Escape to Miami - TriathlonOlympic

we couldn't even see the buoys until the sun came up so that was a little nerve wracking that you couldn't even see where you would be going (not that it matters really). my group was all the females plus the clydesdales and athenas so it was not nearly as vicious as the guys' group. in fact i collided with a 'clydesdale' at one point and he stopped his swim to say "sorry"...aww :) it was ok. there were 2 smaller buoys leading up to the 1 large 'turn around' buoy and i was told by various ppl that you had to stay to the right of them then that you did NOT have to stay to the right of them (the right side is the far side from land - where you are heading). in the end, you don't have much of a choice b/c you can't swim sideways and you're just in the middle of a large cluster of ppl. oh, lastly, i cut my foot getting out of the water. there are rocks there and you have to kind of keep the majority of your body in the water (so you are lighter on your feet) til it gets really shallow. the cut was a long shallow slice. i didn't actually know until the end of the run, but then i thought it was a blister forming...i didn't realize it was a slice until after the race when i took off my shoes and barely recalled a sharp pain getting out of the water.

practicing spotting...i zig zag. again, it was my first tri, but i really enjoyed how we were not fighting to circle one buoy and head back the same direction. we weren't all running thru a 30-ft shoot to the water...

i didn't have bike shoes or pedals...rode in my running shoes.. so i took some time to put on socks and tie them up nicely and tuck the laces so they didn't get caught anywhere on the bike. i'm also obsessed with chapstick so i had to apply some in the transition because (to be honest) i was not well practiced at doing anything (drinking, eating, etc) while on the bike. most of my practice bike sessions were spent trying to keep up with my friends (drinking water at stop lights - duh, there aren't stop lights in a race...will train differently next time). oh AAAAND i didn't have a race belt :) so this includes carefully safety pinning 3 of the 4 corners of my race number to myself.

buy a race belt. practice chapsticking while riding. maybe buy some shoes/pedals.

fastest i had ever ridden on a bike :) i probably didn't practice hard enough, but i was usually practicing with a few friends and i was just grateful to have company on the rides...i had never ridden a road bike when i started training and the crazy drivers down here are well, crazy...so it was too nerve wracking to train alone. oh, and this was nice and overcast...still warm of course, but not painfully sunny.

well, obviously i just destroyed my legs by riding my fastest pace...while riding hills (maybe i had done 1 or 2 bridges in the 4 months of training)...and no breaks (again, no stop lights during a race). train faster...train with hills...pace myself to leave something for the run. need to practice drinking water and eating WHILE pedaling even if there are convenient stop lights during training...i think i only took 2 sips of water the whole ride.

whoa..my legs did not want to function going into the transition area. i felt like everyone was looking at me...like i looked like a giraffe trying to do ballet! well, i got back, set my bike up, took off my helmet and went "uhh, am i forgetting something?"...everyone else was taking so much time i just thought for sure i was forgetting to do something...but i wasn't. at the last minute i took of my sunglasses b/c of the overcast (MISTAKE - sun came out 10 min later).

hopefully i'll have biking shoes to mess with next time so i'll have to figure that out :)

sun came out and it was blisteringly hot. the course has one long straight stretch, and it's narrow there. the racers are spread out so it isn't too narrow (most of the time)...but you cannot see the end (well, the turn around)...felt like i was running into the desert b/c the sun was so bright (remember, i left my shades in the transition area?) and creating that mirage/heat wave/water look on the road, haha. it was tough. my legs were totally shot. usually i can do 10min/mi very comfortably w/o trying or thinking about my pace at all...thought i could at least hold it there but apparently not today

more bike then run practicing!! i only did one of these in all honesty :( two other times i went for a 15 mile bike ride then jogged 1 mile just to see what it felt like...both times it was horrible. i should have known, well i did know, but again, i was training with friends on saturday (we did biking then swimming), and it was hard to change that.

water water water....shade shade shade...stretch. talk to family.


not doing much running after biking!!!


the food was crap. this is typical miami - give you crap and you'll accept it because it is miami and you just want to be here. the photos were crap. i have maybe 3 photos of me and this was a 3 hr race. i did a half marathon (2 hrs) and have 20+ photos...i remember seeing the photographers thinking "i must have missed some!" b/c they only had 1 on the bike path and 1 on the run...and they looked like it was the LAST thing they wanted to be doing...