Burriro Union 5 Hour Triathlon - TriathlonOther

#1 - With wetsuit ~ 13 min. Sun was out at start but before 1st turn the fog rolled back in. Hard to see buoys. By the far shore and just after the turn the water was shallow enough you could walk or porpoise. Bottom was pretty mucky so I mainly just swam.
#2 - Due to fog, no swim on #2 for anybody
#3 - No wesuit ~ 15 min. Forgot my nose clips. Water temp was fime w/o wetsuit. Sighted really well. I could tell my position in the water wasn't as good as with wetsuit but it wasn't too bad overall w/o the wetsuit.
#4 - With wetsuit ~ 14.5 min. Took the extra time to put wetsuit on. I thought it would be better to conserve energy and wear wetsuit.

All my swims went well. Good breathing, good sighting, felt comfortable and smooth. Got a little off course on #1 in the fog when I was following someone but not too bad. Wetsuit on #4 just in case I needed to take a break and rest for a bit but didn't need a break.

#1 - not ready. My helmet was still strapped to backpack and I didn't have sunglasses out.
#2 - #4 no issues here. Just taking time to grab some nutrition and get going. Probably my slowest was #1

You can have help in transition, so Barb was keeping my aero bottle full and was usually around.

Be ready for #1 with helmet & sunglasses.

#1 - Foggy, going down the biggest hill was a little scary on the way out because I couldn't see very far ahead of me. I started out with shoe clipped in. Had a little trouble getting unclipped with hill at end and then no room. ~ 45 min
#2 - Again unclipped at beginning, probably a mistake. I mainly coasted down beginning big hill and got feet into shoes after. ~ 43 min
#3 - Wore shoes, clipped in at beginning, definitely the way to go. ~ 43 min.
#4 - Still feeling good on the bike. A little fatigue in the quads but not bad. About .5 mile after turnaround I get a flat on my rear tire. I walk back to a driveway to change it. I have metal sqiggly, kind of like a staple sticking thru my tire. It only took me about 8 min to change the tube. Probably the fastest I've ever had. I go about another 4-4.5 mile and the rear tire is flat again. Nothing obvious like last time. SInce I didn't have far to go for some reason I thought I'd just use my last CO2 and fil it up and get at least close to finish. I had another tube. I should have just changed the tube again. Tube did not hold air. I started walking in. A gal stopped and offered to help. She had Co2 but it was non-threaded. Another guy offered assistance and I shoould have got a cartridge from him and changed the tube but I said I was ok. SOme volunteers in a pickup finally stopped and gave me a ride back. I was probably a little under 2 miles from bike finish.

Change the tube both times.

T2s were usually pretty fast. Grab a gel, drink some water and go. Nothing worthwhile to report here.

#1 ~ 25 min. Learning the course. Pushing some in spots but aware a long day ahead.
#2 ~ 25 min Knowing what to expect made the followon runs easier. Pace was pretty close to #1.
#3 ~ 26-27 This one was a little slower. Took a little more time on some of the uphills/steps.

We only had official time for each completed tri. My time estimates are from Barb. I did not use my Garmin but did wear my watch to monitor total time.
#1 - 1:23:15
#2 - 1:11:04
#3 - 1:32:39
I left on my last bike leg about 4:25 into the race and would have completed 4 legs with a time in the 5:45-5:50 range w/o the double flat. The bike maintenance guy did change my last flat for me and said it could have been a faulty tube. The hole was in a weird spot on the tube. The little metal squiggly things, I saw a few of them while walking, were likely from the sweeper he said. He said he had run out of tubes, must have changed 10 flats.

I would have easily finished 2nd in my AG even with only 1 flat and probably with the 2 if I had changed my tube on the 2nd one. Great lesson learned. Each of my completed legs were 4th fastest in the overall standings, so I was doing great until the flat difficulties.

This was definitely a different experience. I was happy with my nutrition and pacing. I had an energy bar on bike #2, a chewy granola bar on bike #4. A gel at the water stop on runs #2 and #3. Flats will happen, I made a poor decision on the 2nd flat. Weather was great, other than the fog. In bad weather this wouldn't be so much fun. I'm not sure if I would want to do this as part of relay with all the down time. The 5 hour solo option is about right.