Lake Stevens Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

It was a nice morning for a swim. It was cool enough to keep the water skiers off the lake, so there were no waves at all. The kayakers crossed the course a couple times, which blocked my view of the buoys. It was annoying, but not as bad as last year when the kayaks were the same color as the buoys.

Nothing - it was a good swim

It was cold!! I had a few folks cheering for me and yelling at me while I was trying to get the wetsuit off. I got a bit flustered with all the commotion & almost tripped on my wetsuit. I took a breath & tried to block them out while getting the rest of my gear ready. I decided to wear a light jacket because of the chill and took an extra 10-15 seconds getting it on.

go faster -- T1 has been my weak spot this season. I might need to just take a bunch of gear down to the lake next spring and get some more practice.

The ride started out a bit cool. My glasses fogged up right away and didn't clear up for a couple of miles. Right out of transition I caught one of the 2 guys who got out of the water before me - about a mile up I got passed for the first time, about half a mile up a second guy passed me.

I tried to get into a rhythm, but just didn't feel it today. I kept pounding away, but my computer said I wasn't going very fast. I expected to have groups of folks blazing by me, but I didn't get passed again until mile 9 and that was only by 1 or 2 guys. I got to the turnaround and was still in 6th place - yes, I counted riders heading back. As I headed back, I saw a pretty good sized group coming up behind me. About a mile after the turnaround, I got passed by about ten guys pretty quickly. I had a brief increase in speed to try to keep them from getting too far away, but I still wasn't feeling it and shifted down a gear and let them slip away.

About 5 miles from the finish we re-joined the Sprint tri course & things got more crowded. I saw a friend of mine on the side of the road - he'd passed me around mile 13 - he was getting into his tool kit and I assumed he was fixing a flat. Turns out he was. He got going again, but flatted a second time and ended up riding into transition on a flat tire.

I got to a hill about 2 miles from T2 and kept left to get by the sprint riders. A couple of folks were weaving out towards the yellow line, but it wasn't too bad. I decided to keep the gearing low and spin my way up instead of trying to power up the hill and I got to the top feeling pretty good. I coasted down the backside and started thinking about transition and getting my legs loosened up.

The ride into transition had a few turns, and at one point we were riding right by the runners. The road was not blocked off and the runners were heading out into the street right where the bikers were turning onto the street. I didn't see anyone directing the runners to stay to the side and thought that someone was going to get hurt.

I had trouble with biking today. I haven't ridden much the past 3 weeks (marathon training is taking over) and I purchased a new bike. I decided to ride the new bike, which I think was a mistake. I never felt like I was "dialed in" to the right gear and I think I still need to make a couple slight adjustments to the seat height & position. My average speed was below the pace I was riding at during the HIM on Aug. 15 and I just didn't feel like this was a very good ride.

Stick with the ride that I do a majority of my training on. A late-season switch was a bad idea.

It was a little slow, but I did have to take off the jacket I put on before the ride & shout a couple words to my adoring fans -- as well as wave off one who walked into the transition area and tried to help me. The thought was appreciated, but the distraction was not.

It felt good. I had to pocket my Garmin because I couldn't get the quick-release strap attached to the unit and lost one of the rods while I was fumbling with it. So I just found a comfortable pace and tried to maintain it. I hoped to pick off a few of the folks that passed me during the bike ride, but mostly just wanted to finish without walking.

I made it up the hill the first time feeling pretty good. Waved to a friend who was about 10 minutes ahead of me and decided to take it easy on the downhill to the turnaround to prep for the climb back up. The climb back up was pretty good and I waved to another couple friends on the way back down to the lake. I caught up to another friend who was running his first sprint-tri and ran with him for a few seconds and tried to give him some encouragement.

I got near the 2nd turnaround and had to ask where the turnaround was - there were a couple barricade signs in the road and no markings indicating straight or turn - a couple people pointed me to the right place & I continued on my way. Lap 2 was pretty much the same as lap 1, a lot more runners since the sprint and oly folks were out on the course now.

Coming into the last mile I found myself behind a guy with M40 on his leg & he was holding a pretty good pace so I fell in behind him. I figured I'd follow him to the quarter-mile point & try to pick up the pace and finish ahead of him. I started my move right before the turnaround cone and the guy turned to start his 2nd lap. That's OK. I'll just keep up the pace and head to the finish.

Little did I know - there was a guy right behind me who had the same idea. He had been shadowing me and made his move right as I entered the finish chute. He passed me about 50yds from the finish & I didn't really challenge him. It turns out I should have. He was an M42 and beat me by 1.5 seconds to take first in the AG. He deserved it, he wanted it more.

finish stronger

Wandered around, congratulated Rick (the guy who beat me by 1.5 sec) and asked where the water was. Grabbed a snack and headed back to the finish area to watch for other friends finishing.

I saw a great finish by my friend, Tony. He was fighting hard to stay ahead of one guy and ended up with a super sprint finish that was one of the best I've seen.


I think I had a minor case of the flu leading up to this race. I hadn't been running well this week and was concerned that I might have to scratch the race. I'm glad I ran it, but it wasn't my best performance.


Transition security was awful - people were walking in & out at will, the Sprint racers were allowed into transition while the Oly racers were coming in from the swim. I had to yell at a couple of non-racers to get out of my way as I was heading to my bike.

Traffic control was poor - there were people at the intersections, but they weren't signaling if the road was clear and I had to dodge a couple of cars who were let through right before I got there. And the area where the runners and bikers shared the road was not marked with cones or tape to keep the runners to the side of the road. During the run, half the run course was open to traffic and there were no cones to keep runners on one side of the road or the other - Some faster folks were running towards slower runners on the same side of the road, I guess they expected the slower ones to clear out of the way.

Post-race stuff was weak. I don't think they ran out of water this year, but there wasn't much and it was all tap water in cooler jugs that you had to self-serve into paper cups. I prefer the iced down water bottles. The food was the standard stuff, but there didn't seem to be much of it. The sound system was poor and you could barely hear the announcer at the finish and during the awards.

I think the race is overpriced for what is offered - There are no T-shirts included in the race fee and this event is not a fundraiser for any charity.