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 Swim
Comments: What a brutal swim...kicked my ass! This was my 2nd OWS race (first one was the San Diego Sprint tri in Mission bay) After hearing the advice and experience from a few of the triathletes there that have done the Mtn Man, it still did not prepare me enough for what was to come. For the first time, I was on the brink of panicking after feeling out of breath during the first 100 meters. Ended up floating on my back several times throughout the swim just so I could catch my breath and calm myself down. Transitioning from floating on my back and going back to my freestyle was not pretty. What would you do differently?: Do more OWS training and increase fitness level.  Transition 1
Comments: Don't know why I walked to the port a potty to take a leak and not let it go during the swim, maybe was just too worked up from all the panicking to even try. But I know I definitely lost a couple of minutes on this transition b/c of the bathroom break... What would you do differently?: pee in my wetsuit during the swim  Bike
Comments: I was impressed with my bike time after finding out I did it in 37 minutes! I didn't feel as gas'd like in the swim, maybe settled in and got a bit more acclimated to the altitude. But I felt good throughout the bike and felt that my gear changes during the hills were pretty solid. I attacked on the downhill to gain momentum on the uphill while changing to an easier gear to increase cadence. What would you do differently?: continue to improve my bike fitness with more time in the saddle Transition 2
Comments: Put my running hat, socks (with talmac powder inside), and slipped on shoes. What would you do differently?: wiped my feet off good, felt some debris in my socks/shoe while running  Run
Comments: So I was highly motivated trying to beat a co-worker of mine that only recently I found that he would be doing this race. He was about a minute faster than me on the swim and I was a minute faster on the bike, and about even on our transition times. He ended up beating me by 34 seconds on the run. We ran side by side for the first mile and then he started pulling away slowly. He was about 50-60 yards away as we got to the halfway point and I decided to try and catch him. As I started pushing away,I found myself passing a few people and began to catch up to him. My heart rate was screaming and I got about 10 yards away from him and I just gave up and started to walk up to that point. Ended up doing some hard pushes with additional walks in between and never ended up catching up to him...disappointed. What would you do differently?: I'm disappointed with the fact that I let myself give up not just physically but mentally. I need to learn how to keep pushing and not let any negative thoughts defeat me. Also increasing my run fitness and running more often. Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster: lack of mental toughness and fitness levels (need to continue to lose weight and train smarter) Event comments: Overall, I am pleased with my effort and times despite not being familiar or not having any high altitude training. The swim humbled me, but I think it was more of the climate that humbled me. Thinking that I could give the same level of effort from my races in phoenix and bring it to Flagstaff. Despite my mental breakdown on the run and panic on the swim, I had a lot of fun on this challenging race. Last updated: 2011-06-28 12:00 AM
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United States
Mountain Man Events
63F / 17C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 164/213
Age Group = 25-29
Age Group Rank = 18/25
Drove up the day before to pick up race packet and do a practice OWS at Lake Mary with my wetsuit. Swam for about 5 minutes or less and found myself gasping desperately for air. Became very concerned and lost some confidence finding out that swimming or any training for that matter at 8000ft in elevation is no joke. Later on the evening, my g/f and I along with my friend decided to have dinner at Oreganos...bad experience since we had to wait almost an hour and a half to be seated, didn't start eating until around 8, and as usual, overate and filled myself up way too full.
Day of the race
Got up at 3:50am, did my routine bowel movement in the morning and drank about 16oz of water. Still felt too full from dinner and did not eat anything before the race. Got to the course super early at 5am and was literally like the first car to pull into the side of the dirt road by the yellow tape near the transition. After setting my bike up, I realized that I had left my cycle shoes in the other car back at the hotel. Pissed off having to lose our parking spot, I hurried back to the hotel and grabbed them from the trunk. Ended up finding a decent parking on the way back even with almost everyone already arrived.
Did some light stretching and talked with my friend while we waited for our swim wave to start.