Boulder Sunrise Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

First swim in a lake. The complete lack of visibility threw me off. Was pretty disoriented - hard time seeing through goggles (sun glare going out and goggles fogged. Did a lot of weaving. Rounding the turnaround I finally got a rhythm but still much weaving - was well out of the lane of swimmers. Made the mistake of trying to stand too early and swallowing a mouthful of water.
Given how much trouble I had I was surprised my swim time was this "good".

Need to practice sighting and get goggles that won't fog. Perhaps corrective goggles as my vision without glasses is pretty bad.

Terrible transition. Was not prepared for T1 at all. After getting suit off (took some time - had to sit down to get off heels), I out my shirt on, then my race belt. Then I tried to stuff a few gels into the back pockets of my shirt. Tore the bib number off! Had to find way to poke a new hole in bib. Used my running shoe lace tip, but took some time. Finally off with the bike, walked to start line and mounted bike old geezer method.

Better preparation and practice the wetsuit removal.
Practice mounting bike with shoes on pedals.

Used a mountain bike, so overall I was happy with my pace. 18 mph was faster than any training ride I had. But course was much flatter than Los Alamos training rides. Felt strong, without too much exertion. Being my first try I didn't want to burn everything here.

New bike. More effort in this leg.

didn't know any of the tricks. Pretty standard transition, no missteps, but could certainly practice this to shave some time.

Practice dismount without shoes.

I held back until the last 1/2 mile, which I ran in 7:50. I clearly had held back too much for the bike and run portion of the race.

Push harder from the start of the run. I was too concerned about burning out. Need to learn pacing for a triathlon.

Sit on beach for a few minutes. Go to hotel, shower, have lunch and get in the car for a 6 hr ride back home.


Inexperience. This was my first triathlon ever and pacing was very uncertain. Swim disoriented me and T1 was terrible.
Need to practice open water swimming (in lake), and transition, and pacing.
Overcoming swim problems was major breakthrough. For a while thought I would not make the swim. But took time to calm myself (breast stroke) and relax. Ability to overcome this was huge for me.

Also I have been sick (head cold with some lung congestion for about 2 weeks prior to race. Bad planning of work travel to Mexico interrupted race training 2 weeks prior to race.


Great race course. I will be back in a year