Over The Mountain Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Nothing special happened on the swim. First OWS of the year and was not in tip top shape due to big vacation break. Overall swim went well. Had lots of open water, sighting was pretty good, good stroke and smooth bi-lateral breathing. Never really pushed the swim hard at all which was more of a mental decision. Sighting might have been little off after the turn as I just swam straight for the squigly man but I wasn't really near the bouys. Not my fastest swim, but nowhere near my slowest either.

Not take two weeks off from swimming a week before a race (on a cruise). Mentally syke myself for the swim instead of "just get through it".

Hill coming out the lake sucked! Very steep and got the HR racing. Suit off quickly. No issues/problems in T1.

Wow. That was a challenging course. Two major climbs at mile 15 and mile 23. Rest of course was non-stop rollers with little/no flats. First 13 miles had a nice pace of 21+. Climb up the first mountain was not too bad, slow and steady up. Second mountain was not so subtle. Granny geared that sucker. Going down the other side was fun though. Hit 47 mph. Didn't have much left in the tank for the last few miles. Saw a few people I was riding with most of the way starting to pull away but I couldn't keep up. Saw main st and got out of my shoes...only to realize I had like a 1/2 mile to go. Whoops. Overall, happy enough as the course was tough.

Train more on the big hills (rollers were not a problem). Thing is, we don't have hills like that in CLT and don't have time to drive to ride. Also my bike fitness suffered from the two week vacation break.

Got out of shoes too early. Didn't adjust my show right and had to re-adjust on course.

Not forget to put body glide on my feet before the race! Got a blister on pinky toe that lookd like a 11th toe!!

Started out at a 7:00 pace which was my goal pace. No problem the first two miles. Next two miles went from partial shade to no shade and the heat started to catch up to me. Pace slowed down a little bit but I was picking runners off aplenty. Started getting some hot spots from the lack of body glide and knew the blisters were coming. Pace was pretty even the last 4 miles, right around 7:15. The plan was to hammer the last mile but there was no one within 250 yards of me (front or back) so I didn't see the point, even though I had the energy to make up 30-40 seconds. Cruised into the finish all by myself and took time to enjoy the great crowd support!

Meh...nothing I guess. Would have had a better time if I had some more people in front of me to motivate me to catch them. I was stuck in half mile comfort zone.

Grabbed some awesome BBQ chicken legs and like 20 pieces of watermelon and a coke and sat in the shade. Talked with other racers about the course and everyone had nothing but good things to say.


Vacation didn't help. Not training on big hills didn't help. HOT run!


Overall this was a fantastic race. The point to point course logistics were perfect. The crowd support from the town was awesome. Course was just below the "will breaking" point which made it perfect...challenging but not too much so. Nothing but good things to say and I will be back.