Indian Creek - TriathlonOlympic

I started in the first wave. I took the first 200 meters easy and then jumped on someones feet and drafted the best I have ever done. I still sighted ever 5th or 7 stroke, and never lost the person in front of me. The first bouy was directly into the Sun so it was super easy to head for it.

I was under the impression that we were supposed to turn at that bouy but everyone else kept going. What else could I do but follow? It took FOREVER to get to that second bouy. After rounding it I cringed at how far I had left to swim.

Well I got back to work and started on the second legg of the swim. I couldn't find anyone to draft off of into the slight current. There must have been a current (and apparently there was) because it took even longer for me to get to the next few bouys.

I knew that 30 and 40 minutes had come and gone and I still hadn't made the turn back toward land. At the last bouy that they told us to turn and someone said that by his watch he had been in the water for 44 minutes.

I was really getting fatigued. Mainly my arms and legs (not much else is there). I was getting enough air but at this point my form was shot and my strokes were very ineffective. I decided at that point that I was going to make it to land, then quit. It would be my first DNF but this was more than expected.

I was expecting to swim the 1500 in 30-40 min max. When I hit land I saw 59 minutes and some change. No wonder I was so tired. I have never swam for an hour striaght in a pool much less open water.

As it turns out, that second bouy apparently was floating away with a slight current. It looked stationary to me when I rounded it but later they remeasured and it was 1.7 miles worth of swimming ( that is 2750 meters).

It is hard to describe the feeling of being so far out from shore, being so tired, and knowing that the route back isn't straight there. My goggles were killing also. They had been pressing into my orbits for almost an hour. I just thought to myself, what would Jack Bauer do? Jack would keep swimming, that is what Jack would do... so I swam!!!

I would question my sanity. I knew that bouy looked to far to be accurate.

When I hit T1 I decided that if I felt a little better I would just switch gears and make this a training day. I had come all this way and should probably try to continue.

I sat on my milk crate, ate a GU, drank some water, checked my helmet for spiders and decided to continue.

Up to now it was a suffer-fest.

Luckily for me the first part of the bike course is mostly down hills. Instead of trying to maximize this I just coasted with the goal of regrouping. The road was far from great. I was rattled and giggled for probably 5 or 6 miles of the 25. Not to bad but enough to make me notice.

I felt like I was the last person out on the course after coming in so late from the swim. Riding alone was pretty nice. I caught a few people and a few passed me but I wasn't in race mode anymore.... I was just riding.

I drank all the Gatorade in my Aero bottle and could have used some water after that but I didn't have any.

Bring water or a camelback or something.

I hadn't put my socks on in T1. I decided that since this is training now what the hell, and I put them on.


The suffering had subsided some by this point.

Attempting a PR on the 10k was out of the question. To many factors worked against me prior to the run but I was pretty sure I wanted to finish the race at this point.

The run course was pretty good but very hot. It was probably 88-90 degrees at this point. I did have to walk some. There were some hilly inclines but not like in MiM. My hips did really well and I ran 2 miles before I needed to walk a bit. I probably could have made it further if the swim hadn't sapped all my energy and strength.

The run hurt. Not as bad as the swim but still was challenging for me.

If I would have thought about it earlier I should have taken it super easy on the bike and tried for that PR.

Also, I was chatting with another guy on the way in.... this slowed me down but helped pass the time in the hot sun.

drank some water.


Swim was too long. The heat was a major factor on the run.


This would have been a very good race if it wasn't for the swim. The bike course was fun. The run only had a few inclines that hurt. I am sorry to hear that next year it will be a Sprint again. I would love to try it with the appropriate swim distance. Olympic distances are what I have been shooting for and to loose one so close to home sucks.

Post race I was wore out. It may be a combination of no sleep and extra hard exertion but I can't help drifting off to sleep every hour for 5 minutes or so.

My body still feels hot. I'm chaffed under my arms from swimming so long (and I didn't have a wet suit or any kind of tri top). In general have that "bad" feeling that comes and goes after a hard race.