bike was three racks down from the run in and run out so I had to run in my bike shoes and pushing the bike over much of it. Might've save some time if I'd been closer to the other end, but who knows. Took the time to change from bike socks to running socks (I get blisters, a few seconds up front can same me minutes and blood loss later). Forgot to take my bike gloves off and started running with them in. Didn't want to go back to transition, but luckily saw my training coach a few minutes in cheering from the sidelines so I handed them off. Rank was 151 in div.

Take the darn gloves off!

I was completely bored during the run. I've done so many 10K's down Hain's Point I just couldn't get excited about it. I spent the race singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall in my head to make the time pass. Felt ok for the first 5K, had a steady 10 min/mile pace which was what I was aiming for, but the last 10K I started to tire out, by the last 1/2 mile or so I slowed way down because I started to feel queasy and didn't want my race to end in puking. Guess I didn't slow down as much as I thought because my overall split was 10:11. The sun was bright and strong, I was glad I wore a visor and sunglasses, and very pleased there were water stops every mile, I stopped at each and every one.

Nothing, I'm pretty happy with the run.

Walked around for 30 minutes or so looking for friends. Then when I found everyone we settled in the grass by the water for a post-race meal. I had the hubby bring my lunch and I ate and stretched in the grass watching where I had swam not long before. It was a lovely way to end the day.

Got home showered off the sweat and Potomac took a 2 hour nap and had another good meal. I'm a firm believer in a solid meal and a nap curing everything.


Overall it was much better then I thought. Lots of fabulous volunteers running things. Also fewer participants then anticipated made it feel safer and less scary (especially when the bike course would narrow). This was my first OLY and I think I am hooked!