Age Group National Championship - TriathlonOlympic

Being quite congested I knew that the swim would probably be the hardest leg, and I was correct. It was hard to breathe initially, so I slowed down. As a result, I lost touch with most people from my wave.

After rounding the second turn buoy we were going right into the sun, I couldn't see the next buoy. I saw swimmers in front of me and followed them, however, they were in the same position as me, and we ended up swimming way off to the left. As a result, I think I probably swam close to 400 yards extra. My goal swim time was around 25 minutes. Coupled with my health issues and sucky sighting, I had a horrible swim.

Looking on the bright side, at least I came out of the water and didn't have to be pulled out by a rescue boat.

Not getting sick would have helped out! My sighting was also a major issue, but that was partially due to the fact that I couldn't stay with most of my wave because of my breathing and congestion.

I was just happy to get out of the water and onto the remainder of the race. I took my time and felt pretty good by the time I was on my bike.

The bike is my strongest area, and I guess I somewhat took advantage of that. My goal wattage had been around 300 watts, but I scaled that back by quite a lot, coming in at 262 watts, as I also wanted to have a reasonable run.

My head was throbbing as my HR was pretty high coming out of transition, and I tried to ignore that pain. It was almost like in the cartoons where there is the devil and angel - I guess I listened to the devil.

The first half of the bike course had an uphill profile. During this part I averaged 282 watts and 22.3 mph. As the downhill parts began on the way back into town I dialed down the wattage as the speeds increased, trying to conserve what little energy I had for the upcoming run. I averaged 239 watts on the second half at 25.9 mph.

I passed throngs of riders and was passed by two younger guys near the end of the bike portion. There was definitely some drafting with this many riders on the course, and I tried to yell out 'on your left' when approaching groups of riders. It was somewhat effective as my voice didn't carry vary well in my state!

I can't say that I'm disappointed in the ride. Considering my health, I think I did pretty well. I probably could have kept the wattage a bit higher on the second half of the bike, but I decided to rest a little.

My goal time was around 59 minutes - If I had averaged around 300 watts I think I would have been there.

Another decent transition. Again took my time and didn't make any stupid errors.

I was honestly expecting to trudge along and come in around 45 minutes. However, I just maintained a steady pace that equated to my marathon pace.

The first half mile of the run seemed like it was nearly straight uphill, gaining about 200 feet of elevation in less than half a mile. I did this first mile at a 7:17 pace, and then settled in to a pace of just under 6:40 for the rest of the run.

Around mile 4 we were on a bike path and I saw a bench in the shade - I nearly stopped to take a nap but then told myself I only had about 13-14 more minutes to tough it out.

My sinuses were pounding and my whole body was aching, but I kept the pace up and got to the finish area.

My goal time had been 39:xx, but that was out the door with my health.

Again, the sickness thing was a bit detrimental.

I drank two waters, stuffed some ice down my uni and found a shady tree to sit under, hoping that Katie would find me (she did after 1/2 an hour, including visiting the medical tent).


Having a temperature, not being able to breathe properly, and the sinus infection definitely didn't help.

There's always next year, as Burlington is hosting this race again in 2012.


Overall, this was a fun experience. I think I would have even had more fun had I been healthy and preformed to my potential.

There was no bottle exchange on the bike, so I didn't have a chance to throw any bottles, which I know may annoy some people here on BT. :)

I also managed to PR at the Olympic distance by about 4 minutes. I'm quite confident that if I had been healthy my time would have been under 2:10, but that will never be really known.

All in all, a fun event that I'm looking forward to participating in next year.

After the race Katie and I drove back to MA, went to the ER at a local hospital, and had to wait three hours to be seen for three minutes by a doctor. I ended up with some antibiotics, which seem to be starting to help a bit.

I'm hoping that this sickness won't have a negative effect on my upcoming marathon.