Honolulu Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

This was only my second olympic tri race swim because last year's Honolulu Tri was a duathlon. This year, I decided to set time goals for the swim, bike, and run. I was shooting for 35:00 or better for the swim. I came in just over a minute above my time goal. The swim felt very good. I was able to concentrate on my stroke and keeping a steady 2-beat or 3-beat kick. I managed to get on the feet of a couple of people, but didn't actively try to pass fellow swimmers. Drifted a bit on the course so that cost me a bit of time. Got out of the water not breathing too hard.

I wished I could have picked up more feet to draft off. My stroke technique is still a work in progress.

I couldn't believe I was going to be the first person to leave my rack. I've always been one of the last bikes to leave the rack in my previous tris. Although I was a few seconds slower than last year, I felt I was able to get my shoes, helmet, and sunglasses on quicker. I'm guessing the extra time was the run in from the swim.

Nothing.

This year I was shooting for a 1:10:00 or better. Managed to come in below that time goal. I had a nice good clip going on the outbound leg and picked off the guys that got ahead of me on the swim. The return leg turned out to be just a little harder than I was expecting. I ran into a nice headwind on Lagoon Drive followed by wet roads on Nimitz Hwy. and Ala Moana Blvd. I kept trying to pick off as many riders as I could. I eased up in the last half mile to let my legs recover a bit before entering T2.

Do more intense training rides for this race distance, otherwise I was happy with my time.

Woohoo! First one back to my rack. Faster than last year so that's a plus.

Nothing.

My time goal for the run was to go sub 1-hr. I've gone sub 1-hr 10k's in training but never in a race. This time I did it and felt good through the entire run. Although I passed a lot of people on the bike, I'm a slow runner and I knew a good number of them were going to do the same to me on the run. So I forced myself not to race those runners and go at the pace I could sustain without blowing up. Last year I had to walk part of the course. This year I didn't walk and got past a few runners who either went out too hard on the bike or too hard early in the run.

Keep getting in the miles. I know I'm capable getting faster the more I run.

Walked around and talked to some people I knew. Had some food and gatorade.


I didn't specifically train for this race. I've been doing longer, slower training sessions in preparation for IM Coeur d'Alene.


Considering that I finished this year's race about a minute over last year when it was a duathlon, I'm extremely pleased with how I did. I was almost 40 minutes faster than I was at my last olympic triathlon (2009 Lavaman Waikoloa). I might have lost some 10 minutes between last year's opening 5k and the swim this year, but I nearly made up for it in both the bike and run.