5430 Long Course Triathlon - TriathlonLong Course

The first leg of the swim was brutal. It seemed like everyone was kicking and punching each other. After the first turn bouy I pulled away from the crowd and everything settled into a rythem. I did have one issue towards the end of the swim where I started to gag for some reason. It was probably the knowledge that I had a long way to go before I was finished.

Get faster in the water to pull away from the crowd earlier in the swim leg.

I went without socks on the bike leg which worked out great. I love my tri shoes!

I need to practice jumping on the bike at the mount line.

I didn't feel very strong on the bike, but my time reflected otherwise. I was bummed for Adam after watching him stop to pee twice. He looked really strong on the bike though! I also went around the first lap with Richard(verve500) playing cat and mouse for several miles. I even yelled at him to move to the right before I realized it was him. I also saw him pull off with a flat and didn't realize till later that he had nothing to change it with. All in all, my bike legs went really well and I was a little worried about going too hard. Turnes out the only thing that would have made the run easier would have been to let someone else do it instead of me.

Not much, given my fitness I feel it went exactly the way I wanted it to.

This was a little slow because I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for the run leg. I drank some and grabbed some gels. I also put on socks for the run which took some time. It wasn't too slow though.

Take the time to set up my transition just right before the race.

Obviously running is my weakness. The first four miles felt great, the middle five miles started to nag at me a bit, and the last four miles were a complete test in mental fortatude. My knees hurt so bad on the last portion of the run that at mile twelve I was almost in tears. I really should have taken Julia's advice and pooped a few Advil on the bike course. By the way, this is the farthest I've ever run. EVER!!!!

Do more long runs in training and build a better base for running this distance. I would also not forget to take the Advil before the run.

Tried not to fall down after the finish line. This is no joke, my legs wanted to give out and my body was screeming to lay down. I didn't though, I took some Advil and drank beer til I was numb.


Knee pain!


One thing that upset me on the run was that several of the aid stations were hidden around corners and I kept trying to take a gel before I got there only to have the aid station sneek up in me so that I couldn't wash down the gel with water. That's the only complaint I could think of.