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 Swim
Comments: I rarely felt comfortable with my face in the water - only at the start of the second lap. I spent quite a bit of time doing sidestroke and then bursts of crawl with my face out of the water. I knew that I did not have the technique or endurance to go the whole way crawl. All things considered, I handled this 1000 times better than my first tri swim last year. I came out of the water with a smile on my face and got out of T1 relatively quickly. What would you do differently?: I need to spend more time doing longer sets - 500 meters - and establish a better endurance baseline. I also should get in a few more OWS sessions.  Transition 1
Comments: I purposely did not rush this - got out of my wetsuit bottom quickly (top came off as I came up from the beach), my socks/shoes on, helmet, sunglasses and then headed out of the area. The guy in front of me started to get on his bike and I followed suit. I then realized that the mount line was another 20 meters away. It started raining as I was leaving T1. What would you do differently?: I could have moved a little faster and knocked off at least a minute. Maybe next time.  Bike
Comments: The rain that started as I left T1 quickly turned into a torrential downpour. I could see about 20-30 meters in front of me which was enough to spot the support staff on the turns. I soon regretted not changing the lenses in my sunglasses, but I figured it was best to leave them on. It was raining so hard that it sometimes stung. The storm lasted for a little more than the first lap and then just stopped. I'm pretty sure that I was able to crank up the speed by a couple km/hour on the 2nd lap and it was much less stressful being able to see again. The skies opened up again at about the start of the 3rd lap and it rained even harder. I found it comical that I was trying to drink water while riding one handed through the downpour at 30+ km/hour. I thought I had finished all of my gel (it was in a gel bottle in one of my shirt pockets). I realized when I got home that I only consumed about 1 gel (120 calories). I also only drank about half of my bottle which was a 50/50 mix of water and sports drink. Oveall, I was happy with my ride. My target was to hold a 30 km/hr average and I did that in the rain. I've spent very little time riding in the rain (10 minutes in 2 years at best). I am now a pro - at least on flat surfaces. What would you do differently?: Wear the yellow lenses if it is overcast with a 50% chance of rain. I have to try something different for nutrition. I really don't like the taste of the gel and the gel bottle is really not very good. One thing I will look into is an aerobar mounted sip bottle. I know my speed will improve with more time in the saddle. Transition 2
Comments: My shoes were waterlogged and about twice as heavy as normal. There was about a half inch stream of water running through the transition area when I got there. I just laughed as I took off my bike shoes and slipped on my running shoes. I left my sunglasses in my bike helmet figuring it was going to remain overcast. The sun never really broke through again. What would you do differently?: put my shoes into a plastic bag if there is a chance of rain - that's all. I did kind of take my time and I walked to the transition area exit.  Run
Comments: I tried to catch a good gulp of water at every aid station and I took a sponge once. I wanted to run faster, but legs and hips were feeling stressed from the bike. I would have been content to just hold the pace I started at, but my pace slowly eroded from 5:12 per km to 5:30 near the end. What would you do differently?: Not much. I may have been able to get in a faster run if I had done a full taper prior to the race, but this was a C race. I am sure that spending less energy in the swim (i.e., swimming more efficiently) would give me a little more gas for the run. I also think that I really needed to finish that gel and drink on the bike - they would have helped. I was feeling really hungry about 15 minutes into the run. Post race
Warm down: Not much - ate a couple pieces of watermelon and a banana. Stood around talking with my wife and a friend who also did the race. Event comments: This is a fast course and it was fairly well managed. I think I will do it again next year. Last updated: 2010-06-21 12:00 AM
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Japan
JTU
26C / 79F
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 180/235
Age Group = 50-59
Age Group Rank = 19/31
We drove to Sakata on Saturday and got there around 2pm. Our first attempt at finding the race area didn't work so we headed to our hotel and asked them for directions. No problem second time around - it was only about 10 minutes by car from the hotel. I picked up my race packet and found out that I had to wait until the next morning to rack my bike.
My wife and I walked around the town a little and then ate dinner around 6:30. The dinner was great, but quite a bit more than I probably should have eaten. We hit the sack around 10 and woke up around 4 am. I didn't sleep all that well.
Breakfast was coffee, yogurt drink, bread and half a banana. I think this was just about right.
We got to the race area at 6:40, drove to T2 first and dropped off my running shoes/hat. It was overcast and the forecast called for a 50% chance of rain, so I considered putting the stuff in a plastic bag (my wife said "do it"), but since most folks didn't bother, I followed their lead. That was mistake #1 - should have listed to my wife.
We drove to the T1 area. My wife stopped in front of the area and I quickly unloaded my stuff and bike. My wife then drove off to find a parking spot. After racking my bike, I hit body marking (no line yet) and then finished setting up my area.
I did about 15 minutes on the bike and then ran for about 10 minutes. It started raining lightly while I was running, but soon stopped. At 8am, they let us head down to the water. I got in and swam around for about 10 minutes.
The first wave (39 and under) started at 8:30, 40-59 at 8:32 and 60+ and women at 8:34. There was a little thunder right around 8:30, but they started on time.