Goleta Beach Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

The swim was a good swim. I started off to the right of the pack and just swam easy and relaxed the whole way. I was able to find open water pretty quickly and never really had any problems with people. As we passed other waves, we had to swim around them, however they were so spread out, it was not an issue. I probably could have pushed the swim much harder, however I wanted to keep it nice and easy and save the energy for the cycling and running (which don't come naturally to me)

Honestly, not a whole lot. It was the first race with a wetsuit, and that didn't seem to bother me too much. I do feel like I am unnaturally high in the water with it, but overall I found the sleeveless wetsuit to be "nice". I don't really think I would change the effort level of my swim. I'd say I was pretty happy with this swim.

I had no desire to try and push the transition. I knew my goal for this race was to finish. Thus I wasn't worried about a minute here or there in transition. I had a few problems, the first one was the water bottle I used to wash off my feet. I filled it with salt water to just rinse my feet off, but forgot about that part and took a huge swig of it before I realized that it was salt water... Duh! Pretty funny looking back at it now. The second issue that I ran into was my shirt getting rolled up on me and being unable to pull it down quickly. I had this problem last triathlon, and I need to figure out a way to fix this. I did have a problem getting into my shoes on my bike. usually i put my left foot on top of my shoes first, then the right, this time it was reversed, and such a simple thing screwed me up.

Don't fill my water bottle up with salt water, and sure as hell don't drink the salt water. Also find a way to not get that shirt rolled up in a ball when putting it on. Finally, have the left shoe forward on the bike when getting ready to mount.

The bike was challenging for me. Living in Phoenix, it's pretty damn flat out here. The rolling hills of coastal California were a change. I did ok on them, but noticed most of the people that passed me were doing so on the hills. My average speed of 17 mph was, for me, good. I was hoping to hold that pace and I did. I had expected the second half of the bike to be much easier... as most of the climbing was on the first part. But my legs were sore enough that the second part was just as painful if not more. During the ride feeding went ok, as did fluid intake. I was able to pop 1 ort 2 ibuprophen and 1-2 salt tabs as well on the ride without too much difficulty.

On a sad note, I did see someone being taken care of by the police department and medical crews after it looked like he and a random car had a collision... Who ever you are I do wish you a speedy recovery.

I just need to start working on speed, and I will do that after SOMA. For now, I just need to realize I have only been biking since december of 2011 and be happy that I can go as far as I can. I would have loved to have had a better place on the bike, but I think that will come with time and training.

Again, I was not in the mood to waste a ton of energy in the transition so I just kind of took my time and enjoyed the event. I did forget to put quick ties on my shoes, so I was held up a bit by having to tie my shoes. I grabbed my water bottle from my bike with what fluid it had left in it and went for a run.

I would prepare better and have the quick laces on my shoes. I would also have liked to have a waterbottle with plain water in it, as the one with salt water was not an option, and the one off my bike was only half full.

Very Very sad run. About 1 mile into the run I came upon a site that I see all to often at work, but not on a triathlon course... I saw a few of the athletes doing compressions on another athlete. I blurted something out like, "oh shit, you've got to be kidding me" a dead serious voice from the gentlemen doing CPR was, "No". I threw my water bottle to the side and got ready to help.

I stopped to offer relief to the person doing compressions if he was to get tired. It turns out the man went down maybe 1-2 minutes prior to my arrival.

The person doing compressions didn't need relief, and that's when we started to hear the sirens from the fire truck. I ran off to the area where the fire truck could enter, moved the cones and pointed them in the direction of the downed person.

I stayed around for a bit to offer assistance, and let them know any information they might have asked for. Then I chatted with someone who had witnessed the person go down (and got a car to call 911 on their cell phone.)

To my fellow triathletes who stopped to help this man, I want to say "Thank you". If this man was able to pull through, it was because YOU gave him the chance.

To my unknown triathlete and his family my prayers are with you. I am not sure how he is currently doing, I hope and pray for the best, however sir, if it was your time to leave us, I wish you God Speed, and peace and comfort for your family in these trying times.

When there was nothing left to do to help out, I restarted the run... My time could have been much faster, but honestly, that's not important. It was just a run. Hopefully in some way we were able to give this man a chance to see his family again.

I would do nothing differently. I would stop for that man every day of the week and every hour of the day. I do hope and pray for a full recovery for him, and for the family to have some comfort in these difficult times they must be facing.

Nothing really, talked with my wife and parents and tried to defuse what I just saw on the run portion of the race. I found the one woman who had helped (and got someone to call 911), and we talked as well. I don't remember your name, but I hope you too are doing ok from what you saw.

Other then that I just walked to the transition got my stuff and left. My mind was more on the person who possibly passed away, then the event I just did.


It was my first olympic distance triathlon. I learned several lessons that I would be able to take with me for future triathlons.


To everyone that stopped to help that man, Thank you. If you are also on BT, I'd love for you to send me a PM. God bless you guys, stay safe out there.