Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

My first few hundred meters were horrible.... probably because I don't have a lot of experience with open water mass starts. (Even though it was a wave start the M4044 age group had about 230... more than my last whole triathlon.) After that, I settled into a rhythm, but still had people swim into me (and I swam into others).

I was hoping for a 32:00 swim time, but overall I'm satisfied with 33:08. I probably needed to practice open-water swimming more.

I screwed up the wet-suit drill by forgetting to un-zip the leg zippers. I got one opened, but the other was so tangled on the race chip that I had to force it off even though it was zipped. It cost me some time.

Remember to unzip the wet suit legs.

It was a pretty good effort. I may have been able to go a little faster, but since this was my first Olympic distance, I didn't want to over-do it and ruin the run. I lost a few seconds when my chain came off the front ring because I waited too long to shift when climbing a hill at 11.9 miles.

Be more careful with shifting. Probably shoot for average HR of closer to 145 and maintain above 20 mph.

A better transition. No real complaints.

Not too much. I could probably shave a few seconds with more practice.

I had cramps throughout the whole run. If I didn't, I certainly would have gone faster, but overall I am satisfied I was able to keep it under an 8:00 pace.

Focus on pre-race nutrition. I wouldn't have had the 23g Protein PowerBar, but should have had a banana or two instead. I think that, and more pre-race hydration would have been a better combination of fuel and cramp-prevention.

Not much. I found my dad and son, who were waiting for me, and immediately bolted for transition and the car. My cramps had not quite abated, so I didn't feel like eating anything.


Pre-race nutrition.


Great race... I plan to do it again next year. The ONLY complaints I have is the shuttle from the Sheraton hotel to the park did not seem very organized. Also, and this is a big complaint, the race timing did not include rankings for the different events. When I did a MTS event last year, I could see how my swim, bike, run and transitions compared against the other runners overall. I would have liked to see how my swim and transitions compared to others overall, within my gender and within my division.