Festival of Flowers Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I started out the swim a little too fast. Initial sighting was extremely difficult for me as we were all trying to sight looking straight into the morning sun. I heard that they changed the swim course somewhat from previous years to address the sighting issues. Sighting and swimming got better after the first buoy. I did get off track somewhat, but not nearly as much as I did on my other triathlon. I did have to stop at a few buoys just to find my next target sometimes because the course was laid out differently than what I have experienced.

I had the swim endurance for this race, which was all I was hoping for with my truncated swim training. I just need to focus on getting faster in the water. I am happy with my swim performance in this race.

I did not try to do the flying mount, nor did I try to have my shoes on the bike prior to mounting. I just ran to my transition area, rolled on my socks, threw on my shoes, headband, helmet, gloves, and glasses. I then jogged some of the way out of transition. I did take a few seconds to drink a bit of Gatorade before I left my transition area.

My transition is definitely getting better. I will work on mounting and dismounting the bike while moving and with shoes staying on the bike

I felt good on the bike. This course was nice for me. The road was a little rough most of the time, but I moved along at my intended pace. I was not pushing it to go as fast as I could. I took a conservative approach to ensure I had plenty left in the tank. I actually stopped at the water bottle station (mile 13) and refilled my water bottle up with the ice/water mixture that the volunteers were keeping the disposable water bottles in. This was a great idea, as I had no place to store the disposable water bottle, and I needed every ounce of hydration I could get today out on this hot course.

I stopped and dismounted the bike, then ran into the transition area found my rack and racked my bike. I then took off the helmet, gloves, and cycling shoes, and slid on my running shoes. I purchased the laces that do not have to be tied, and they work great.

Like T1, this was much better than in the past.

HOT! About 40% of the course had shade. The rest felt like I was running in hell. I mostly walked this course, to keep my temperature down. I ended up walking the uphills and running the downhills. I stopped at each aid station (every mile) and had 3-5 cups of water plus dumped 1-2 on my head. Immediately after the aid station I could run normally for a short while before I started heating back up. I went into the run knowing that I had plenty of time left to finish the race, which was my only goal for this race. So I took it pretty easy on this leg.

In the future I will run more.

Immediately after I crossed the finish line, I was escorted into a "cool down" tent with huge fans and buckets of ice and water. There was also a cool shower tent and that was nice. I spent the immediate post race trying to find a way to cool off my pregnant wife and 2 year old daughter both of whom had been standing in the 90 degree weather for the last 4 hours.


My weight, my training, and the temperature