DM Triathlon 2007 OL-Distance - TriathlonOlympic

As this was my first competition ever I did not know what to expect. I've read about the swim start and it was crowded. I waited a while after the start signal before I jumped in, but ever so I swam into others. I thought that I would have been the slowest but apparently I wasn't. I found a spot and of I went. On my way to the first buoy the collided with a marker, so my sighting was OK. The way to the first buoy was with the wind and waves from the right side and I was glad that I had learned to breathe to both sides. After the cornering the buoy at some distance to avoid the crowd, we had the wind, waves and current in the back. So the way to the next buoy was speedy. At the way I did swim breast stroke to get my breath and to sight. But I did manage to swim a bit wrong and had to adjust my line too often. When I cornered the 3rd buoy it wasn’t so crowded anymore. Now I had to swim against the waves and it was hard. Again I had to switch to breast stroke, but found out that I was faster than others who where free-styling. On the next lap, the conditions were the same but I was feeling better. When I rounded the last buoy I looked at my clock and saw that the time was must faster than I had imagined possible.

Train more, learning to swim more strait.
But I'm very pleased with my first tri swim ever.

Coming out of the water I had a short run to my bike. Getting out of the top half of my wetsuit while running without problems. When I came to my bike I got out of the rest of the suit easily. All my biking gear was in a plastic bag due to the weather forecast, good idea. Took my towel and dried my face and then my feet. I had planned to wear socks, but it was difficult to get then on, took to long. I had also planed to bring a Squezzy, in my back pocket on my trisuit. But I had not tried to reach this pocket before and it was placed higher than I imagined, so I lost time here again. Took on my cycling jersey, due to the rain, again the was a bit stuck on my wet trisuit. Helmet on, glasses on, glasses off - couldn't see a damn thing due to the rain, but I guess that there would be no flies in the rain, so I dropped then in the box. Then I took on my gloves, again a bit stuck. My coach shouted at me that I should be careful on the bike as it was wet and slippery. Then up the hill and out of T1.

TRAIN MORE for this.
Use an other type of socks, no gloves next time

When I came out of T1 I jumped on the bike but had a little trouble getting into my old Look pedals. Off I went up a small hill in a low gear. The first 3rd of the route was through a forest, mostly up and down. Then came a hard right turn and a steep hill, then another right turn and still up hill. Now we came to a short steep down hill, before it went up again. We were now driving in the city. Another down hill and at the end a right turn. Here the speed was so high that breaking was necessary. Went into the correct gear before the turn and had no problems to gain speed again. The last 3rd of the route on a major road, closed for other traffic. a small hill and then a long steep down hill to compensate for all the up hill. At the end there was a right turn and breaking was again necessary. This was the first time I rode on carbon rims in wet conditions so I took the corners safe. Now we were back to the start and ready for another lap. I was in the bars most of the time and my bike performed well. When going up hill I had to sit up and grab the handlebar, but at no time I was standing in the pedals. There was a significant difference between me and the others when they passed me up hills. At the straits and downhill it was more even. In fact I passed at lot going down hill ever I was not pedaling. Apparently my bike was better at 30+ mph. I recorded a top speed of 33.4 mph downhill, without pedaling. Even though it was raining heavily it did not slow me down significantly. I was glad that I took my jersey on, as it was a bit cold on the down hills.

Train more, especially on hills.

The transition it self was ok, but entering T2 was "catastrophic".
I was coming down the long steep hill, breaking and cornering and coming up to the entrance to T2. I was coming in to fast and couldn't break, due to wet rims, and had to turn to avoid the fence. Then the rear wheel slipped and I crashed. As the speed was very low, nothing happened and I was on my feet instantly and running into T2. Only thing hurt was my pride, as it happened in front of all the spectators. When in ran to my spot I took a wrong lane, it was only 5m extra, but still something that should not happen.

Not crashing at the entrance again. Train for biking with feet on shoes. Taking the right lane.

As I ran to the exit of T2 I felt my legs was OK after the bike. This was the first time I had tried to run after a 40 km bike leg. I exited T2 in 1:56:29 and was very happy with my performance so far. I now had more than an hour to run 10 km and finish within 3 hours, a dream for me. I felt my speed was a bit slow, but I managed to run below 5 min/km for the first 3km. My left foot was sleeping after the biking and I had to take of my shoe to see if the sole was right, it was, and it was not until 6 km that my left foot was normal. The last 3 km was a bit slower as I was getting tired, I had not had any long training session since my marathon in April. When I crossed the finish line I was smiling. I had finished in a time that I had not expected in my wildest dreams.

Train more long sessions

Putting on warm clothes, bananas, water, energy drink and a bar


I started to train for this in January, but focused mostly on running as I had a marathon April, 29th. After the marathon I focused on swimming and biking.


This was my first triathlon ever. And I'm very pleased with my performance. It was real fun to try and certainly not the last triathlon. It's so different from marathon and more fun I think. I can't wait to stand at the starting line again.