Big Creek Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I let the wave rush into the water infront of me. I soon realized that it was going to be rough jumping into the water with the waves they were making. I got in and started going.

The start I spent a lot of time swimming back and forth trying to get up where I needed to be. I got hit in the face by one person during this. I spotted Wes right ahead of me and made it a goal to stick with him for the swim. After the one spotting though I couldn't see him and guessed he got away.

After the first rush I was able to sink into a good groove. When I saw somebody nearby I would make an extra effort to pass them. This is the first time I had the extra go in the swim so I felt really good.

When I was coming through the second turn I noticed a swimmer ahead of me I wanted to pass. With the turn coming up I decided to sit back and wait for the turn to make a move since I would have to add a few meters on just to go around the corner around him.

I got out of the water and my watch read 15:46! I felt great about this. I did get concerned I might have gone too hard on the swim though.

Try to get out in front early. Now that I can start to feel comfortable in the swim I should try to get out in front of the pack.

I planned to hit T1 hard. I like to make good times in transition because a lot of people take them easy. It paid off for me, I had the fastest time in my age group! 29th fastest in the whole race.

As I came into transition I looked over to see if Wes was still stuck in T1 getting ready to go but I couldn't see him. Guess I'll catch him on the bike.

The one thing that slowed me down was grabbing my gel flask and putting it in my pocket. I want to find a way to have that already on my bike.

This course could have been a lot easier. It seemed like all of the flats had winds and all of the tailwind was during the hills. I felt good right away going out as I passed a few people early. There was a girl that races for Iowa State that I know to be a pretty good swimmer that I passed early in the bike. This made me feel good that I wasn't too far back in the swim from her.

There was some powerhouse bikers racing! In all my races this year I spent all the bike passing people with pretty much nobody passing me. There were people flying by me here like it was nothing. I really wanted to go with them when they went.

When I was approaching the bike turnaround I spotted Daniela who was in 1st place for the women! Cheering for her got me a little juiced up and was able to put out a few extra MPHs for a little bit.

When I got to the bike turnaround I was concerned about how I've done them so far this year. Luckily the turnaround made us make a wide loop around a stop sign so I didn't have to slow down too much.

On the way back we got hit with a decent wind. I saw Wes at this point and he was behind me! Made me feel good that I swam faster than him. Another rider came flying by me and I thought to myself, "These guys are pretty fast on the bike, well I'm pretty fast too!" so I tried to keep up with him. That lasted for about 15 seconds. I noticed I was able to pace with them pretty well on the hills though.

All of my training had me doing intervals of seconds, not minutes. I needed to try and do longer sets so I can hold paces instead of attacks.

I wish I could read how the wind was before I even get on the bike.

EAT MORE!!

Wasn't able to find a "No Pedal Zone" so I was hollering out to the volunteers trying to find it. Turns out there wasn't one.

Got my shoes on 1st this time and took off. I was able to put everything else on while I was running.

I had the 2nd fastest T2 in my age group as well as the 53rd fastest in the race.

Nothing, this went very well.

Cramping! My body was in pain the whole run. I tried to focus on other things but I had to change my breathing just to keep the pain away. I was running about 30 seconds slower than I wanted to which was frustrating. My legs were ready to go and my body just couldn't handle the effort.

When I got to the first aid station I pulled out some of my gel to try and get calories working in my favor. Up ahead they had one of the sprinklers so I tried to cool off as I went through that. It felt really nice for about five seconds until you got back out in the sun and it started cooking you!

I tried to keep people motivated as I struggled by them which also helped me a little as well. A runner passed me and I told him to keep it up; he responded "If I go you're going with me" which I laughed off because I just couldn't pick up the pace with the cramps.

Luckily with a mile left the cramps stopped hurting as much so I could drop below 7:00 mile pace. They still hurt but I was able to keep an acceptable pace to finish the last mile. With about half a mile left I saw the head referee walking along the trail so I gave him a high five.

Eat more. Simple as that. I need more calories. The more I think about it though I'm guessing that I need more water to go with the sport drink mix I have on the bike.

My first thought after I got some more water in me was to find the bathroom. Getting in the shade really was nice to help cooldown as well as all the food they had.


Nutrition really limited my performance. My bike and swim splits were amazing but my run suffered without the right fluids in me.


As I was leaving I saw the last guy heading out of T2. Right by the exit there was a water station for me as I went through but nobody was holding water for this guy. There was a volunteer there but he was busy talking to another racer. I felt that the volunteers didn't care too much about the later finishers because they also were packing up the other water stations on the run.