Back To Health Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

No wetsuits allowed. Bummer. According to others, course was 3+ minutes long. They estimated the course at ~1900y. Arms were very tired by the end. No luck in finding feet to draft.

Came out of the water 5 minutes down on the two leaders, one of whom is a pro out of the Louisville area. So I was told anyway.

Expected a wetsuit swim based on previous experience with this RD, so did a lot of pulling leading up to this. Mistake. Also need longer sets in the pool to work on endurance.

Fastest T1 was 31 sec. I was one of the faster. Pretty good considering I don't do the flying mount thing.

Didn't feel great but was 2nd OA split, which surprised me. I caught the (eventual) winner on the bike. I also made up some ground on the pro that was in the race. They'd both put 5 minutes into me on the swim.

No crash or flat, so have to classify this as a good ride.

Fastest T2 was 22 secs, so I didn't lose too much here.

Came out of T2 with the (eventual) winner and ~2 minutes down on the leader. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang with the winner on the first hill and it became clear he was going to outrun me unless he blew up, which he didn't. He outsplit me on the run by just over a minute and beat me OA by 1:15. My days of outrunning the field are long gone.

After the bluff, I switched my focus to catching the leader. Pretty sure I was closing fast enough to catch him, but he had to quit around mile 3.5 due to heat/dehydration. That put me in no-man's land - a runner in front I couldn't catch and nobody within 2 minutes behind me. So I kept things under control and cruised in.

Not much. Run was a sufferfest and I suffered reasonably well.

Jump in the lake - felt NICE! They had grilled burgers/chicken/hot dogs after the race, yum. Hung out with the family in the shade eating and watching others finish, then went back to the hotel to pack up and drive home.


Lost FIVE minutes to the top two in the swim in an OLY.


Fun, hot, hilly race. Each time I do a tri now I feel fortunate to be healthy enough to participate. Hope to be able to keep at it for a long time to come.

And I def prefer these small local races to the larger ones. The competition isn't there, but the lower swim and bike traffic makes the race itself much more enjoyable. There are also more familiar faces to talk with before and after the event.