Revolution3 - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

Water was wonderful. Nice temp, fairly clear. Beautiful lake, really. No chop (unlike the white caps the day before).

It was a little tough finding the second turn buoy after rounding the first, so I just sort of swam in the correct direction.

Make a better observation of the 'sighting' (yellow Rev 3) buoys. They were not placed in a straight line, and it didn't matter which side of them we swam on as long as we kept the red turn buoy on our right. So not realizing the yellows weren't straight, I ended up going wide and also zig-zagging and losing time.

Swim faster, concentrating more on form/power than people, which tends to be a problem for me, worrying about running into people or vice versa.

It was great to see my friends cheering me on, really a mental boost.

Hilly and challenging course but a good sense of accomplishment when finishing. Many roads had deep gouges, ruts and potholes, so paying attention to the road surface was essential. We were either going up or down, but it seemed to be mostly up! :) There was one stretch in particular where we just kept climbing, climbing, climbing and after a few miles we finally went down a little, only to climb some more. That was the theme of the day, but I am not complaining.

One of the steeper climbs that comes at the end of a more gradual climb had a few folks walking their bikes and those that were still on 2 wheels slowly creeping around them. I thought for sure I was going to be involved in a pile-up because of the walkers and the passers (including me) with the extra excitement of a passing car near the crest of the hill. I thought surely it would end badly for the whole cluster of us, but thankfully no issues were had.

Pass more aggressively. Well, not physically aggressively. I tend to hesitate to pass people that I perceive to be same speed/slightly faster than me because I think they will just need to re-pass me later, so I end up sacrificing speed and position staying behind people I should be passing. If they pass me again, oh well.

The person in the spot next to me unintentionally threw her wetsuit in the spot for my tire and it took me 2 tries to get it properly out of my spot so I could put bike in. Obviously this robbed some time.

I did the best I could under the circumstances. Having very little run training under my belt due to a knee injury, I chose to walk/run. That worked OK but was frustratingly slow. Plus my feet were numb/lacking sensation coming off the bike and it took a long time for them to feel good and have proper circulation. Not a nice feeling. After a bit, my left foot and left hip really started to hurt, which also limited the amount of time I was able to run. Had they not hurt I know I could have run more than I did. Strangely enough, my knee felt fine, which is good!

Run more, walk less. I think my shoes are 'due for new', which may have been part of the problems with my hip and ball of my foot.

Knee, hip, carrying more weight than I would like to be.


I simply cannot say enough good things about the Rev3 organization, staff, and the AMAZING volunteers who came out to help at this wonderful, beautiful venue. The volunteers made the race. They were super supportive, vocal and helpful. THANK YOU, everyone!!

I never did a 'big organization' race before and was very impressed with the VIP treatment Rev3 gave the racers. We had our own personalized transition spots (name, bib # on a laminated tag), personalized bib # with our first name, and very good security for the transition area. Upon dropping off my bike in transition, I was personally escorted to my spot. Very cool! Every person was checked, every bike was made sure it matched the owner.

The expo was nice, scored some free goodies from the sponsors. I rented a wetsuit from all3sports.com which was very convenient (place order online ahead of time and they bring it to the race for you to pick up, plus you just return it to them at their store at the expo after you are done) and the folks were very friendly and helpful.

This was my first Olympic distance race. To have finished the first race of this distance on this course is a proud accomplishment. Sure I wasn't super fast, but I finished and didn't finish last. I was somewhat conservative not knowing what to expect and wanting to be able to finish and not fail out. I knew my limitations as far as running went and am proud to have completed my longest run distance (10K) even if I did need to walk some of the hills. For the race, I finished 6 out of 9 Athenas, which was technically my race category.

Thanks again to everyone who made this day a success: my friends who were there to support me, the wonderful volunteers, and the helpful, friendly Rev3 staff.