Pumpkinman Triathlon - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

I breath to my left most of the time and I was worried that swimming a clockwise would be hard when rounding the bouy, but it wasn't a issue. The water temp was perfect. It was a fight fist at the beginning, but after 300 yards things stettle down. But I could never find anyone to draft off and pacing was good. My swim was perfect.

Nothing. Maybe push pace a little more in the middle part of the swim?

It was a long transition and oly distance racers were placed right in the middle of things. One thing I did do differently, I decided to not wear any socks and went till I got out of transiton before I put my shoes on. I did have the fastest transition time in my division.

Nothing

Hills, hills, and more hills! I had remembered last year about the the hills and right away my legs felt it. I tried to spin alot and not grind up the hill, which wasn't too hard to do as my legs didn't have the strength to do it. I also wanted to have some energy left for the last climb to T2. The bike trial was slow moving, but I made it. The last climb I put my head down and climbed. The next thing I knew I was at T2.

Just train more. I did feel stronger climbing, but my time didn't show it.

2nd fastest time for my division.

Nothing.

I got out of transition feeling good. It was already hot as well and I had hoped to hold a 11 minute mile or better. The first mile was 10:33, then 10:52, and by mile 3 a 10:47 pace. I knew the second half would be harder as it was mostly a gradual hill back to the finish. I could feel that my energy level was falling fast. By mile 4, I slowed down to a 12:16 pace. Mile 5 was a survied mode of a 13:34 pace. Last mile the crowds and other races (especially those racer in the half distance) got me to finish with all the cheering and words of encouragement (12:08 pace).

Looking over my split. Maybe slowed my pace on the first half and tried to keep a even split for the whole race.

Water and lots of water. Walked arounded. Got lunch and watched the award ceremony.


I had planed a year ago to come back to do this race again to beat my time especially the bike course. Last year a week before Pumpkin Man I had done my first century bike ride. I had factored that century ride as my poor performance on my bike. So I came to pumpkin man with fresh legs. But I did several other races this season: my first half distance Iron Man at the end of August, a Olympic distance triathlon (Kokopelli) 4 week before PM, and a marathon two weeks before PM. So I came into this race a little “beat up”.
Plan my race season better, snd don’t get down on myself for such a bad performance. Needless to say I did have a great season with a marathon PR and racing my first half iron man distance as well as my conditioning has greatly improved!



I know running a race is hard work and people want everything done their way. For me, the race director/company did a good job. I heard things like gates did not open for bike riders to go through and I guess some bikers had to ride around and do extra miles. There was no volunteer to direct riders at the sprint turnaround, which resulted in riders doing extra miles. And running out of water at aid stations, though it was only for a few minutes.

I had two issues – packet pick up and host hotel. Hour an a half to complete packet pick up - Really?? It was crazy to pick up your packet then drive to T1 and drive back to the hotel. I know we got discount at the host hotel, but get one that's close to T1 or have packet pick up at T1. I’m pretty sure no one was watching T1 as I could have went home with a lot of garmin watches.