Orange County International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I felt great the entire swim. I never pushed too hard and was pleased with my time. On the way back in after turning at the second buoy, I thought of a thread here a few weeks ago. "What do I do when someone keeps hitting my feet during the swim?" I found the answer to this question.... Quit zig-zagging in front of me! I kept finding myself behind slightly slower swimmers who couldn't hold a straight enough line for me to pass them. Every time I made a move to pass, he would turn in front of me and completely cut me off. Then, once I crawled over his feet, he would turn the other way to correct his course and run into me from the other side. Oh well, I made it in under my acceptable time.

I might push it a little harder and try for a faster time, but I was happy with the time I got and didn't want to be too burned out for the bike.

I ran right past my bike and couldn't find it anywhere. I knew I hadn't set up so far down the lane, but for some reason, I just couldn't find my bike. I turned around and there it was about 4 racks back. Oh well. Got out of my suit, put on my shoes and helmet then ran for the mount line, jumped on and rode!

Know where the bike it! Duh!

The course was basically 2 long hills. Up, then down. Turn around and go up then down again. I had not pre-ridden the course, just read about it on the course description, so I knew sort of what to expect. I just suffered up the hills then rested flying down them. I was very happy to know that I would end downhill. So, I was able to push a little harder on the uphills knowing I would have about 4-5 miles of gravity to get me to transition.

Train more hills and get more bike time in before the next race.

The bike ended about 2 miles away from T-1. When I set up T-2 the day before, I gave myself a spot near the far end of transition with only one trans set up past mine. Arriving in the T-2 after the ride, almost 1/3 of the racks were empty (and nothing on the ground under them). So, I just threw my bike on an empty rack dropped my helmet, then ran to my shoes. This transition was in a flat dirt area beside the bike path. So, after I had taken off my bike shoes and run through the dirt, my socks were covered with sticks and things. Those had to get brushed off before putting on the running shoes. It probably added about 15 seconds to the T-2 time.

Leave my bike shoes on until right at my running shoes and have a mat to stand on to keep the sticks out of my socks.

I was not ready for the hills on this course. It started nice and flat. Then after aid station 2, we went across a field to enter a long stretch of of road trails. At the end of the field there was short steep hill on to the path. I jokingly said to a volunteer there that no one told me there would be hills. She replied with a knowing smile on her face that this was the small one, the real hill was coming up later. Boy, was she right!

The rest of the course was up and down lots of bigger than rolling hills. I was so not prepared for them. And, it was HOT! There were plenty of water stations through the course, so I could take a drink and douse my head and back every 10 minutes or so. Finally got to the top of the last hill of the day. Then we had to run down to the bottom of it and back up to go down to finish. I walked up most of the hills. It was just too hot!

Train more bike to run bricks. Between the heat and my lack of bike strength, I just couldn't get a better run in today.

Took off my shoes and jumped in the lake we swam in 3 hours earlier!

Then, ate lots of snacks they had out for us and packed my pockets with bars and snacks from the competitor's table.


Fantastic volunteers on the entire run!!!! I think I did 2-3 minutes faster than I should have because of the encouragement from the volunteers!!!!

They all had smiles on their faces and great cheering words even hours into the race!

I will probably do this race again!