The Rockford Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Holy crap there were a lot of weeds, weeds, and more weeds. At least twice during the swim, I couldn't pull my arm forward due to weeds. My watch was almost was pulled off by weeds. When I got out of the water, my forearms were red and exfoliated by rough weeds.

Swimming-wise, I felt pretty good most of the way. There was some bumping, but nobody kicked me hard when I bumped into them, luckily. I probably swam a little off course because it was hard to see going into the sun. Went for a medium pace and my time was better than I thought it would be. It would have been much better if not for the weeds. Also, I could have pushed a little harder.

Get someone to dredge the lake beforehand

Had to run 100 yds uphill and then had a little trouble getting my wetsuit off. Didn't plan to sit down, but had to in order to remove wetsuit. Got passed by a few people who transitioned quicker than me.

Nice bike ride with some rolling hills. Would like to have gone a little faster, but not sure how much faster I could have gone without killing my run. Passed a good number of people, and was passed by about 4-5 guys (and 1 woman at the end).

Just need more miles in the saddle.

Decided to ditch the knee braces all together and had my first transition under a minute. I had put band-aid on my right ankle before the race to cover a blister on my right heel, but it came off after the swim. The heel didn't bother me, though. Got out of T2 just before the woman that chicked me on the bike.

Somewhat hilly run, though a nice course around the 2 lakes in Rock Cut State Park. About 2/3-3/4 of the course was in shade, which was good because it was starting to get hot/sunny. Felt OK first 2 miles, except I had to stop for a few secs at first to adjust the tongue in my left shoe because it was folded over and rubbing. After mile 2, it felt like my right quad was going to start cramping. Got a little better after a while. Left knee was a little sore, but I concentrated on keeping it bent upon landing and it didn't get too bad (didn't even remember it hurt once I started zoning out around mile 4). Right knee felt good. I tried to lean forward on downhills, but on the first and last hills, my legs were too tired to go that fast and I could tell I was braking some (and feet were smacking the ground). Around mile 4, I felt like I was starting to struggle and just kept pushing on (get to that bush 100yds away. ok, now the next bush....). Passed a couple guys from my age group and a few from younger age groups, too. Got passed by a 35 yr old near mile 4. Had a good kick on small downhill at end to finish line.

Just need to get more experience/endurance. My stand-alone 10k time is significantly faster, so I think I need a few more bricks.

This was my first race that had massage tables at the end, so I took advantage of a free massage, which was awesome.

Thought I got 2nd in my age group, but was 1st (other guy was 45 from 45-49 age group). Guess I lucked out that my age group was small and fast guys my age were doing other races this weekend. I would have been 5th in 35-39 age group. Won a blue cow bell as a prize, yippee.

Found a few more lake weeds under my tri shirt when changing clothes.


Not having much experience running a 10k race after biking hard for 25 miles.


If they can clear the weeds out of the lake, this would be a great race.