USAT National Championships - TriathlonOlympic

I knew trouble was amiss when you literally had to hold onto the dock in order not to get swept downstream.

I seeded myself on the back corner of the dock as that was only because that is the only place I could find to hold on to. Purposely kept my downstream pace in check knowing that I had to conserve ernergy for the salmon like swim upstream.

Even though I knew there was a current I was not prepared for what I encountered at the first turn buoy. The current was palpable, dragging at your body during the cross course to the other side of the river.

Not used to swimming in a current and knowing how strong it was in pushing me downstream, I knew that I was in for a long day ... and that all hopes of my goal were gone. Mentally this was tough for me and I had to slay demons in order to try to stay positive.

I swam past the upstream turn buoy looking to get out of the current but it was everywhere. Mental toughness came in to play here as I would sight a landmark on shore, swim 15-20 stroke and then see the same landmark still right there! I'd look over to the right to see the dock, put my head down and then look up some time later to see the dock right there! During this time I felt my left toes start to cramp and I continued to struggle upstream though what was pretty warm water.

I overswam the upstream turn buoy by 10-20m knowing that the current was going to push me downstream. This enabled me to swim cross current with a slight downstream push and I landed right at the swim exit boat ramp.


Swimming in the current was completely new for me ... and played mental games with me unnecessarily. Negative thoughts to creep in while I struggled upstream. This would cause me to dig deeper ... and then 'blow-up' through the exertion.

I know that swim efficiency and therefore speed is a function of relaxing in the water but forcing yourelf to actually do it is another thing. Add to all of that the fact that you cannot really "glide" after your hand-entry and you have a whole different swim situation to also contend with.

Transition was up the hill and some stairs from the river bank. T1 time was not stellar (2:26) as I was still dazed by the swim. When I came in range of my Garmin, it showed my HR at Zone 5.1

I saw that many if not most bikes were out of transition and that caused some more mental anguish at goofing-up the swim so royally.

In retrospect I should have waited to have the Gu on the first miles of the bike but was worried about the cramping.

Mad that the swim cost me an extra 15 minutes from my Chattanooga time, I sprinted out of transition to do a flying jump mount on the bike. It was a good thing that I was fired up because I doubt that would have worked at any other time.

I pedaled out of fury and swim frustration for the first 5 miles through the uphill grade. I looked at my Garmin to see 27 mph going up the false flat after the first turn-around. I knew that I was unnecessarily burning matches and forced myself to settle down.

While lacking a hill to write home about, there was not a flat section on the course as the road grade was never level. The ascents were grinders that clawed at your quads and the descent not enough where you could recover as there were still gears you could push.

While I finished with what is often a respectible average, I was passed by some at a rate that reminded me that I was completely out of their league.

My left calf shuddered with muscle spasms during part of a climb and I worried that combined with the toe crampage on the swim was a harbinger of things to come on the run. I took 4 SaltStick tabs during the course of the hour ride.

I ended the ride with my first flying dismount which was uncharacteristically executed well.

All-in-all, not a bad transition as I focused on just plain getting out of there as quickly as possible

The run was on the parkway that ran along the river with three out and back jaunts up hills perpendicular to the water.

By this point, my legs were fried as I had more aerobic capacity than legs to run. Despite how deep I tried to dig I could not will myself to sustain a higher foot cadence and faster pace.

Mentally I tried to check-out of the pounding of the run so that I could stay positive. I said encouraging words to those I passed (very few in my AG), I looked around, I did whatever it took to allow my body to maintain a rhythym without mental inference of just how much I wanted to stop to walk.

In the end, I dug even deeper for the final mile averaging ~7:15-7:20/mi ... I just wanted to get done and knew the more I pushed it the sooner I could stop.

According to Garmin, the course was about 0.20-0.30/mi short. I know that the Garmin has diffculty distinguishing true distances over mild grades so there is some fudge factor in there ... that said, I think my average was more along the 48 min 10k pace than 45 minutes. As such I am not going to claim what would be a PR for this distance.

A lot of folks, including me, complained about the current ... but it is what it was: something completely out of the control of USAT. It is just another example of having to deal with what is thrown at you on race day.

This was, by far, the toughest Olympic distance race I have done. Not being a swimmer by nature, it challenged me physically. Competing against a field that was by definition all 'Front of Packers' was more mentally difficult than I would have originally thought as I kept getting that 'I am out of place' feeling.

In the end I was able to post a respectible time given the awesome coaching received by Dan at Endurance Concepts. Hats off to him for preparing me for what was a grueling day in what was supposed to be just a tune-up race for Augusta.