Leon's World's Fastest Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The water got choppier than I would have expected for a small little lake. I had a goggle mishap in the first 100 yards and had to stop to adjust some leaking. I was a little zig-zaggy on the outbound leg - not horrendous, but added a little yardage to my swim. Other than that, it was pretty smooth. I got into more of a rhythym swimming in the wetsuit after about half the swim. I found myself stuck in some traffic much deeper into the swim that I would have expected. A lot more jostling around than I've experienced in my other OWS's, but not too bad.

On the whole, pretty solid. A handful of people were faster, but not by a lot. I shuffled/walked through more of the route to T1 that I would have liked getting the wetsuit top over my head, but I don't think it cost me more than 10-15 seconds, which wouldn't have made a difference in my age group.

The ride was pretty challenging. The wind was gusty up to 20+ mph, and it seemed like most of the ride was in a cold, windy, misty, rain. By the second lap, it was pretty unpleasant, and I was getting very anxious to get off the bike. My plan was to ride with power in the low 200s. I wound up at 187 (normalized at 200). Based on conditions, I more or less stuck to plan. I probably could have pushed a little harder, but I just felt sapped in the rain, especially with the winds. I wanted to err on the conservative side after too many experiences pushing too hard on the bike.

Not much!! I might have pushed a bit more, but I think I made the right decisions.

Pretty solid. As far as my transitioning went, I didn't waste any time. The need for a quick bio break slowed me down a little, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

While it's still the weakest of my 3 disciplines, I really felt like I nailed the run, and my saving some effort on the bike paid off. My calves were a little crampy during the first half mile or so, but I was able to shuffle through it without giving up any real speed. Even though I felt great at the beginning of the run (especially after my calves settled down), I settled down and held back a bit. I locked into a high 7:40/low7:50 pace for the first 4 miles without pushing too hard, which is exactly where I wanted to be. I was able to push it and speed up by about 5 seconds/mile after mile 4 and finish strong. I was hoping to be a little speedier through the end of the race, but it was into the wind and I really don't have any complaints. My quads were really starting to feel fatigued in the last few miles, and I was able to improve my pace a little instead of peter out.

Check the overall time on my watch going into the last mile. I was 4 seconds from breaking 2:30!!! I was spent by the end of the race, but I think I could have found those four seconds somewhere!

Body heat from the family. Thanks Jen and boys for coming out to support me on such a crappy morning.


Fitness level. I had a good plan and executed it well.


Great production and event organization. Not my favorite bike course. I'm still waiting for the official email from USAT, but I'm pretty sure I qualified for nationals with this one. This has been a goal since last summer, so if I made it, I'll be pretty stoked. I've always enjoyed tri's, but the drive to make nationals took a little bit of the fun out of it for me because, frankly, I was stressing and fearing putting the work in and not making the goal. If I've made it, I'll be thrilled, and I feel like I'll be able have a lot more fun with it again.