Big Lick Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

This was not a good swim for me. Granted, it was my first race in open water, but still. To start off with, when I went to take a few strokes to warm up, I felt what seemed like an anchor off my left leg only to look and realize it's the chip strap I picked up at the Louisville Ironman. I almost ran back and got the tried but true plastic leashes. But I only had about 6 min til the race started, so I thought "oh well, chalk one up for inexperience." I waited for the collegiate wave to take off and then entered the holding pen for the next wave. After what seemed like an hour, we took off. Navigation has never been my strong suit when it came to open water swims and I had been off course before, but this race took the cake. I was all over the place. Rounding the second bouy heading back to the beach, I almost turned 180* around it and headed back across the course as opposed to the 90* I was supposed to. God, why did you not install a garmin in my forehead! I'm certain Chris Lieto has one...

Remember to sight more often and not get so far off track for starters. Also, if I'm doing <1/2 Ironman distance, I think I'm gonna stick with the plastic.

Remember Psalm 23 where it says "yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death"? Yeah, I was in the shadow of death. I almost threw up in transition. Bar none, worst part of the day. I almost passed out and was spitting up bile the whole time. This was the part of the race where mental toughness can really affect times(for a look on my toughness, take a look at my time, lol). I knew I would go on and might(big might since I had never raced this far) feel better later, but I started to question myself a little. I quickly put it aside and got myself the heck out of there.

I have no idea why I felt so bad. I felt good coming out of the water, a little winded but still good.

For this part I kind of just guessed at my nutrition, and it worked out pretty well. I had 2 hammer gels throughout my ride. I started the first gel around mile 4 or 5- which reminds me. I read all these race reports about people downing gels like it's no big deal. I didn't finish that freaking thing until about mile 10! I felt like trash, and man I looked at that half eaten gel packet with pure hate in my eyes. It's starchy 2 day old syrupy consistency just was not my cup of tea at that point in the race. After getting it down though, I must say I felt a little better. The stomach started to feel a little less like rebelling and actually felt in line by mile 15. By mile 20 I was in a big high. I knew I was decently on pace from the watch I had on my hand and I was feeling amazing. I was having fun with the volunteers and just feeding off of picking up their spirits. Think about standing in the rain for 3 hours and see how you feel. Anyways, periodically throughout the bike I had been checking my watch and felt like I might split a 1:22, which I was pleased with, I went in with the minimum of 1:25. Needless to say when I rolled in at 1:19 I was elated. It might be a bit heretical at LU, but I almost felt like I was from UVA because I wanted to yell Wahoo!

Take my turns a little better, but other than that I can really complain. It is still my weakest event, but not by quite as much I don't think.

As I was rolling in I rode up around a guy coasting into the transition. I said "the advantage of not having clipless pedals" and I lifted both feet off the pedals in a reverse superman as we coasted in. He just laughed as I coasted by. I did end up having the second fastest T2 there, lol.

Run faster! The leader only beat me by a second in that transition.

It's funny how someone can have so much bad confidence based on lack of experience. I went 200 yds out of the transition area and both of my calves and my left hamstring started to cramp. And here I thought I was the person who doesn't cramp. What a fool am I. I did have a good run though despite my confidence/leg issues. I never understood what people meant by "going faster is an exercise in pain management". I understood by the end of the day. Because my affected muscles didn't seize, they just hurt. And if I went faster, they would just hurt more. So I didn't really get out of breath throughout the whole run. Actually, I held a really long conversation with this really cute girl for a couple miles. It was until I had run with her for about 10 minutes that she told me she was trying to qualify for Boston. Yeah, she beat me by 5 minutes. I'm really glad I did run with her though, because she was running at a pace I didn't quite know I had until she ran up on me (that's not what I meant...lol). So she and I ran at about 7:30 min/mi. Which really helped me out. I quite honestly think I need to just HTFU. So I guess it is true your ability to have run/bike/swim faster on race day increases in direct proportion to the length of time you're removed from the pain that day.

Run faster. At the end I had an excellent kick and self consciously blew by this 45 yr old lady. Hoorah! If I could do that, I should've been able to run faster. Oh well, another day another race.

warm downs are for sissies! I ate and was merry with the other amazing Liberty triathletes. Way to go Liberty!


experience and my body


Very good race. Thank you God I did not have the expectation decimation I call the Angel's race. The volunteers were good, I just wish they had more music. I guess I'm spoiled from watching the Louisville Ironman and hearing music constantly. Thank you SetUp, you guys did a great job!