Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Swim felt great. I expected a time of 36 minutes so I was real happy with 30 minutes. The shoreline made it easy to swim in the right direction. Plus there were enough swimmers around at all times which also reduced the need to sight.

Nothing, if I can keep this time or improve slightly then I don't see the benefit in spending a lot of time on my swim training. Not until I improve the bike and run.

No problems. I would not change anything during the transition.

I felt great on the bike but at mile 11, my chain fell off going up a steep hill. I should have changed to the lower gear sooner so that there was less torque on the chain. Something was wrong with my shifter as I could not shift into the big chain ring. This definitely cost me speed on the downhills but I am not sure how much time I lost from not having this available.

Check all the shifting before racking bike. I had Princeton Sports adjust the brakes because they were rubbing against the rims. Whatever they did must have changed the shifters. I checked the brakes after the adjustment but I did not check the shifting. Lesson learned.

Transition went pretty good but I decided to go without socks which was really really really stupid. The minute I gained by not putting them on was more than lost from the rubbing pain combined with stopping/starting.

PUT SOCKS ON OR TRAIN WITHOUT THEM.

This course felt uphill the entire time. There were so many hills. I was able to push through most of them without stopping but at mile three I could really feel blisters. By mile four I was contemplating stopping or running barefoot because each step was painful. I asked several spectators for a tissue or napkin but nobody had one. I ended up stuffing grass and dirt into my shoe but it really didn't make much difference.

Run with socks!!!!!!! Or train without them. Otherwise, the run was ok. This was just a tough running course.

Overall, the course is a nice challenge. The run is tough. Clearly, I need to keep making my bike training a priority.