Giant Acorn International - TriathlonOlympic

In the weeks leading up to this event I had been swimming about 6500 yards per day so I knew the swim was not going to be too much of an issue. Of course none of the swimming I had been doing was in open water, it was all done in a pool. I hadn't done any open water swimming for about seven years so the waves were a big of a shock. Overall I was very pleased with my swim as I performed much better than I thought I would.

Also, I think I might have gone a little too hard on this section. As it was only my second triathlon and I STILL had done NO research into race technique whatsoever I had no idea what I was doing. Since swimming was my best event by far I naturally went balls to the wall.

I would definitely work on technique swimming at that distance. Most of the swimming I had done was short distance, high yardage type sets. I had only done one practice mile and that was in a pool. I feel like I really should have tried to work more on swimming at the actual distance that I was going to perform.

Up to this point I had still never practiced transitions. As such, I didn't really know what to do/how to make it faster. The pedals on my bike don't need shoes that clip on so I just wear my tennis shoes that I'm going to run in. This makes T2 faster but T1 much slower as I have to stop to put on socks and shoes before heading out.

I need to invest in some good biking shoes that clip on to the pedals of the bike. I've really been neglecting this fairly important aspect of the bike portion.

This bike was brutal for me. Most of the training I had been doing was on a flat course with little to no hills. The gears on my bike were not suited for serious hills (or perhaps it is user error!) so I struggled tremendously while I foolishly tried to keep up with all the people passing me (remember, I was third out of the water in my wave for the swim portion). I fried my legs during the bike portion of this race.

TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN! I had not biked NEARLY enough in preparation for this triathlon. Like my first, it was more of a spur of the moment sort of thing and I had signed up only a few days prior to the race. It was pretty clear during the bike that I needed to prepare before I took on another race at that distance. The sprint triathlon I had done prior was easier because it was shorter and I was able to muscle through it. The international distance really opened my eyes to the importance of proper preparation.

My legs were absolute jelly and I knew that the second I got off the bike. I struggled to run my bike in to my rack and was fairly slow to get going back out of transition.

Again, it's all about training. I'd never practiced the transitions before and I'm sure with more bike practice this would have been a much easier transition.

The run was abysmal; there is no other way to describe it. My legs were absolute jelly from the bike and there was little if anything left for the run. I was purely in survival mode at this point. The only highlight of this run that I can claim is the fact that I ran (albeit trotted at points) the entire time -- no walking!

TRAIN! I'm finding a pattern here. I did not run enough in preparation for this race. I only ran immediately after biking ONCE! TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN!

I hobbled over to the food stand in my post-race stupor. I felt like I was on the brink of passing out for about 10-15 minutes. As a result I did not get in an actual warm down.


TRAINING! I don't even need to explain that one anymore.


This event was very well organized. I just wish I had trained more!