St. Anthony's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

This swim was totally brutal. The waves were 4-5 foot I am told. I could not see the bouys for most of the swim. First leg you could only breathe right, second leg left. There is a lot of Tampa bay missing and in triathletes tummies!! I was worried about Wendi and Janice the whole time and hoping they were OK. I knew they were both nervous about the swim. I felt like I was out there about a year. I figured I couldn't be doing too poorly when I came up on the wave in front of mine. Caught a few caps from other waves too. It was really hard to get a rhythm with the chop. I was very thankful for my floatly wetsuit!! Spotted Renee on the last leg. We came out of the water together.

Nothing really. I can't complain with as bad as the conditions were

Transition is HUGE. I had half my wetsuit off easliy. I had put my timing chip under my wetsuit which made taking it off infinately easier. Had the plan to bike sockless which made T1 easy. I walked to the bike rack because I didn't want to start OOB

nothing

I have absolutely no idea what went wrong on the bike. This is a very poor performance for me. First thing that happened was the top of my aero bottle popped out and I couldn't seeem to get the silly thing to stay put esp on the brick road thus losing half my e-fuel. Poor Roo was practically a red bike when I got done. (HORRORS) I figured OK drink what you have and get the bottle at the hand off. For some strange reasons they did not have squirt bottles and handed out open bottles of water. I re-filled the aero bottle as best I could and threw it off. The velcro saddle bag on my bike rubbed my left leg completely raw. I have no idea why I was so slow. Yes it was windy but it didn't seem to effect anyone else that much so I can't blame it on the wind. Can't blame it on the heat because the wind kept it cool.

No idea. Wish I did

Came into T2 to find the chick next to me had kindly dumped her water in my running shoes. nice. wet socks wet shoes. Because I had biked barefoot I had to wash and dry my feet. Because I had lost my blister protection I put a new one on. Really I'm surprised it was that fast.

Not be racked next to soemone who dumps water in your shoes?

PPPHHTTTTT. No legs. Original plan was run one mile and walk one minute at each aid station. I quickly talked myself into 9:1 run walk which quickly turned into Ok I'll do the first mile 8:2. I just couldn't run. I had no legs. Quickly realized that water was better than Gatorade. after the first mile Janice (foolproof) showed up like an angel and stayed with me the whole time. Turns out she didn't finish the swim and went out on the bike and run just because she could. I felt so bad to be holding her back. Saw Jen smoking the course, Mike, Wendi, and Renee....and I 'm sure some others. I probably walked about half the run course. Got blisters in new and fun places on my feet.

Get bionic legs? No idea

Got my finishers medal and went straight to the medical tent. Another diadvantage to being slow...they ran out of ice.


I wish I knew


Its a well done race. I am very disappointed that I was 17 minutes slower this year esp since I did this race last year on a broken hip. Yes the swim was choppy yes it was windy but I can't blame it on any of that. It was fun to meet BTers live and in person. I got to meet Hunter Kemper.

Things I learned at this race
1-Listen to my body NOT what ANYONE else is telling me to do with it as I know it best
2-Be self-fish. At an A race I need to do what I need to do to get ready and let everyone else worry about their own stuff. Being nice doesn't result in a good race
3-Don't train one way then follow another approach on race day despite what ANYONE else tells you to do. IE: train for 4 months using HR zones then do RPE on race day.....stupid