Diamond in the Rough Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

As I stated above, this was my first time swimming in an open water race, also my first time swimming in a race with a wetsuit. I practiced at the beach a couple weeks before with the wetsuit on and didn't have any problems whatsoever. Since it was my first time I kept myself towards the back of the pack when the start began. I didn't want to get kicked but I was more worried about getting in the way of the other athletes. It took me about a 1/4 mile to get used to sighting the buoy ahead of me to keep myself in line. Before I got that part sorted out there were a couple instances of looking up and seeing a boat in front of and one of the guys on board pointing me back towards the rest of the swimmers. My wife always says I'm bad at directions...

The biggest problem with the swim was that I had to fight off some pretty annoying calf and foot cramps throughout the swim. I can only guess that those occurred because of the wetsuit (my suit is sleeveless and the legs go down to cover the calf). Anyone out there able to weigh in on that? Talk about annoying. I was able to swim with one leg at a time stretched out below me but that kind of defeated my reasoning for wearing the damn thing in the first place.

In any event, I finished in 35 minutes, which I was happy with since I'd never swum that distance before and I was fighting off the leg cramps pretty much the whole way. Next time, unless it's Polar Bear conditions I think I'll leave the suit in the car.

Wear a rash guard...totally brain farted on that one. Find out if there are goggles out there that do a better job of keeping from fogging up.

Climbing out of the river with the leg cramps was fun and it pretty much prevented me from sprinting to the transition area. I made myself walk fast to loosen my legs up but it certainly wasn't how I would have liked to have handled it. I also took my time getting changed and a little extra time to stretch out.

NOT CRAMP!

I actually enjoyed the bike ride quite a bit, well, until we got to the 6-7% grade at mile 22 (out of 27). The ride was good for my legs too as the cadence helped work out the cramping that was bothering me during the swim. And of course being on the bike meant that I could get some fluids and energy back into my body.

Since this is my first summer doing triathlons I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't spend a lot of money upfront until I was sure that I wanted to keep with it for a few years. So that means that for this summer I'm riding my dad's 25-30 year old 10 speed, and, I have to say...I'M SEVERELY JEALOUS OF YOU PEOPLE WITH YOUR MODERN BIKES!!! DAMN YOU AND YOUR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS!! Phew, that felt good, anyway...the stark differences between my bike and today's bikes was apparent on one particular downhill. I was cruising along nicely, going what I thought was pretty fast (someone in a car even yelled "40 MPH!" at me as he passed me by), when a couple riders flew past me like I was standing still. That pissed me off something fierce. There were also a few times when I would try to match the cadence of a faster rider, would do so, and would still watch them pull away from me while I was in my highest gear. Annoying. I hate starting 15 gears short and 10 pounds heavier. I sense an eBay purchase in my future.

Despite the bike I know I need to spend more time climbing before the next tri. This was a particularly hilly course and I don't think either of the two I'm signed up for in the future (DC & Savage Man - both Olympic distance) are as hilly as this one was but I still need to put more miles on my legs. You'll see why on the run...

Again - since this is my first year and I'm keeping costs down I'm riding the bike with my running shoes and cages on the pedals. So I don't have a lot of transition stuff to worry about. I did go down the wrong aisle when I went to rack the bike but I wasn't in a big hurry anyway.

One thing that made me shake my head and realize how far I have to go in this sport...when I was racking the bike I noticed a bunch of athletes hanging around and I wondered why they weren't in a bigger hurry to get running. Then I realized that they were already done. Cursed myself and moved on...

Nothing.

I made the mistake of drinking too much before I got off the bike, I was thinking that it would be a good idea to take in some extra fluids but I wasn't thinking about the fact that there was water available on the course so all I did was make myself feel bloated.

The extra hill work I need to put on the bike is because I found myself having to walk every 3/4 of a mile because my quads felt like they were going to cramp. So I would run 3/4 of a mile, walk 50-100 yards, and repeat the process.

Not load up on fluids quite so much right before getting off the bike.

A lot of walking and water, then stretching.


This was only my second triathlon and my first Olympic distance. I've got some extra training to do before the next couple in September but at least now I've got a benchmark.


Very much enjoyed the whole race and I learned a lot. I'd read a lot of message board posts leading up to the season but they don't really prepare you for what the race is actually like. I'm glad I got the first one out of the way, now I can better prepare for future races.