Cactus Challenge Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

Water was warmer than I expected, but I was very comfortable in my wetsuit.
First leg was directly into the sun, so I navigated off of other swimmers. Controlled my pace at the start, and never really felt exhausted. I found myself concentrating on navigation, more than technique, but technique felt pretty good overall. I finished much faster than I expected. I know the wetsuit helps, but that much? I wonder if the course was short.
BAD NEWS!! -> I'm hearing that the first Olympic wave turned at the double markers (intended for the Sprint turnaround) rather than continuing to the 3rd marker before starting the 2nd leg. Compared times with other waves (our wave was Men Oly 34 and Under) and this looks correct, so overall results are worthless. It looks like we did cut the course short. Sheesh, isn't this part of why we have volunteers on the course, to help prevent this!!


Work on keeping head down when breathing to the right. I think that may have contributed to my veering to the left.
Also, consider a set of tinted goggles for sunny morning swims.

T1 started right when we left the water, but it was a long, uphill jog/walk to the transition area. Was careful not to run up to transition, so HR stayed under control. Wetsuit came off pretty well. I had folded down my socks, and when I pulled the first one on, I had it upside down (heel on top), so I had to pull it off and redo. Otherwise, a fairly normal T1, although I just felt slower doing it.

Need to test wearing my HR strap when I have a wetsuit so I don't have to put it on in T1. I know it doesn't work with just a tri top (strap slides down), but it might stay in place with a wetsuit.

This was a pretty good run for me, especially given how nervous I was about those "Austin hills". Because we went clockwise, the uphills were more gradual and intermittent, while the downhill sections were longer and steeper. (I bet it would have been a harder race in the other direction.)
I felt good the first two laps, and pretty solid on laps 3 and 4, although I could tell I wasn't quite as strong as on the earlier laps. I tried to avoid checking my HRM, although I looked at it once during lap 3 and I was only at 151 -- good, not to high and I was still doing well.) Cadence was good and high throughout the race.
Nutrition was good. I started a Gu at the beginning of lap 3, but it wasn't going down well, so I put it away. (Eventually finished it before the end of that lap.) Went through most of my Accelerade during the ride, and made sure I drank water, but not as much in the last quarter of the fourth lap to try and avoid the run cramps I seem to get.
There were a lot of people on the course, so there was lots of passing. I was surprised that people weren't more aggressive in the corners. I passed people at every corner. The southeastern corner (at the bottom of the big downhill) with the dedicated turning lane was fun -- I took it at 20+ mph in aero several times and zipped past folks. With all the people, I kept reminding myself that this was a *race*, not a group ride, to help me stay focused.
Even managed a good approach to T2, with feet on top of shoes, and dismounted close to line, passing some who had stopped earlier.

Some additional strength tarining for hills. I never climbed out of the seat, but I didn't stay aero on the Hogs Eye hills on the later laps, either.

I usually do pretty well in T2, and this was true here. Rack wasn't crowded yet, so racking was easy, and Yankz are a great thing. Almost forgot my number, but reached back a grabbed it.

Last 1/4 of bike had me trading places back and forth with a racer I had down the same thing with earlier in the race. We started our runs about the same time, and had very simliar paces so I caught up and we ended up running nearly the whole race together. (His name was Ryan, and he was from Missouri)
Our pace was about 7:45/mile for the early miles, which I though was great. Legs were a little sore, especially the right quad, but I was able to keep pushing through it. We both walked the water stop at the start of the 2nd lap, and continue with a pretty good pace. Unfortunately, the final hill got me near the top, and I had to walk for just a little bit. I started running again before I got to the asphalt. I was able to reel in a couple of people, including another olympic racer, but Ryan stayed 20-30 seconds ahead of me. I finished with a good kick and passed someone early in the chute for a stong finish. I accepted the cold, wet towel and finishers medal and then had to rest before looking for Beth and Alexa. (I never did get to find Ryan again and congratulate/thank him.)

Need more hill practice with real hills. (Stuff near my house doesn't count, apparently.) I was really disappointed to walk that little portion of the hill, but pleased that I at least managed a small kick at the end.

Massages were available, but I didn't get one. Food included Domino's pizza and cheese sticks, grab bags of chips (Doritos, Cheetos, Lays, Fritos, etc.), granola bars, bananas and fruit, Gatorade and water.

I just stuck to Gatorade and water. Didn't stretch (but should have.) The rep from Javelin (Ed) approached me and thanked me for wearing the uniform, and we had a nice chat.

There was a raffle once nearly all racers were finished, but lots of racers had left, so it took a while to actually give away all the prized.


The race itself went very well. The barracade snafu should never have happened, but the final result was just fine. (Special thanks to the Sheriffs Dept for their extra effort here.)

However one swim wave (mine - men 34 & under) turned at the wrong bouy, so our swim times were shorter than others. This should have been prevented by a volunteer. Because of this, overall rankings were not valid (although age groups were still good).

Things that were good included:
- Nice course
- Made use of delay time to clarify the course and answer additional questions.
- plenty of volunteers
- good traffic control
- plenty of bike rack space (if people would just use it fairly)
- post-race food (better than just bagels and bananas)
- post-race raffle
- bike jersey for early registration was a nice, different touch

Some of the pre-race/logistics still need some work. Specifically, these were the things I noticed:
- Check-in only had a single line, and just wasn't set up as well as I've seen others.
- No race information in packet. Not even a sheet saying what time transition area opened in the morning or map of parking areas.
- No bike numbers. So how is my bike supposed to be 'secure' if you can't verify who is taking it out of transistion?
- No policing of transition area -- 24 numbers per rack, four sections per rack implies 6 bikes per section, 3 each direction, right? We had all but one facing the same direction (one later switched), and a seventh person who thought himself too important to rack his bike further down squeezed into our section later.
- Expecting racers to navigate "double orange bouy" from "single orange bouy" when staring directly into the sun. Also, swim volunteer failed to ensure swimmers stayed on course.