Bluff Creek Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

My problems with the swim started before I even began. I had put Body Glide on the back of my neck to protect the skin from the back of the wetsuit. With less than a minute before the start of my swim wave I began to fidget and get excited. I could see the waves that were being whipped up by the wind and gusts and I was feeling ready to tackle it. I rubbed the back of my neck to relax the muscles and without thinking took off my goggles to do a not-so-needed readjustment. In the process I managed to smear the inside of the lens with the Body Glide that had transferred on to my finger. I put the goggles back on and realized my mistake. I had almost no clear vision out of the right lens, it all looked like a strange blur, my left lens hand managed to get some grit blown into it making it almost equally as blurry.

Before I could even so much as take a step towards the water to clean the lenses the starting horn went off. I had positioned myself in such a way that I had most of the women in front of me with two or three women on each side. I had planned on using them as human breakers to keep the waves at bay. Being that I never swam in such conditions I wanted as much as an advantage as I could get.

Before I hit a quarter miles water had gotten into the left side with the grit making that side even more blurry then the right side. By now I was swimming in a desperate attempt to keep up with the back. I found myself swimming blind; I could not even see the swimming caps just a few feet in front of me. I kept on slowing down and tried to keep myself on course. In almost no time at all I was swimming alone and off course. I called out to the volunteers in the canoe who were at my side in no time. I told them of my situation as I attempted to clean my goggles.

Now that was an adventure all in itself. The volunteers had tossed me a lifeguard red floatation device and I looped my left arm over it and gapped a hold of the canoe with my left. While attempting to stabilize my body against the waves with the right hand I looped my left hand under the flotation device and managed to get my goggles off and cleaned. I tried to get them to dry quickly by waving them in the air in front of me while no tipping the canoe and dunking the very helpful volunteers. I finally got them dry and back in place and got the seal checked before I handed back the floatation device.

By this time the pack was so far ahead of me all I could see was the occasional arm movements of the last few women. So I took off in hopes of catching up to them. That hope was soon dashed as I was pounded by wave after wave. Having never experienced this I was in totally new territory, the only good thing was that I continued to have clear vision. The waves were coming up behind me by now cresting and striking me on the small of my back. With each wave I could feel my hips being pushed down and shifted, but the worse was yet to come.

I finally caught up to a male swimmer that was having an even worse time than I was. I passed him and saw the first red buoy bobbing off in the distance. My shoulders ached from trying to keep myself above the water and in alignment with the course. A wave struck me hard driving my head down into the water and without thinking I put my hand up to my face to protect myself from the following wave but in the process I managed to knock off my nose clips.

Now it’s important to understand that I’ve only been swimming since January 2011 and I mostly taught myself and I’ve only done one swim, my first, without nose clips. I found myself in new conditions. I no longer was able to swim three strokes, take a breath, site, and repeat. Now I could only take two strokes while holding my breath, roll to my side, forcefully exhale, inhale while rolling up to my belly wile arching my back to clear my mouth and chin and cite before I rolled back down into the water to repeat the process. Then end result was my upper body going in circles and my body moving at a less than speedy pace.

I finally reached the first bouy and rounded it with no problems. As soon as I left the protection of the buoy I was pounded by waves that now struck me from the side with a fierceness that was totally unexpected. The first one hit me with so much force and was so unexpected that I was completely submerged and left my coming to the surface struggling to breathe and get my bearings. The second wave did the same thing but this time I got a nose full of dirty lake water. That water of course flowed down the back of my nose, down my throat and strait into my belly. I finally got my torso up over the waves and promptly puked all over.
Now puking on dry land is bad enough but now I had nothing to hold onto, no solid footing, and was hit was wave after wave in an endless procession. Before I knew it I was surrounded by support volunteers, I was so glad to see them. If I wanted to I could have simply stretched out my finger to touch one of the canoes. After I reassured them that I was fine I took off again; wave after wave continued to assault my body.

I could feel each wave hit shifting my lower body off to the side as I struggled to keep my upper body strait and swing my lower body back into position. I must of looked like a fish the way my lower body was moving from side to side in my desperate attempt to not only keep my head above water but also keep going in the correct forward motion.

I finally saw the next turn buoy and after making that turn I was faced by yet another challenge: now the waves where hitting me head on. The waves where just the right height that they hit me square in the face. Now I’m not exactly a tall person and there’s only so much I can arch my back in the water to clear my face from the waves to breathe. Face full after face full of water hit me as I continued to attempt to swim. Before long I puked again, as I came up from being pounded by yet another wave I knew I was in trouble, really in trouble. I had three canoes all within less than arms reach of me. They were all asking me if I was okay and if I needed help. One helpful lady kept her paddle within just a few inches of me. I knew that they would only be doing this if I looked like I was truly in trouble and in actually in danger. I stopped, rolled onto my back while attempting to collect my thoughts.

I sent a lot of time swimming sitting off of a canoe that stayed by my side, a few feet away. I am convinced that it is because of them that I was able to actually finish. They yelled encouragements at me with each breath, each wave that pounded me, each hard earned stroke of the arm and thrust of the hips and ribs.

Finally got going again and encountered the same guy I had passed about a half mile back. He too had stopped to attempt to side and managed to get turned around by the wave and his goggles were foggy. Soon he was swimming backwards on the course with the volunteers hollering at him to turn around. He attempted to turn by only made it a part turn and started to swim through the course. Meanwhile I continued to swim and soon noticed that I could see the moving arms of the pack of women in the not so distance space of water. Sadly another episode of puking stopped me and when I finally got going again the women were again just an occasional flash of an arm.

By time I finally got to the last buoy I was physically and mentally spent. At the last 50 yards I could barley move forward and I finally ended my swim by being pulled out of the water.


As far as doing things differently I think that more time in the lake and less time in the pool will help. That will help me deal with sighting, dealing with waves, and losing swim equipment mid swim.

As I was pulled out of the water I was dizzy, had sever nausea, my entire world seemed to be spinning. Even with my goggles off the edged of my vision was blurry, I could barley keep up on my feet as I stumbled up the long path to my bike. All this time I was moving towards my bike I was gagging and heaving up even more lake water. I felt so weak that it again crossed my mind to call the race and accept my first DNF.

By the time I managed to get to my bike my stomach had somewhat calmed down and my world has slowed down in the Tilt-A-World that I did not want to be on. I struggled out of my wetsuit and chatted with a lady who left the water a minute or so before me. I could hear the course announcer call the name of the first Sprint course finishers; I know I was in the water for a long time, too long for my comfort.

Helmet on, socks on, shoes on and strapped tight, gel being eaten while lifting my bike off the rack. My head was still spinning from the swim so no running with the bike for me. Instead I sucked down my gel and made my way to the transition exit. Quickly mounted my bike and I was off.


The only thing I can think of doing differently would be not to be pulled out of the water and not feel so dizzy and nauseated.

By the time I finally got out of transition and on the bike course I was the second to last person out. The weather had not changed any; it was still overcast, windy with gusts and cold. When originally setting up my area I had opted to leave my cold weather riding gear in the car thinking that by time I got on the bike the weather would clear up. I was so wrong on that one. I was getting blown all over the place and had trouble holding my line.

I managed to pass one woman right out of the gates, which was a slight boost to my self esteem. As I looked at the faces of those coming in from the course the look of being tired was rampant. As I pedaled the first part of the course I had a stiff wind coming in from my left side blowing me towards the ditch. We were on mostly flat farm land so there was nothing to slow the wind down or protect us from the dirt of the fields flanking both sides of the road. Several times the gusts were so strong that I felt my entire bike being moved towards the ditch often within an inch or two of clearance before I went off road.

As I approached the first turn I noticed two ambulances with their lights on. I later learned that there was a bad accident involving two of the athletes. The first athlete was putting her water bottle back in its cage when a large gust of wind blew her right into another athlete. The resulting collision produced significant injuries on both women and neither of them where physically able to complete the course.

As I approached the top of the valley I could not help but notice how tired the rides looked who just came out of the valley. I’ve been working on hills in my training over what I thought would be steep enough hills to prepare me, I could not have been more wrong. As I started the decent I noticed how fast I was going at the same time I continued to be blown around, this time the wind was coming from more of a frontal and right direction. I looked down at my bike computer and noticed that it was not working. Great, I thought, just bought the thing a few months ago and its already broken and it is suppose to be close to the top of the line. It read that I was traveling at 4 mph and had already cleared 68.5 miles. I glanced down at the road and noticed that I could not even see the specks on the road or the small cracks, it was all just a blur as I heard the while of the tires while I zipped down the hill.

At the bottom of the hill all I was able to hear is the wind rushing by me as the road flattened out. A short ride over a bridge and round a curve in the road and I came face to face with the hill getting out of the valley. The first quarter up went okay, I could feel the steepness of the hill but I was able to use my gears to help with that. At the halfway point my legs were screaming four letter words at me with every pedal stroke. It seemed like the hill would never end, I could feel my bike tipping backwards with the hill and it crossed my mind that my bike might actually flip on its back wheel if the hill got any stiffer. At the top of the hill I was winded like no other and my legs felt like jelly with no power left in them. The bike that I had seen ahead of me was now out of site several miles down the road.

As I tried to recover from climb I attempted to take a drink from my aero bottle which resulted in me coughing and gagging. I got the nasty taste of lake water that much have still been lingering in my gut. I knew I had to drink but just the thought of tasting that awful lake water. By now I had managed to reach the third turn and was now on the last part of the U shaped course before the turn around. It was uneventful except now I was fighting against a full and stiff head wind with the by now familiar wind gusts. Despite all the effort I thought I was putting into turning the cranks I didn’t seem to be moving very fast. Of course I couldn’t just look at my computer to tell me, which only served to upset me even more.

Finally reached the turn around and came near to colliding with a deputy as the wind took my front tire and blew me slightly off course. After a quick yelled apology I was back on course. As I approached water station I was able to slow down enough to grab the water bottle from the volunteer as I rolled past, slip it in my spare cage and take off. What I found impressive is that I managed to do the sequence without falling off my bike or being blown off. It proved to be really the only thing that went smoothly on the entire bike route.

The ride back was much of the same. The tailwind I was so looking forward to never came. I thought for sure with all the head wind and side wind that I encountered I was due to be rewarded with a stiff tailwind that would blow me along the course allowing me to save energy; sadly that wind never came. It seemed like no matter which direction I was traveling I always had to fight the wind, and the gusts were no better.

After making my fourth turn I now had to deal with the wind blowing me across the road. It is important to remember that these roads are still open to traffic and only the intersections that we turned at were protected. On several occasions a gust of wind would come and before I knew it my wheels were taken out from under me and I found myself crossing two lanes of traffic and facing on coming cars. And to make matters worse the traffic behind me had no way of knowing which gusts were going to blow me across the road and which one’s I could control.

I was able to pass another person on the bike; he made three people that I’ve managed to pass. A mile down the road or so I was taking break from pedaling and was coasting alone when he passed me. We spent the rest of the course doing a leap frog game with each other. I didn’t know it at the time but he was the swimmer that had gotten turned around in the water and was swimming backwards on the course.

The decent into the valley was just as never racking as the first time and the climb up was just as hard and long I had remembered it to be. My legs continued to scream every four letter word in the books at me with each pedal crank. When I finally made it out of the valley I caught up with the other athlete and made a quick pass only to be passed by him again just minutes before turning back into the park. We stayed in this position as we rolled into position. I was just a few feet from his back tire as we dismounted and entered Transition Two.


I think that some steeper hill training is in order for me. Other than that I think I did as well as can be expected. The wind was a killer but being so late in getting out of the water really ruined any hopes of placing in my division. I was just too far behind on the bike.

T2 was no fun either. As I was jogging with my bike back to my spot I managed to bang my ankle on the metal edge of my SPD clip, the ensuing pain was enough to make me stop in the middle of the aisle and make sure I did not lay my ankle open. After making sure I was not bleeding I got my bike racked, helmet off, SPD shoes off. Running shoes on, race belt with number turned around and grabbed my last packet of gel on the way out.

Nothing

As I cleared the timing mat I thought I put my gel in my back pocket, I had intended on eating it as I approached the first water station. When I signed up for this race a few months ago it was noted on the website that the course was two loops on paved roads with a small section being “off road”. The pictures showed athletes approaching and crossing the finish line on grass, I was not prepared for what awaited me. After clearing a small field the course went though some woods with a grassy path cut through with just enough space for one person to run. Of course the path was not smooth, I had to keep in mind the tree branches and tree roots that lay on the ground. After getting up and over the first hill I now faced a short run on a service road which was just a rocky path with some larger rocks in the way.

Finally got to the paved road but for some reason I just could not get my legs in gear. Normally right off the bike it takes my legs a mile or so to get to working but when I approached Mile 2 my legs still felt tight and stiff. Try as I might I could not seem to take the long and flowing steps that I trained myself to do. Instead I was left with short, choppy and painful steps. I reached into my back pocket I was surprised with the finding that my gel had fallen out. My energy that I needed to strongly finish this was gone. Rest of the race was done on what little fuel I had left in my body.

At mile three I simply had no more steam left in me. My short running strides resulted in painful chin splits, my mental energy was completely gone. I simply felt like I had nothing else to give. In short I was miserable. Of course after a terrible swim, a cold and windy bike ride and a painful first three miles on the run the sun finally decides to show itself and the wind dies down. At this time I proceeded to tell the weather exactly what I thought about that nasty trick.

I spent the last three miles doing a walk/run rotation all the while continuing to play leap frog with the guy from the swim and bike. With less than a mile to go I pulled ahead and crossed the finish line the last female and third to last overall.


I think overall I did as well as I could have. If I did do anything different I think I would have spent more time running and less time walking hopefully to increase my placement in the pack.

Not much for post race activities. I was handed a half filled water bottle and met my son and friend at the end of the finish line. They were having a raffle of tri related gear, I managed to win a wetsuit bag! Think that was the only positive thing post bike ride.

There was no shower facilities so I had to ride to Des Moines for about an hour in my tri suit. Did manage to remember to put on my compression socks before we took off.



I think that if my swim had gone better I would have had an overall better race. So not having enough practice in open water with waves and not enough practice on steep hills on the bike limited me.


Will not be back next year.