Memphis in May - TriathlonOlympic

TT start…three seconds apart. First time I’ve done that so it was a little weird. You’re all lined up then next thing you know you’re starting and you almost don’t realize it! The only problem with this type of start was that there wasn’t any method to the numbering. So I was in for a bumper-cars swim as I passed folks. I took it out hard (I always do). Never really got in a good rhythm. The water was so nice and calm! After St. A’s it was NICE! The cold sensation of water down a dry wetsuit was weird…I ALWAYS get wet at least before a race so this dry dunk was a first. The swim felt like it took forever to me. Passed a TON of people…didn’t really feel like too many passed me. It got worse towards the end, not sure why. Finally stand up to exit and look at my watch and see that the first two numbers were 23…hey, not bad!

I need to find a better open water rhythm. I seriously want to ditch the wetsuit. Drives me nuts.

Swim warmup seems to be crucial for me. This event really didn't allow it but I would really like to do one!

Race into T1 and have a GREAT T1. Had the wetsuit around my waist before the first rack of bikes. Found my bike quickly, ripped off the wetsuit (seriously 10 seconds), threw on the helmet and sunglasses, grabbed the bike, and was OFF! For the first time ever I left my shoes on the bike…scary concept!

Nothing. GREAT T1 for me…

Took me a half mile to get my shoes on!!! Not totally my fault. There is a small hill right out of transition so I had to wait until I crested it so I could coast long enough to put my shoes on. And I’m just not good at it yet so I was a bit slow. This probably saved me NO TIME in the end….but it was good practice!

Ah,…the bike. I really can’t remember a lot of it. Honest. It was so…uneventful. I always feel like I’m sandbagging on the bike! Burned out my legs a few times passing people who had pissed me off…like the girl who tries to pass me on a big hill, pulls up even with me at the top so I’m forced to back off, but then she DIES and goes SO SLOW that it’s killing me to wait until I’m out of the zone so I can sprint past her. Not as fast and flat a bike course as Coach Mike claimed. I thought the rollers were a bit more than I expected. Definitely not as flat as St. A’s! I thought the wind was pretty light though a lot of folks said it was strong. I tried to stay comfortably hard. Made and attempt to pick it up the last 10 miles but I think I stayed pretty even throughout. Downed a gel with 3 miles to go and had a whole bottle of 3 scoops of perpetuem. Definitely need to do the gel earlier…that wasn’t a good plan for the run.

Martina passed me about 10 miles in. I was getting passed quite a bit (because the fast waves of boys went off after me!). I was waiting for Coach Mike to pass me on the bike (he started 15+ minutes after me) but never saw him. The goal was to survive to 20 miles without getting passed by him…SUCCESS!

Five Mile Splits:
Mile 5: 16:30/180/164
Mile 10: 15:34/170/161
Mile 15: 17:23/173/161
Mile 20: 15:06/169/161
Mile 24.8: 9:59/170/161 (see why we think it was short?)

Not sure what I’d do differently. Good bike split for me but I’m still playing with how hard I can go on the bike and still survive the run….ya know?

T2 didn’t go as well as T1. I got my feet out of my shoes on the last hill before T2. It was harder than I thought it would be! Dismount, run for my spot! I had to put socks on because I tried going sockless last week and it wasn’t a good plan. So that lost me some time. And I was just plain being lazy I think. Rather than run with my race belt, I STOOD THERE in T2 putting it on…WTF?

I saw a lot of people running in what I thought was the wrong direction. I had seen the “run exit” sign and it was to my right and everyone was running to my left. Hmm…maybe I should have studied the map better? I’m a lemming though so I take off after everyone else and it turns out they are right…you have a long way through transition to get out to the run! Probably one reason for the long T2. On the way out I spot Mike. He passed me in T2!!! I shout at him, but he’s already in green-dot land. Somebody shouted at me, "Why don't you just catch up with him?" Yeah, right.

Uh, not smoke crack? I dunno…once the shoes and socks were on I should have run and put everything else on on the run.

Splits: Time/MHR/AHR
Mile 1: 9:25/172/165
Mile 2: 9:47/175/168
Mile 3: 9:21/171/165
Mile 4: 10:01/176/169
Mile 5: 9:04/184/175
Mile 6: 9:56/190/164
The 0.2: 1:14/181/134
Oh my goodness, the sun came out. It had been nice and overcast on the bike and suddenly as we started the run the SUN came out. And it was HOT. REALLY hot. I felt like I was going to hurl due to the gel I had on the bike. Not cool. So I had to take it REALLY easy for the first mile. And there were HILLS. And I haven’t run hills in AGES! Tough, tough run for me. I had really slow splits. HR was staying in line, legs felt okay, just couldn’t make myself move. Stayed at a “just below pain” threshold the whole run.

At the turnaround I had my other gel and for about 10 minutes I again had the "I wanna hurl" feeling. Gotta rethink the gel strategy on the run.

Not be a pussy and go to the pain place.

Got a water. They removed my chip. Stood around aimlessly for about 30 seconds before the D3 crew found me. Stood around with them BS'ing, eating, and generally just having fun for a few hours until the awards.


Mental toughness.


FUN FUN weekend! It was a PR for me though, the course was probably a little short so I would say my performance was very on par with St. A's. But I think the course is a little harder than St. A's so there was definitely improvement. The swim was GADS easier...none of those 4-5 foot waves we saw in St. Pete! I have things to work on for sure.