5430 Long Course Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Getting to come to Colorado I was just happy to be at the race and looking forward to the start. The sunrise was great and definately showed that it was going to be a beautiful day. This swim ended up being a little weird for me. I never really felt like I had a true heading and I knew I was breathing too hard by the second turn. Overall I'm pleased with the time.

Probably find a good draft earlier and relax.

I was surprised when I saw this time. It felt like it was a lot longer but this is probably the best transition I've ever had. Definately an improvement for me.

Nothing.

I enjoyed the ride but I wish I had it back. I felt good until I had a pinch flat at the turn around mile 24. My CO2 cartridge ended up being the wrong size for the container so I could only puncture it and inflate the tube to fit in the tire and put it on. By that time all of the air was out of the cartridge. I started walking along the road to see if maybe a volunteer would come by with a pump. A few minutes later I hear a rider yell if I needed air, I yelled yep, and he pulled a hand pump out of his backpack and dropped it by the road. Dude..if you read this I've got your pump and thank you so much. I'll pass it on. I've never had a flat on a ride and I knew it would happen eventually. I'm glad it worked out to be able to finish. The bigger problem is that my quads started cramping on the 2nd loop and the race officially switched to a fun ride for me. I knew I had pre-hydrated well but I left my aero bottle in Oklahoma and my whole drinking cycle was off. I also didn't think I would need straight salt for a 70.3 (especially in the low humidity of Colorado) but now I know. Goes to show that you have to stick with your routine.

Be sure to bring the aero bottle and stick to my normal drink and salt cycle to keep from cramping.

I think this was still good for me.

Remember my spot better.

My quads were still cramping out of the start. The only thing I knew to do was to get to the first drink station and drink a lot of Gatorade. This helped past that point but I couldn't maintain a jog for longer than a couple of minutes. After the first loop of doing whatever I could I decided to go with 1 minute offsets for the second loop. While it wasn't fast I truly enjoyed the rest of the race and couldn't wait to get to the finish line to see my family.

Maintain offsets from the start when I knew the cramping wasn't going away.

Drank as much water as I could, hugged my mom and sister's family that came to watch, and went to soak in the reservoir.


Between the flat tire, quad cramping, and altitude crunch on the lungs I truly felt limited.


While I feel a little bummed about the performance I'm really glad I did this race. This was my 3rd triathlon and of course it was just fun to be with other people doing what we love to do. I knew there would be some challenges with the altitude and I hadn't trained as hard as I have before...on the bright side...I have a time to beat for next year.