Festival of Flowers Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Well, another crappy swim is in the books. I would dearly like to know how long this course is. I always have my slowest swims of the year on it. I know it's long -- but by how much? Anyway, I've been holding pretty decent splits in the pool lately, and was certainly hoping for better than this. There was a decent amount of chop coming back in, but siting was fine, and I actually felt like I was moving through the water reasonably well. I kept the effort moderate but certainly wasn't loafing. I guess all I can really do is just keep swimming.


No idea, really. I guess swimming is just a mystery to me. One cannot expect to do well losing 5-6 minutes on the swim...

Tied for second fastest, so OK I guess. I could have done it faster, but paused for a short brain shutdown. I'm not sure what happened there, but for a moment I forgot what to do!

At the start of the ride, a horrible horrible embarrassing mounting fail. I used too big of a rubber band on the shoe and it wouldn't snap. I worried about this when I put it on (my usual rubber band had disintegrated in the bag), but stupidly convinced myself it was fine. Well, it wasn't and the rubber band ripped the shoe off the pedal. (Yeah, it was a big honking rubber band. Blush.) So I had to stop, grab the shoe, put it on, and go. Some guy said (nicely, not snidely) "I can give you a push". Um, no thanks. I think I have a little redemption to earn, here, and not being pushed is only the beginning.

Anyway, I had a shoe full of grass and mud and whatnot as a result, but it didn't really affect anything. Off I went. I passed a few people (faster swimmers from later waves) early on, then the rain came in earnest. I know that I give up several minutes on the swim to pretty much the rest of the open male athletes, so I didn't really expect to see any of them. I went through the middle of the open females around mile 10 and and a few non-open athletes, but no open males in site. But I felt like I was biking fairly well.

Around mile 18 or so (I didn't ride with a computer), at the big intersection in Ninety-Six, I saw a car approaching and apparently not slowing down, despite the flashing cop lights and the cop in a bright yellow vest signalling the driver to stop. Well, the driver slammed on her brakes at the last minute, but not before I had decided she wasn't stopping and I hit my brakes. The back wheel slid around and for a second or so I entertained the lovely thought that I was going to keep it upright, but gravity and momentum eventually did what they do, and down I went. It is actually fortunate that I was traveling pretty fast at that point -- it eases the impact, but still, I slid a good ways and really tore up my elbow and ankle. I stood up to berate the woman, saw her STILL talking on a cell phone after her seeing me (or not...) slide on the pavement in front of her just-stopped car, and was left speechless. I can just imagine what she was saying. "Oh my goodness, I just about killed someone!" Um, yeah, so maybe get off the f-ing phone now? Then the cop began to lace into her pretty hard. So I left it to him.

I tried to wipe the road out of my arm and lower leg and assessed the bike. The front derailleur was mangled but I was able to bend it so that the chain didn't rub much. The rear derailleur appeared functional, though I quickly learned that I was restricted to the middle rings, which was no big deal for the final part of this ride. So, off I went, and actually rode OK for the remainder of the bike leg. I must have had a gallon of adrenaline coursing through my veins. (Does adrenaline course through veins???) My stomach actually hurt at the end of the ride.

I probably should have left my personal info with the cop. Now I've got to figure out who this woman was and make her pay for my bike repairs. I'm sure that's going to be a barrel of laughs.

Two fastest guys went 28s. My 30s was third. So, under the circumstances, I'm going to say 'good'.

Short version: I felt awful for the first mile, then pretty good for a couple, then the ankle really started to hurt badly.

Out of transition, I was having a hard time getting into a rhythm. There was an open master's guy in front of me, and he really wasn't running that fast, but for some reason I couldn't catch him. Then after about a mile I started feeling good and turned it on. I passed him and a few others, and that good feeling lasted until mile 4 when my ankle was complaining pretty loudly. The legs were tired, but manageable, but I was beginning to have to alter my gait because of the ankle, and I know that's not good. I wasn't wearing a watch, so I'm not sure how much I slowed down at the end, but I felt it. Fortunately I was able to hold off anyone who might have been charging from behind (no one, as it turned out, but in my head, someone was...).

I didn't realize how bad the ankle was at first, but once I crossed the finish line I looked down and my shoe was soaked in blood. One guy looked at me and said 'dude, medical is that way'. I was more interested in going home. I cleaned it up, wrapped it tightly in an old shirt, and went home. The tight wrapping and drying it out eventually stopped the bleeding. I did go to the Doc-in-the-Box later and they cleaned it up properly and bandaged it. They said that stitches are not an option because the skin is abraded away -- so there's nothing to stitch.

I'm not particularly sore or tired after this race. I could't really leave it all out there today. That's probably a good thing in the end. Keep your eye on the target -- IMWI!

I did the best I could.

Even though I will probably never be successful at the Olympic distance, I like it and I'll keep doing it, both this race and others.