TriAmerica National Triathlon Series - Long Course - TriathlonLong Course

Holy smokes this was a tough swim! When the wind is cutting across the course at a 45 degree angle between 15-25 mph, it gets tough out in the deep water. On the out leg I kept the pace easy and kept on going off to the right until I figured out that its the wind the keeps blowing me that way. I had to swim diagonally at times to go straight! On the across leg, it was head on into the waves, the non-periodic kind where every 2-4 breaths a wave drives over you and you have to fight for air. This was the slowest part for me as I had to fight for sighting and air. I actually had to kick! I finally noticed a very large flag pole on the horizon that I could easily use for reference. On the return leg I was just trying to stay relaxed and once I got to where the sprint swimmers joined in I was able to draft some here and there. The waters were relatively calmer closer to shore and I was able to finish strong with good form.

Go faster on the way out when I had the chance! Nothing really can prep you for a rough water swim except rough water swim training and I did none of that this spring.

Long run into the T from the water, but I was able to jog at a pretty good clip. I didn't feel tired or wobbly while putting on my socks and shoes so I’m much improved fitness wise!

Bike was in the perfect gear for the start and the pedals in the right spot, glad I practiced this a few times.

Not too much, maybe bring a pan and have it filled already so I can dip my feet in before I shoe up.

ACK, a short steep hill right out of the gate, then a short slight down hill with a sharp turn, a short downhill getting speed then right sweeper leading to another up short steep hill all within the first 1/2 mile or so. I'm going to BT route this sucker for the profile! Then the winds were again a serious factor. Heading out of the town was a solid tailwind and I was cruising along between 25 and 30 mph without breathing hard! It rained for a short period of time on the 1st lap at about the 5 mile point, so taking the sharp corners meant really having to slow down. Going up the hills, I was passed maybe 2-3 times and passed quite a few riders, so I felt really good about that. With the cross-winds though, they would play games with you, so you had to stay focused all the time. You could tell on the horizon the nasty stuff was still coming. The return for some reason didn't feel as bad as I thought it would be, until afterwards it was mentioned that it was a gradual downhill, so that helped to offset the headwinds!

On the 2nd lap the winds out of town felt stiffer and then at about the 25 mile point the skies let loose with a serious down pour and winds that driving a car in would have been difficult. It rained so hard that I had to wipe off the inside of my wrap around glasses to see. The roads quickly turned into rivers and crossing the mini rivers going across the road was a bit nerve wracking. At this point it was difficult to tell where any of the road pot-holes or cracks were so I stayed in the area between the tire tracks or the road crown, whatever had less water. I hit one or two areas that I prayed would not pinch flat me. Several riders were down through the race most likely with pinch flats. At the turn around, one brave volunteer was still out handing out water and I thanked him. Then it got every bad for about 5 minutes, the winds and rains were now torrential, harder then ever and as I was just finished climbing a small hill I was blown all the way across the road, I nearly stunk myself! All I could do was hold on and prey that if I went down it wouldn't hurt a lot. I had one bright lightning flash with thunder 2 seconds later and I was ready to dive off the bike but then the next ones were all were moving further away. Just before the turn back towards town, the winds instantly shifted direction and the air turned cooler. What was a head cross-wind before was now a tailing cross-wind, so heading into town I was able to carry good speed without a lot of effort, which I needed as the time spent in the rain and winds really slowed me down.

Heading back towards the transition was a dubious issue, the inverse of the start with a steep downhill, on a wet road, with tree debris everywhere. Whoa Nelly!

Nutrition wise, I nailed it. 3 scoop mix of Perpetuem, one gel and 3 electrolyte caps and some water, and I didn't drink too much as I had plenty of rain water!

AND DRUM ROLL PLEASE I pee'd on the bike, not once but twice! Easy to do coasting down hills and it raining hard on you!

What would you do differently?:

Besides wishing I wore my goggles and ear plugs! Not nuch really given the circumstances. I would like a different granny gear though, the 23 isn't small enough for climbing when tired! I can see the need for a race wheel fitted with cogs setup for the particular race at hand.

Ok off the bike over the timing mat into......mud, water and goop everywhere. Oh my god, the transition area was flooded, there were newly formed mini ponds and muched grass/tree pollen organic stuff everywhere on everything that was on the ground. Well, I placed my running shoes under my backpack in case it rained but this was a Noah's type rain and flood so it didn't matter. Luckily my rack was on "higher" ground only one sneaker was truely soaked with water, while the other one was much less wet. I took the time to change my socks for some reason as they were dry being in the water tight compartment, I definitely must not have been thinking all the straight at the time! This was the first race I used a fuel belt and I strapped it one as I was running out the transition.

Maybe not bother with changing the soaking wet socks for dry ones as the shoes were already wet!

The run time surprised me. Out of the gate I felt sluggish, had a little knot on the bottom of my right foot, and the shoe that was soaked with water in the transition squished on every step I took on it for the whole run! I had focus on settling down, did a 30 second quick stride count and started to looked around at faces. The wind was now stiff off of the lake and for the first & last 3/4 mile or so of a lap you felt it. It was a nice tail wind on the way out, but forced you to lean into it on the way in and work on form. I somehow missed the 1 mile marker so I did the 1st pace check at 2 miles, wow 17:15, an 8:37 pace! I was feeling good and took a hit of the gel flask and an electrolyte cap and settled in. I repeated the nutrition every 2-3 miles. Just before the turn-around was a nice gentle downhill for 100 yards or so, that you had to climb right away on the return. This hill was a lot tougher on the 2nd lap and as I passed two runmers I gave them some words of encouragement. The first lap return I was just in a zone and non-adventurous, another time check and then I hit the 1st lap time checkpoint. Start of the 2nd lap was nice with the wind pushing me out back. I came upon a female runner who was running 100% on the balls of her feet, heals didn’t touch the ground once. I asked her if she was Pose running and she stated “kind of I guess”, she said she has run like this her whole life and gets asked every once in awhile. Once back into the wooded areas I had to work on form and when I hit the turn-around again I took my last gel hit and some electrolytes and worked all the way in. My head was starting to get hot, but yet my body had a chill from the wet trisuit, so I zipped up and took off the hat for a solid run to the finish.

Nothing! Using the 4 bottle fuel belt was ideal. One bottle was filled with a 2 e-gel/water mix and the others with water, with one basically for my dumping on my head. With the wind and temps staying cool was not a problem.

Found Cameron and John at the finish, we chatted and grabbed some food. It was getting cooler and nastier out so I changed and were off within 20-30 minutes.


The freaking weather!


Well I did it, I placed squarely MOP, accomplishing a goal for my all races this year, 3 more to go. I sure would like to do this race on a nice sunny cool day with normal winds, maybe next year!