Boulder Peak Olympic Tri - TriathlonOlympic

Anyone who knows me knows I hate the swim. It didn't help that after wave 9 (I was in wave 12), they stopped the swimming because they had to pull someone out of the water with a power boat assist and an ambulance screaming toward them. I never heard for sure what happened, but the rumor was that someone had a heart attack. Some people said it was a non-racer. Aside from that, the swim went decently. I kept my breathing in check by going slower than the debris in the water, but at least I didn't choke like I did in my first tri.

If I hadn't had such a horrible experience in my first tri, I probably would be swimming a bit faster. I know I can go faster without screwing my breathing, but I'm still worried that I'll tank in the water - I don't want that to ever happen again. So rather than waiting until the last 200 yds to pick up the pace, I might pick it up at the half way point.

I have to start to remember to pee BEFORE I get out of the water! I spend way too much time running to the portapot when I should be on my bike. But for the life of me, I can't think about anything at all while I'm swimmning. I could solve a quadratic equation while biking or running, but couldn't even tell you what 2+2 is while swimming.

Don't stop at the bathroom. Don't forget to put sunscreen on my shoulders or back of my neck (ouch!).

Going up Old Stage just kicked my butt! For some reason I didn't want to unclip while going up the hill and take a little break, even though lots of other people were. About half way up the hill I made the mistake of looking at my speedometer - 3.6 mph!!! Yup, I was barely going fast enough to keep the bike upright, and I kept pounding on. I didn't look down at the speedometer again - too depressing. Going down the hill, I peaked at just under 47 mph when a wave of volunteers demanded that we all slow down going into the upcoming turn. Apparently, earlier in the race at that same turn someone must have crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a car. From the sounds of it, it was a terrible crash (the latest news I heard is that the person was not killed but suffered extensive injuries). I'm glad I zipped by there too quickly and was paying attention to the road and not the accident and didn't really know about the outcome until after the race - I get emotional every time I think about the rider and their family, and the poor driver of the car.

I probably would have stopped while going up the hill. Without the stop, I was spent once I got to the top and felt like I was going to lose my breakfast.

How do all of you people go through a whole freakin race without going to the bathroom? I was glad I made it 1 1/2 hours on the bike without a stop. Minus the quick bathroom break, the transition was pretty fast - for me. Oh yeah, while I was on the bike I realized that I applied sunblock while wearing a shirt with sleeves, but my bike/run shirt didn't have any. So during T2 I had to throw some on my shoulders - they were already feeling burned.

If I knew there were potties on the run course, I would have skipped the bathroom stop. I would have made sure I had sunscreen on EVERYWHERE before the start of the race.

The run went pretty well, although I couldn't run as fast as I hoped. To keep with the theme for the rest of the race, about 1/4 mile into the run, I went past 2 ambulances that were loading someone up - I assume it was heat exhaustion. Although I only saw one other person who was carrying drinks with them, I was glad that I tote around my water bottle on the run. I don't have to slow down at the water stations (I just dump it into my bottle and keep running) and I can take a hit whenever I feel the need.

I would bring another water bottle with the sports drink that I'm used to - I wasn't too fond of the Gatoraid.

Walk around and look for my wife and daughter. Stretch the legs a bit.


Experience; heat.


They did everything they could before and during the race, but it still had lots of medical issues. They should consider closing Old Stage Rd in the future (or not even race on that road).