Finger Lakes Triathlon (Olympic Distance) - TriathlonOlympic

I generally stayed warm. While waiting, I did put my goggles on first, then the neoprene cap over it, topped by the assigned cap.

I lined myself on the front row, over towards the right. We started off and I just swam. With a good warmup, I had little trouble getting into a rhythem.

I looked for feet. But didnt find anything decent. So I just swam along. About the first buoy, I caught up to stragglers from the wave in front.

I found myself a bit wide at one point going out. I re-aligned to what I thought was the target buoy. But it was actually the left buoy. SO I ended up crossing traffic and was on the inside. Well, re-correct and go to the right buoy.

Closing in on it, the crowds got thicker. Significant numbers from the previous waves. I made the turn pretty well, close to the buoy.

I found myself between 3 people just after the turn. I got bumped and smacked several times. I powered ahead to get out of that group.

The next buoy went fine. Turn towards home. Sighting the shore from this far out was not easy. So I targeted the sprint buoy.

I actually found a decent draft for a couple minutes. I had picked it up on the home turn. But this gave me a quick breather. We got separated when passing some folks from previous waves. Too many bodies in small area.

Back on my own. I passed the sprint buoy and targeted the Hess station sign. It was very close to the swim exit.

I cruised along the rest of the way. I swam up to about 10 feet from shore. I stood up and started running.

Garmin had my water time about 25:15. On the run to TA, I got my cap and goggles off. Had a touch of trouble finding the wetsuit cord, but managed to get it off as well.

I had a decent swim. Not great. But not bad either. My limiter seemed to be aerobic capacity. One of these years I'll catch a decent draft.

I was 43 seconds faster than last year.

I ran to my spot. Sat down and removed my wetsuit. It got caught on my left heel as it frequently does.

Once off, I stood up and put on my helmet and sunglasses. With the cooler temps and very damp weather, they fogged up immediately. I made the quick decision to keep them on and hope they'd clear up quickly. I wanted to cover for my eyes and contact lenses.

With shoes already on the bike, I ran for the exit.

Nothing. I could not control the heel getting stuck on the wetsuit. But with a top 10 overall T1 time, it obviously didnt slow me down too much.

T1 was much, much better than last year when I was 2:30. Actually this year, I had the 9th fastest overall T1 time at 1:07.

This was a rather wet ride. It rained overnight. And it misted rain pretty much the whole ride.

I ran with my bike to the mount line. I got on and started pedaling with my feet on top of the shoes. Once up to speed, I put my feet in my shoes. Garmin said it was still on "Other", so I hit the lap button to shift it to bike. I had hit it in transition too. Somehow I managed to hit it too many times and it was recording this as the "run". Grr.

My plan was to not hammer the bike. Keep it under control, basically aerobic, and save the legs for the run. I generally was able to do this.

The sunglasses did unfog pretty quickly, but with the misting rain, they had water on them the whole ride. Vision was decidedly impaired. It was a lot like looking through a car windshield without wipers. I found, however, that I could see pretty well at the top edge of the glasses. It seemed like that was covered under the brim of the helmet and stayed out of the mist. Better than all covered in water!

After a few minutes, I got settled in. Its tough to keep it relaxed and easy in the initial few minutes on the bike. Out to 5&20. Pass a few folks. Make the turn. On this stretch, I begin to take in nutrition. A gel and a bit of gatorade endurance. As cold and wet as it was, however, GE wasnt very appealing.

The temperature and rain was a factor. I was a bit cold. My core temp seemed ok. But my quads never seemed to warm up. I wasnt sure if they were a touch sore from last weekend's long ride or just a bit numb from the cold. But I was aware of them much of this ride.

The cold and wet also had my fingers a bit numb. I could feel them and move them. But they were decidedly clumbsy. Opening and taking gels with numb fingers is a newfound adventure!

We turned up the road to Gorham. I saw an Amish or Mennonite horse drawn carriage on a side road. That was pretty cool. The steady early climb finally ends on this stretch and some good downhills and rollers come in. I tried to keep the pace steady and aerobic.

A sharp turn in Gorham had me slow way down with the wet pavement. Don't need to slide out.

Shortly after this turn, I saw a friend of mine, Paul Cupo, standing with his bike on the roadside. I asked if he needed help and he said he was out of tubes. I slowed to stop to give him one of mine. But he yelled for me to keep going. He didnt feel like racing anyway and didnt want to kill my race too. Since he was ok, I went on ahead.

I made steady time over to Rushville. I took in my 2nd gel on this stretch. A bit of gatorade too.

Downhill into Rushville and another fairly sharp turn. This had speed way down given the wetness. Then the good uphill climb. Its almost a mile in length all told.

But its mostly downhill from there. A bit of a northwest wind became apparent once we got to the top of this climb. Cruise back to Lake Road.

Lake was slower than last year with the different wind direction. But it went fairly quickly. Unlike previous years, we did not turn off to go by CMAC. This shortened the course by 3/4 of a mile. Probably about 2 minutes and change for time savings versus prior years.

I took my third gel fairly late on Lake Road. My original plan had been to drink more GE and 2 gels. But I just didnt want the GE. I did get in about half a bottle, maybe 12 ounces. So I made up some of the calories with the extra gel.

Traffic was backed way up at the light. Cops allowed me to cut in front and turn towards home. I got my feet out of my shoes on this stretch. Definitely sped up T2 this way.

Turned into the lot and crossed the dismount line.

I gave a good effort throughout. I kept it aerobic, except for the one climb. My quads either didnt really warm up or had some residual soreness from last weekend's long ride. I felt like my quad fitness was the limiter on this ride.

Compared to last year, my bike was 2:15 faster. But this can be fully accounted for with the shortened course. My bike pace, thus, was almost the same as last year. Given I was on my tri bike this year, thats a touch dissappointing. But it is what it is. The wetness definitely had us slower around the turns. But more importantly, my legs were fairly fresh for the run.

My normalized power was 236 watts, very close to the 234 I had at Cazenovia a month prior. But this course is much flatter (much less coasting) and my overall power average, including no pedal times, was 221 versus 206 at Caz. Interestingly, my HR average was 131 here and 132 at Caz. Despite these similarities, I was much fresher getting off the bike. The lack of big climbs on this course is much easier on the legs.

I ran with my bike to my spot. Got racked ok, not great. Helmet and glasses off fine. I sat down and put some body glide on my feet. My numb fingers made putting on my vibrams a bit of a challenge. It didnt help that my toes were a bit numb too. I lost some time as I had trouble getting my right shoe on. But eventually I got them on. I stood up, grabbed my visor and race belt, and headed for the exit.

I hit the garmin lap button again. But it seemed to stop the clock, not go to an extra session. Grrr. Did I hit stop by accident? I could have sworn I hit lap.

I had about as good of T2 as I could. I had some trouble getting my shoes on, but that was largely out of my control.

I placed 54th overall here. I was also 1:03 faster than last year. Some nice time savings.

Besides having cold extremities, I felt good getting off the bike. I did not hammer there and I had plenty left. Conditions were about perfect for running. Cool temps. Cloudy, perhaps a touch misty. A puff of wind.

I left transition and settled into a quick cadence. By the time I entered the trail portion, I was breathing pretty hard. I was having a touch of trouble really opening up my lungs and breathing deeply. But I kept focusing on it and tried to motor along.

I held the strong candence and quick pace through my whole run. I worked hard, and kept on pushing. My energy was good. The limiter was my lungs.

It definitely helped seeing friends while on the run. Dudley, K-dub, Jeremy from the gym, Jaimie from my son's school. Also in the crowd was my wife, Jackjack, and Adam from swimming.

There was something new about this run. I think it was the first time I've ever passed more people than passed me. I usually have people blowing by me on the run. But today, I steadily picked people off. Felt good!

At least the passing part felt good. This run, in general, just freaking hurt. Not muscularly. That was fine. And a nice contrast fo Caz when I was feeling my calves a good bit. Today, the lungs just hurt. That was the limiter.

Both laps were about the same. I pretty much was redlined. I was breathing hard. Quick cadence. I tried to keep my knees bent and stride short, a couple run mechanic changes I've been working on recently. It was a bit hard to relax and really get into these. But I did the best I could.

Especially on the 2nd lap, I found myself playing a Led Zeppelin song in my mind. I tried to focus in on the guitar riffs and away from my overworked lungs. Other times, I almost closed my eyes and just ran. Definitely came back within myself mentally on occasions.

I have to say, I was pretty happy to make the turn into the closing chute. I ran hard to the finish.



I blew away my previous PR for this distance by over 3 minutes. I've never run this far and this fast in my life. A great run for me!

Last year, my time was 53:30. My 10K time at Caz was 52:39. So to come in 48:55 is just a huge improvement.

My wife was waiting beyond the finish line. I got a quick hug and kiss congratulations. I needed a few minutes to settle down though. A bit longer than many races.

But soon enough, I settled down. I got some food and drink. Had fun socializing with folks. Thats some of the best parts of these races!


The cold and wet definitely had an impact. Negatively on the bike and positively on the run. But I had a very good race. I beat last year's time by 10 minutes! Every leg was faster than last year. So its hard to complain too much about anything!


Score-This and Canandaigua ran a good race. A lot of volunteers. A few quirks from last year got ironed out this year. I thought they did a very nice job.