Motor City Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

A very good swim for me. I felt strong. I even managed to draft of of the lead pack until approximately the 600m mark.

I should have pushed a bit harder on the run into the water. I didn't because I didn't get a chance to inspect the entry chute before the race. I didn't know the condition of the bottom, or how fast it got deep. I started in the 2nd row in the middle and that worked well except I did get hung up behind some slower swimmers for the first couple hundred meters.

At the 600m bouy I somehow got tangled in the rope that was securing it in place. This pulled me off the back of the pack I was drafting off of and caused me to have to finish the swim without ever seeing another swimmer.

With 2 separate transition areas, you had to stuff all your gear into a bag they provided at T1 so they could collect them after and bring them to the finish area. Most of this time was trying to stuff my wetsuit into a bag that was really too small for it.

A lot of people were cheating and handing their suits across the fence to spectators outside the transition area. To me this should have been penalized for outside assistance. To put everyone on the same scale we were all supposed to have to deal with these bags.

I would have brought my own bag for my swim gear. I didn't realize they would let you bring your own bag for this, so I was stuck using the ones provided which were just too small for wetsuits.

I also have to practice running with my bike with bottles in the hydrotail behind the seat. For some reason the rear end of the bike kept drifting away from me. I think it was due to the weight in the bottles. This definately slowed my run out of transition a little bit.

I really liked this bike course. It was mostly gradual curves and very flat with only a few small rolling hill sections and one tighter technical turn. I really nailed this bike ride. I am just really happy with it.

Nothing.

I thought this transition went well for me. I found my racking location quickly and got my shoes changed very fat.

I left my bike shoes on as I got off the bike. I haven't mastered getting out of them before hand yet.

Nothing.

This run seemed brutal. My HR was where I wanted it coming off the bike but quickly skyrocketed on the run. I had to force myself to slow down to try to bring it under control. I had trouble with keeping cool and hydrated for this run. My HR just kept climbing. That hasn't been normal in training, then I haven't done much training in really hot weather either.

I had 3 different people pass me on the run commend me for my fast bike split. They all basically said they saw me on the bike course, tried to hang with me and couldn't. I replied the same to all of them: Thank-you, but you have me now because I can hardly run to save my life. I have to pass out another thank-you to these guys as they really helped lift my spirits during the run.

I don't think I went too fast on the bike, it went per my plan exactly. I had no cramping or wobbly legs on the run, I just had a HR that was way too high.

I feel my run let me down a bit today. I should have been able to go a bit faster. I could give lots of excuses, but I think in reality I need to practice running more. The heat and longer course really took it out of me.

Try not to get so down on myself for the number of people passing me on the run. To all the people who seem to make running look easy by passing me, this is your warning: I have every intention of being a little more difficult for you to catch next year!

Walk around while finding water and some food.
Stretched and walked. Ate watermelon and oranges, drank water.
Rode my bike slowly back to the truck to put everything away.


I need more run training!!
I also still need more practice with OWS. However improving running will pay off more so than improving my swim.


The 2 separate transition areas were interesting. I think it would be worth trying to find a solution to condense this to only 1 tranisiton area. A few more volunteers might make the lines for registration and timing chips a bit shorter.

Otherwise, a well executed race in a very nice location!