Festival of Flowers Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Sighting was spot on this time, especially after my Clemson spotting, however my swim sucked!! I really need to figure out how to swim more as swimming 3X/month just doesn't cut it. But having a baby and family and a pool that is only open until early evening doesn't help much. You do what you can I guess. Maybe I will try getting some swims in at lunch.

Swim more. Maybe push the swim a little more as well, I had no clue as to pacing in this length. I didn't want to be dead on the bike.

Bad transition. My God. I felt disoriented like I have never done this before. I had a Gu packet opened and sitting on my shoes that I was going to eat as soon as I got going on the bike. I held it in my hand and a little spilled on my bike shoes (ratcheting shoes) and now my fingers were too slick to spin the ratchet wheel. Had to use towel for grip. MORON. Then couldn't get second Gu into back pocket because my arms didn't work after the swim, add to that me being slightly lightheaded from the swim as well and it just was bad news.

I am going to try taping Gu's to the bike so I can just rip off when needed instead of worrying about grabbing it and getting it into my pockets. Also, practice transitions a little. I don't have problems in sprints, but for some reason, the longer swim gets me messed up mentally.

I took it a little easy on the bike because I didn't want to crash on the run. Overall I think I left a little out there on the bike, but I think for my overall performance, I raced my plan well..

Possibly push a little more, but hard to say, that could have led to disaster in the run. My run was right on the edge so I probably paced bike just right.

Ugh, another slow transition. I actually had to think about what I was doing. I wouldn't have put it past me to run out of there with my helmet still on the way it was going. I put on socks, shoes, then stood there for a second and said "now what." Then remembered helmet was on. Took it off, then grabbed race belt and visor. As I ran out of transition I kept wondering what I was forgetting. Dork.

Again, maybe practice transitions a few times. I had stuff setup a little different than normal and probably threw me off a bit.

The run was actually ok for me, other than the pace being a little slow. Had very bad left knee cramps start up at mile 2 (never had that before), but I ran through them and they went away. I surprised myself that I didn't once think about walking (not that I wasn't suffering.) Got a little nauseous around mile 4, brought HR down a few beats and stomach settled down. I seem to have that problem, heat+pushing too hard=nausea. I hadn't looked at the course so didn't know what the finish was like and actually said out loud "you gotta be kidding me" when I saw the final climb, but pushed through it just fine.

I think my run was great for me. I would have liked to push a little harder for the second half but my stomach wasn't going to let me. I need to do some more afternoon runs and play with different drinks/nutrition and see if I can push that boundary because I know I can handle a faster run physically and mentally, but I am not that serious about my times that I want to throw up and then keep pushing. Just not my style.

Standing in shower tent for a few minutes then walking a lot. My ass has not hurt this much ever. What ever that muscle is right where you leg meets your glutes, that is a new pain for me. No way could I do a cool down run.


First time Oly, so pacing is all experimental right now. Also, lack of swim training. I also wonder if going to a wedding the night before, eating crap and drinking wine hindered me? I don't think standing from 6 - 10PM last night helped either. But that aside, I need to hit the training hard from here to August now.


I really like Setup Events. Well organized, friendly, lots of FUN!