Shelbyville Chiropractic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

This was my first OWS in 18 years, and my second swim in my new wetsuit (first wetsuit swim was two days prior for 30 minutes in a pool, mostly without the pullover on).

Experienced different levels of panic during this swim. Water felt very cold (heard people saying it was under 70F, but no idea what actual temp was). I'll never complain about the pool feeling cold again!

Felt fine at the very beginning of this. Stayed out of people's way so I didn't get run over. Once I started trying to swim seriously, I realized that my arms felt dead and constricted by my wetsuit. Thought I might have to drop out at this point, as there was no way I was going to be able to swim the whole 1.5k feeling like this. Fortunately, when I tried breaststroking I felt much calmer, so I did this for most of the first half of the swim. I'm guessing lots of other people were struggling too, since I didn't get passed by more than one or two people while swimming like this.

After I got around the red turn-around buoy I decided to try swimming freestyle again, and felt a little better. Kept at it and was able to hold freestyle most of the way back. For some reason, it seemed to take much longer to get back in than it did going out, even though I did breast on the way out and free heading back. Probably because I was calmer at this point and able to think coherently.


Practice OWS and learn how to swim in my wetsuit!! In retrospect, I was too confident about my swimming going into this. I learned pool=/=OWS the hard way.

I do give myself a little bit of credit though for sticking with it and calming down enough to at least have a decent swim for the return leg.

Hadn't done a T1 in 18 years, and hadn't practiced it, so this was a learning experience.

Tried running to my bike when I came out of the water, but my legs were having no part of that, so I had to walk. The wetsuit strippers asked me if I needed help with my suit, and I declined. As I went by, I tried to unzip my wetsuit and realized that I couldn't get my arms back there to do it! (I had no problem with this pre-race!) So, I "ran" back to the strippers to ask for help with the zipper and then "ran" to my T1 spot. During this run, I realized that I was really light-headed from the swim. Hadn't planned on that.

At my bike, I was able to get the wetsuit top off, no problem. Then I ripped my bottoms down to my feet and was about to start stepping on them to get my feet out. At that point I noticed that my wetsuit had a liner that looked a lot like the liner of my tri-shorts. Thought to myself "never noticed that before." Then, I realized that I had managed to rip my shorts down with my wetsuit! (Thankfully, I realized this before I started stepping out of the wetsuit legs!) Not sure if anybody saw that or not. If they did, I'm sure they had a good laugh!

Once I got my shorts back up I quickly got the rest of the wetsuit off and proceeded to put on my bike shoes. Had to sit to do this because I was so dizzy. Got up, put on helmet and sunglasses, ran out of T1 with my bike.

Not take my shorts off!

Should also try the flying mount/dismount someday.

Felt pretty bad for the first couple miles, I think because I was still cold from the swim.

Once warmed up, I felt really solid. Never felt like I was hammering, just a solid effort. Passed lots of people on the first half of the course, then didn't see anyone on the second half of the ride.

Finally started feeling tired legs during the last 3-4 miles. Coming into transition I could see the beginning of the run course, and I saw that there were at least three people in front of me. I figured there were more people in front of them that I couldn't see.

Nutrition. I had bonked on a bike ride leading up to this race, so I made the mistake of adding extra calories to my drink for the race. The mix tasted good pre-race, but when I tried drinking it out on the course it made me feel nauseous and caused some nasty burping. So, I basically ate/drank nothing on the ride.

Other than nutrition, I was very happy with this ride. Prior to the race, I had only logged 33 hours on the bike in 2009.

No problems here.

Someday I should try the flying mount/dismount.

This is the part of the race I was most concerned about going in. Due to a hip stress fracture and a bad disc in my back, I'd run a total of 6 hours so far this year. I fully expected that I'd need a couple walk breaks during the 10k.

Coming into T2 I had seen three people out on the run in front of me, and I assumed that there were more than that. Coming into T2 I thought "boy, they don't look like they're running too fast, maybe I can catch them." Then I got off my bike and tried running and my legs felt like lead! Just wanted to stop, but kept turning 'em over. Noticed that I was gaining on the three in front of me, which helped keep me going when I wanted to stop and rest.

Caught the first two in front of me within the first two miles and noticed I was still making up time on the remaining person that I could see. Finally caught him around mile 3 (learned after the race that he was doing the duathlon, not the tri). Shortly after that we hit some killer hills, and this was the worst point in the race for me. Felt a bit nauseous and would have stopped to rest had I not had someone close behind me.

Once I got through those hills I started thinking maybe I was leading the race. Then I saw a group of about three people that I thought were out in front of me. After a couple minutes I realized they were actually on an earlier part of the course. Around that same time, I saw how large my lead was on the remaining folks behind me and then I finally realized that I was probably going to win the race! What?!?! That was all the motivation I needed to run the remainder without stopping. Sweet!

Had two swallows of water on the run from the aid stations.


Nothing. I realized going in to this that my days of 33 min 10ks in a tri were long gone. I had run a total of 6 hours in 2009, and would have been happy to hold 6:30 per mile in the race. When I saw that I had run 6:00/mile I was shocked.

Walked around talking to wife and kids and other contestants. Post race mingling with other athletes was always my favorite part of triathlon. Having a family with me made that even better.



Limited bike and run volumes going into race - 33h bike, 6h run.


Perfect day, lots of nice people. Great race directors, and lots of awesome volunteers all over the course. As a former Eagle Scout, it was cool to see the Boy Scouts out there helping direct the race.

One other thing that surprised me were the large number of geeked out bikes in the transition area. Couldn't believe the number of people with tri-spokes, disks, 404s, 808s, etc. Some very sweet looking bikes. Maybe someday...