Soma Triathlon - Triathlon

The beginning of the swim was a freaking melee. They had 2 age groups combined into one (45-54) and I started in the middle, about 3 rows back, which normally now is a good spot. Apparently there were several people who overestimated their swim ability and I had to swim over/around/through about 7 dudes who were incredibly slow. Then, I got kicked about 8 times, elbowed too many times to mention, and it was a general white water ruckus for the first 400 meters. I did find some space in spurts for 200-400meters into the swim, and after the turn around, it was smooth sailing.

Have a little more confidence in my swim and start at least in the 2nd row now to avoid some of the clogging.

First time having my shoes clipped into my bike and riding for a few minutes, getting up to speed, with my feet on top of my shoes. I had put socks on in transition and ran through the dead grass with the bike, so I had dead grass everywhere. It didn't hamper my ride at all, but it was funny when I was velcroing my shoes closed, that grass was flying everywhere. I felt a wee bit swervy while I was trying to velcro my shoes closed, but managed to get it done.

Nothing, really.

I paced this ride out rather nicely this time. I didn't blow up on the bike like last year. I kept it easy for the first 12-14 miles, then started to ratchet it up a bit. I went easy on the hills and just spooled/spun it up them. The hills aren't long, but short and moderately steep, so it's easy to want to get out of the saddle and hammer them. I just stayed aero on ALL the hills and spun nicely up them without burning up energy. It was a good ride for me. I kept an eye on my HR a little bit and tried not to go above 138 this time, since I overcooked the bike last year. I stuck with my coach's plan and it worked.

Not too much, really.

I think this was my best transition ever. Bike racked (gently), helmet off, grabbed my fuel (in a plastic sandwich bag), race belt, and visor and motored out of the transition area.

Nothing.

I started out too fast and consciously slowed myself down as I knew the pain would come soon enough. At mile 1.5, I stopped to pee and spent 60 seconds in the porto-pooper. This is the 3rd time in a 70.3 I've had to pee on the run. Overhydrating? Dunno. My first lap averaged a 8:56, which is good for me, and was my goal. I was right on target. My second lap averaged a 9:07, although I did suffer and slow down to 9:45/mile around mile 8 for a few miles. My effort was the same, I was fueling and hydrating, but my body just slowed down. I was okay with that and kept motoring. When I crossed the finish line, I simply was D O N E. My quads, hammies, and hips were hurting an incredible amount, like I've never had them hurt before. It was a good hurt and I was pretty proud of myself as I PR'ed for a 70.3 by 27 minutes.

REALLY concentrate on that first mile and slowing it down. I only hope by slowing that first mile down that I will recoup that 45 seconds somewhere else in the race. I have had spots in my training where I was able to negative split my runs and days where (my norm) I continually start fast and slow down as the run progresses. I will say my run pacing has improved by 1:00 per mile over this time last year, so progress is being made and I'm really happy with that.

Staggered around. Found my wife and got a great big hug. Cold wet towel around my neck, grabbed a water and 2 Gatorades at the finisher's chute, slammed those, and went to the Tribe Multisport tent and grabbed a beer (well, Michelob Ultra...kinda like heavy water, not really beer). I watched my buddy John finish the race about 25 minutes after me.


Strength in the run. Mentally I had it today and wanted to push harder. I've been working on the run portion and will continue to do so.


This is an easy race for me to do as it's so close to home. It's well put on and fun to do. It's not an over the top festival, but there's lots of local people that you see at the gym and on the roads that do it, so that's nice to see. I hope to do it next year again, the only caveat being that I will be doing IMAZ which is 4 weeks after this race, so we will see.