Swim
Comments: Based on what I have read about the swim, I decided to start at the back and toward the outside of the wave. This seemed to be a bad idea as I spent the first couple hundred yards running into feet in front of me. I overshot the turn by a good 10 yards and had a lot of trouble sighting on the way back because of the sun. My overall thought for the swim was a sense of being lost between the murkiness when my head was in the water and the bright sunlight when it was out. My pace was fairly close to my pool times and it was also my first OWS in several years, so I'm pretty happy with this part of the race. What would you do differently?: Start farther up in my wave and try to get relaxed quicker. Transition 1
Comments: Ack! I wasn't in a hurry and it showed. Since my main goal was just to finish this race, I took my time and made sure I had everything like I wanted it before leaving transition. What would you do differently?: Hurry. Bike
Comments: Having driven the course yesterday, I knew the hills were there. I also knew that all of my training rides on the flat SCT had not prepared me to deal with them. I was still hoping to finish the bike course in under an hour. I am satisfied with this ride since I did not have to get off my bike and walk it at any point. What would you do differently?: More (aka at least some) training rides on hills. Transition 2
Comments: Again, I took my time in the transition. This one went quicker since I didn't have to change shoes. I should have been quicker through here. What would you do differently?: Again, hurry. Run
Comments: Holy crap the run was brutal. The first mile out of transition went around the lake and was fairly flat. I tried to take it easy since I was tired from the bike and hit the first mile at 12:57 which I was good with. From there we ran onto a road that seemed like one short, steep hill after another. I decided to walk up the hills and try to run down them. This worked well for the first couple, then I just ran out of gas. I walked most of the way out and back on the road, then ran back through the woods, across the dam and up (again) to the finish line. What would you do differently?: Pick a different race to run. Again, I need to get off the flat SCT and run some hills. Post race
Warm down: Got out of the chute and collapsed on the ground. I was so tired by the time I finished, that I didn't even see my time. I missed my secondary, icing-on-the-cake goal of 2 hours; but I finished. I am now a triathlete! Now to improve upon that... What limited your ability to perform faster: Those #@%& hills! I need better conditioning and more hill work. Event comments: The hills were too much for me for a first race. The race was well-organized, but they could use another water station somewhere on the out & back run. Also, there didn't seem to be any post-race activities. Just packed up my stuff and left (which a lot of people seemed to have already done as well). Last updated: 2011-06-29 12:00 AM
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United States
Blue Sky Sports
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This was my first triathlon; I don't have a routine yet. Got up at 5:30 and grabbed some breakfast. Finished off a bottle of sweet tea on the hour drive to the race. I arrived around 7am and racked my bike. I watched how some of the people around me set up their transition areas, and then set mine up in a similar fashion. Mine ended up being pretty simple since I don't have bike shoes yet.
Went down to the water to watch the first wave go out, then swam about 30 yards out and back in the warm-up area.