Island Lake Triathlon, Spring - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

For some reason my race chip did not give any split times or transition times. I checked my watch when I came out of the water.

I picked my pace right from the start, and just tried to stay comfortable. I kept my form strong the whole time. Usually when I'm training and I start to get tired I don't rotate my body and I can feel it in my shoulders. This never happened.

It got a little crowded on my second lap since it was a wave start and the later waves were coming in, but it was okay. I had to change course a few times to get around people who looked like they were just learning to swim.

On a funny note, I capsized one of the race volunteers in a kayak. For some reason they were in the middle of the course, not off to the side. I was swimming along and my head clunked something. I looked up to see the bottom of a kayak rolling away from me with feet going over with it. Oops.

Nothing. I swam at a good pace, did a pretty good job of sighting, and didn't get too tangled up with the other swimmers.

I thought this went well for my first transition. I got the wetsuit off easily, and put on my socks and bike shoes, then glasses and helmet. I stuck 2 gels in my shirt pockets. I wore my shirt under my wetsuit, which definitely saved me some time.

This time includes both T1 and T2 since my chip didn't work right. According to my bike, I was averaging over 17mph the whole race, which is really good for me.

The course was on the roads in the park, so there were cars occasionally, but it wasn't bad. It was mostly flat or low rolling hills. I would drop to about 14mph on the uphills, and get into the upper 20s on the downhills.

It started raining less than halfway through, and rained pretty hard for awhile during my second lap. There was a lot of spray from other bikes. About 2 miles into lap 2, my legs started to get really heavy. I had been drinking some Gatorade about every 8 minutes. At this point, I took a gel and switched to water. I think that helped. I was definitely running out of gas towards the end. My legs gave everything they had.

The crowd really thinned out on lap 2, and most of the people out there were passing me. I just tried to keep my average at 17, which I did. The rain stopped just before I finished the bike. I kept my hands on the drop bars for almost the whole race. I moved up to the brake hoods on the hill climbs. My feet were so wet I could hear my toes squishing on every downstroke.

I feel like I gave 100% on the bike, and didn't make any mistakes.

I racked my bike, hung my helmet and glasses, and took off my shoes and socks. It had been raining for awhile, and my hands were really cold. I had a hard time tying my shoes. I was glad that I had brought an extra pair of socks, and they were under a plastic bag with my shoes.

The course started with a hill, which my legs did not appreciate. They were tired from the bike, and for the first half mile or so, I felt like the might cramp up, but they got into their rhythm and felt fine. My shoe came untied since my frozen fingers hadn't been able to tie them right, so I had to stop for a few seconds and re-tie it.

I settled into my usual 10-minute pace, which I was able to maintain for the first couple miles, then I slowed to about 10:30 for mile 3 and 11 for mile 4. I thought I'd try to pick up the pace a little, but my legs said no.

I had a sip of water twice, and worked very hard on slow deep breathing. The last couple miles were totally mental. My legs were spent. Fortunately, the hills on the course were very gradual, with the exception of the one at the start of each lap. The last third of each lap was on grass, which had not become slick or muddy from all the rain.

I worked the whole time on my breathing, and keeping my upper body relaxed and in good form. I normally train at about 10 minute miles, so this was a little off my pace, but I'm still happy with my time.

Nothing. My form was good, and my breathing was good.

I drank some water and ate a turkey wrap, then sat down and stretched out my hamstrings.


I'm happy with my performance for my first triathlon. Obviously, more training would result in faster times, but I trained 6 days a week for 5 months for this race, and considering that 6 months ago I couldn't swim 100 yards, and a year ago I ran my first 5K, I think that my finish time is great.


There were lots of volunteers to make sure that no one got off course, and to direct traffic since bikes were sharing the road with cars. They even had a drink station at mile 5 on the bike course. The run course had 2 drink stations for sprint, 4 for oly.

The pre-race meetings were clear and informative, and the course was well-marked from start to finish.