Black Squirrel Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Not upset with the swim, but not too happy with it either. It was a mass start, so 150 people off at once and I decided to jump right in the mix of things. Had a tough time not inhaling water at the start as I was either on top of someone else or visa versa, it was pretty much a mess. The field thinned out a bit by the time I hit the turn around, but I had this yahoo zig zagging in front of me doing some sort of high-paced back stroke (swinging his arms all over the place), I couldn't get around him for anything.

My sighting needs a lot of work, I think I wasted quite a bit of time correcting to get back on course.

Pretty quick considering I put socks and shoes on before running off with the bike. I noticed Kurt's (fifthcircle) bike was already gone, so I had to ask my cheering squad how far in front of me he was, they replied "about a minute", so I said, "I'll catch him".

Nothing really, eventually I would like to get better shoes for the bike and leave them clipped in and not wear socks.

Good Bike ride, I pushed pretty hard the first lap and passed quite a few people (many of which were drafting like crazy). Was happy to catch up with Kurt just after the first lap and stuck with him the next two, this was the first tri where we were able to do that this year, and it was nice because we are pretty close on biking abilities and pushed each other just the right amount. Had a guy drafting me for quite some time before he decided to pass. Nutrition and Hydration were good, had several shot blocks and a light mix of Gatorade.

Nothing, had a great bike ride, not sure that I could have pushed much more without dying on the run.

Quickly jumped off the bike ran in and threw a different shirt on so I had my numbers attached. Threw the gel I planned on having half way through the run in the back pocket of my tri-jersey which didn't do a lot of good since I took it off before the run. Ran into transition with Kurt and ran out slightly before him since he was putting on socks, I figured he would catch up.

Not much other than don't forget to take the gel I planning on having during the run with me.

Ran with Kurt pretty much the whole run, was nice to have someone to keep pace with, I had a slight cramp at one point and walked for just a second, otherwise the pace was pretty good for me all the way. The first mile was the toughest (as usual for me), but once we got a pace going I felt good. We had one runner pass us with about 2 miles left, and my mindset was to hurry up and get this run over with, so just before the 1 mile left mark, I started to kick up the pace and passed her again pretty shortly, I knew Kurt had slowed at the last water station, but I kind of lost track with where he was. I kept a nice pace that last mile and didn't have a whole lot of sprint left in me at the finish line, I had just decided I was going to finish under 50 mins, and I did that.

Not much, running is definitely my slowest area and my overall rank shows that, this will be my main area of focus between now and next tri season.

Drank some water and had some orange slices. Chatted with fifthcircle and kklems for a bit. I felt pretty good after this race overall for it being the longest tri I had completed this year.


Not much, I'm happy with where I'm at so far this year (I'm still down 45lbs and have gained. I would like to lose a few more lbs and get much better at the run (and I will).


Great race, I will definitely do this one again. I would however like it to be closer to actual Oly distances on all segments, but that certainly isn't a show stopper...