Litchfield Hills Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Remembered to seed myself near the back this time. That made for a much easier/stress free start. Gun went off the wave took one big running step then stopped as it slowly trickled in. There were some big rocks a few feet off the beach that caused a few choice words as people kicked them wading in.

Swim itself was good. Right around what I was shooting for. Should've sighted a little bit more. Other than that, just need to get more time in the pool.

Shave. My stubble scraped my neck everytime I turned to breathe. Left some solid chaffing.

There was a 0.20 mile run on a gravel/rock path between the beach and the transition. They told us shoes were recomended. I didn't bring shoes. Once I actually made it to my bike, the transition ended up going as planned. I'd say it was probably under 2:00 without the run.

Bring some sort of water shoes down to the beach.

Note to self: NOTHING NEW ON RACE DAY!!! I forgot to grab Gatorade, so I had the brilliant idea of throwing a Gu into a water bottle. It was terrible. I managed to choke down maybe 1/8 of the bottle. I was a little dehydrated by the end. There was a ~200m run from the bike dismount to T2 that I ended up walking most of because my legs were pretty shot from the climb at the end. That probably added 30-45 seconds to my bike time. The ride itself was good. The bike is my strongest event and it showed.

Make sure my drink situation is all set BEFORE THE MORNING OF THE RACE!!

The climb in didn't really leave an opportunity to get my feet out of my shoes; so I ended clip-clopping the 200m from the dismount to T2. I was pretty tired at that point so I wasn't trying to move fast. In retrospect, I needed to HTFU and move.

HTFU!! Remember that I'm in a race and I need to keep the pace up.

I was just spent by about mile 3.5. I started taking 2 cups of water at the aid stations and walking pretty frequently. I finished really strong though. Turning off the main road there was a 200-250m dirt road into the chute. There was one guy in front of me that I decided I was going to beat in. As I started to kick in, the spectators (and probably my huffing and puffing) made sure he knew I was coming. Needless to say he started to kick. We ended up in a dead sprint (dead being the perfect description) for the last 100m. He edged me out, but it made the finish a whole lot more fun!

My lack of run training was glaringly obvious.

TRAIN!! TRAIN!! TRAIN!! Getting married and going on a honeymoon 3 weeks before my first Oly didn't work out for the best. I hadn't really trained in almost a month. It showed. I really need to pick it up for my fall/winter running races.

Walked around trying to talk myself out of puking after my sprint in. Grabed a water and some food and headed down to the lake to cool off.


Undertraining.


The race was well organized and well staffed. The post race was a little lacking. The race had advertised more substantial food than was offered. There was, however, free Sam Adams. That made up for the lack of food in my mind :)