Greater Cleveland Triathlon - International Distan - DuathlonStandard

The first 5k it was hot and humid as hell and I struggled a bit to get my rhythm. I ended up pretty satisfied with my run, despite the fact that it was the slowest in my age group.

I need to get faster.

This was a pretty smooth transition. I got in, flipped my bucket, changed shoes, ate a gel, drank some, and was out.

I can always go faster.

Saw the immediate aftermath of a bad bike wreck on the downhill. I was satisfied with my bike, overall, and I had a lot of fun on the ride. Only problem -- I'm still too slow! I thought I was maintaining a good pace but ended up substantially behind almost everyone else in my age category. Also, I think I picked up a penalty on this course somewhere but I'm not sure where. My final time was adjusted by 2 minutes for something.

Get faster!

This was the first time I tried slipping out of my shoes on the bike. It worked great. I forgot to take off my helmet and almost ran out of the transition area with it on. I thought it was a good transition though.

Remember to take off helmet.

Second 5k was hard. The heat was beating me up and I was feeling it. My legs felt pretty leaden. I couldn't pull off my typical burst at the end of the run.

Practice more bike-run transitions to accustom my legs to the change.

None.


This is an interesting question. I wasn't able to train as much this summer as I wanted. That is key. But also, I think I need to specifically begin training for speed. I am pretty disappointed that I finished last in my age group. I was hoping that after this busy season of racing, I would at least be able to pull off the middle of my group. I am going to focus my off-season training on strength hoping to translate this strength improvement to a speed improvement.


This is the second year in a row (I was told) that this race has been changed to a duathlon due to rough lake conditions. Mentor Headlands may not be the ideal location. I will probably just do Cleveland Triathlon in the future as the swim is more assured (due to the breakwall) and the bike course is closed to traffic. I was really psyched up to do my first olympic tri but then had to settle for a du. Oh well. Also, I am a bit irked that I don't know why I was penalized. I will look into finding out why later. I would recommend this race to others as long as they are aware of some of the course/ site limitations.