USAT Age Group National Championships - TriathlonOlympic

I felt I swam just fine. I never paniced thanks to my Lake Erie training growing up. The waves didn't scare me. Sure it made the swim tougher, but what slowed me down the most was a) the start: I wanted the outside. Somehow I ended up in the middle of the 2nd row. Horrible placement. b) the rolling 4' waves made it very difficult to spot the orange bouys. The yellow color was much better to work with. c) the sun: As you turned to head back into the harbor, the sun was at such an angle you couldn't escape it. The rolling waves disoriented you. I looked up and saw 2 distinct courses of swimmers--to the left or to the right. I knew the picture of the course in my head. I went right and chose correctly. All I could follow was the kicking of someone to my right then I finally saw a guide bouy. Again, I was never scared, I just felt blind.

Go with my gut and go right instead of treading and trying to figure it out.

I finally remembered to put my bike in a good gear. Fortunately also, I was positioned right near the bike out so I didn't have to run with it so quickly after the swim.

Run faster through transition. I felt good coming out of the water remarkably, but I knew there were hills coming so I saved it.

Driving it made it seem worse than it was. At 3am I woke and was worried, maybe even paniced, about the hills. We don't have hills like that here. I trained on terrain similar the best I could. The wind was pushing me up the hill I believe. That was the direction it was coming from. Also, I thought I'd go much faster on the downhills than I did. I was tuned into my inner granny, too. I used it more than normal to be sure I brought my running legs to the game.

Overall, I played it smarter than normal for me. I grannied it, but I also pushed it when I found myself being lazy. I actully did better than I though I would on the bike.

Ride with a group during training. Find a free coach. Add rockets to my back for the bike. I need to figure this out!

Again, I think I resisted going faster because I didn't want to blow up. Thankfully, no one was around me for the dismount. It was a very narrow area--maybe 3 feet wide. Just a running paty, really.

Go faster.

I trained for that hill over and over again. I ran Carriage Rd for endurance and used the incline on the treadmill whenever I couldn't get outdoors. Always--first mile up then reduced the incline and sped up my runs. The training seemed to help. I felt great on this run. The hill even seemed shorter than I expected, but steeper. Since I bring my infinit, I just dumped water on me when I got the slightest bit hot. The temperature and breeze cooled me down instantly.

Push it. Although, I did feel myself slow down and corrected that behavior. I even picked up the speen in the last 2 miles, with my last mile being under 7 minutes. I felt great doing it, too! I need to realize that I should push my heart and muscles in racing and not let it go to status quo.

Saw Steve and kids near the finish but lost him for a little bit. Didn't really warm down since there were so many people and not much room. Spent time hearing Steve get phone calls from people telling him they saw my finish online!


Fear. Fear of losing my mojo on the run if I pushed it on the bike, or on the bike if I pushed it on the swim. I feel that I at least am wise to it now.

Other than that, the stinkin' BIKE!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, not the bike, but my biking ability!


This may have been the biggest race I have done. By far, the biggest competition in my age group. Rev3 only had 34 in my AG. This had 142! I knew I'd get crushed, but my goal (besides finishing) was to finish in the middle of my AG pack. That was accomplished -- Top 58% overall, top 38% female, top 45% AG. A mixed bag. I was pleased I qualified to attend and wanted to go for the experience. I can't complain about anything. This was the icing on the cake. The good Lord answered all my prayers again. I'll write more about this in my blog: www.tritritritri.blogspot.com