Burley Idaho Lions Spudman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I knew this would be a fast swim because of the current, so I just wanted to get a comfortable start, and then push a little more than normal because it would be over quick. There were probably around 200 people in my wave, which meant a little bit of contact, but nothing bad.

I probably should have stayed a little farther out from the bank on the second half of the swim to try to catch the fastest part of the current, but I was very pleased with my time.

Average T1. I really need to work on getting my wetsuit off of my heels faster and I need to ditch the socks for olympic distance races.

My plan was to push the bike a bit more than my last race and try to average over 20 mph. My bike computer decided not to work, but it was easy to calculate speed since the roads were all on a one-mile grid pattern. The course was nice in terms of scenery, and there were quite a few local folks out watching and cheering. Traffic was very well controlled and practically non-existent. I ate two packets of Gu and drank my water bottle which was full of Gatorade.

About a third of the way around the course, I was pretty surprised to be passed by a large group of riders (15 to 20) who were clearly drafting. A few miles later, I got passed by another large group. I also got passed by several pairs/small groups, and then I saw a third large group when I was heading out for my run. After doing a little research, I found that it is common knowledge that the officials don't enforce the no-drafting rule so many people draft. I wish I had known that coming into this race -- I might have chosen not to do it, or at least would have been prepared for it because it did distract me a little and annoyed me.

Stay focused on my pace -- without my speedometer, it was easy to slack off at times and then have to push my pace back up. Don't let the drafters affect my concentration or attitude.

Nice, smooth transition for me.

Nothing. I probably could move just a little faster through this transition and save 10 to 20 seconds.

I knew my run would likely be a bit slower than my last race because I worked harder on the bike, so I just wanted to maintain a consistent pace right around a 9 minute mile. There was a lot of support from the locals including sprinklers, which was nice because even at 9 am, it was starting to get warm. I knew that I had to push myself pretty hard if I was going to get under 2:30, but I just didn't have anymore on the run.

I lost focus a little bit with less than a mile to go. With a mile to go, I knew I was going to be really, really close to 2:30, and I tried to pick up the pace a little, and thought to myself that I would need to pick it up again with about a half mile to go, but then I got distracted and the next time I looked at my watch, it was over 2:29! And the last part of the course right before the finish chute is a fairly steep and narrow grassy path that I really couldn't sprint down even if I would have had the energy. I think I could have gotten under 2:30 if I would have looked at my watch more closely over the last mile.

Water, water and more water. They had a small sprinkler hanging up like a shower -- that was really, really nice.


Nothing. This was my second olympic distance race and I was very happy with it, despite the fact that I ended up barely over 2:30. Even discounting the swim time, I was 4 minutes faster over the bike and run, so it paid off to push harder on the bike even though my run time a couple of minutes slower than my last race.


It's really hard for me to rate this race, so I just gave it a 3. For organization and local support, I think it is a great race and it is obviously very popular. It's also a very very fast course because of the current-aided swim and flat bike/run.

My rating gets dragged down because of the rough roads on the bike course, and, more importantly, the drafting. The race rules say no drafting and that there will be penalties imposed, but I know now that they don't enforce it and so there is always a lot of drafting. I wish I had known that before I signed up for it back in January. I'm primarily racing myself/the clock, but its always interesting to see where I placed overall and in my AG. I can't help but think that some of the people in those big packs that went by me were in my AG. Those packs were moving pretty fast and the people in back were just going easy and certainly saved time and saved their legs for the run. I'm glad I did this race once, but I will not be going back.