Festival of Flowers Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I am generally one of the FOP swimmers in open water and wanted to avoid traffic created by slow swimmers. I made an effort to get in the water early and head to the front of the lines. As the gun went off I sprinted out about the first 200 yards to keep anyone from running over the back of me. After that I settled into a medium pace and looked for legs to follow. My plan worked perfectly as I don't remember even having the slightest contact at all on the swim. Even though I am a strong swimmer I consciously held back on this swim in order to save something for the bike and the run. In the end I may have held back too much but my bike and run were right where I wanted them to be. Once we hit the 500m turn bouy we headed left and around the peninsula. This is when I first noticed the storm really blowing in. The chop on the lake really picked up and made it difficult to swim. Again, I told myself to take it a little slower than normal and not press during this portion. The last 1000m were very rough as the storm was blowing in but I kept a steady pace and made sure to keep the hr low.

Looking back, this is probably where I could have pushed harder but I fear I would have blown up my run if I had pushed too hard. My last international I averaged about 10 seconds/100yds faster in similar conditions but I also blew up on that run.

short run up the boat ramp into transition. Got the cap and goggles off before hitting transition and since we were not wearing wetsuits the transitions were very fast. Threw on the helmet, shoes, and loaded up on a few gels in the back pocket. Grabbed the bike and was off for the ride.

I am not a very fast biker but I have been working on it a lot over the past 4-5 months. I also put new wheels and tires on the P2 Friday and this was my first race with anything other than the stocks. I am not sure how much of a difference they made but the mental surge was awesome!

The bike course is a pretty flat and fast course. There are rolling hills all the way but no real climbs. I only had to switch to the small chain ring twice the entire ride and those were for very short bursts. I also never found myself out of aero. I hammered down pretty hard but didn't explode the hr. I ate some Gu Chomps around mile 3 to give me some energy for the ride. Then, around mile 4 is when the rain opened up. While the course was pretty flat and fast, there were probably 3-4 hairpin turns. Combine that with the really wet conditions and my lack of experience on the new carbon wheels and I was extra cautious around these. I am sure I lost some time and momentum but I crashed last weekend and didn't want the same result. I think I was passed 4 or 5 times total on the bike and passed about the same number myself. I would consider this a really good bike for me since I was averaging about 18mph less than 5 months ago at race effort.

I really can't think of much I would do differently. My bike as really improved the last few months and I did about all I could do for this race.

I ran into t2 ready to bust out a quick transition. FAIL! I racked the bike and was ready to throw on the running shoes. I race with no socks but I failed to consider how much it had rained while I was riding. My feet were soaked and so were my running shoes. I went to throw on them on and my feet kept getting stuck on the sides of the shoes. I finally forced my feet in, grabbed a few more gels for the run, and headed out. As I crossed the run start line I realized I never grabbed my race belt. Back to my transition spot to grab the belt. I am sure I only lost 20 seconds or so total but it really made me mad to have to go backwards during the race

um, perhaps I would remember to grab my race number the first time!

I realized this is where I need to improve the most over the offseason. I ran all last fall/winter but it was in preparation for a marathon. There were a few speed and tempo workouts during this training but the concentration was a long run pace that I could maintain for hours. My normal z2-z3 run pace is a 9 min/mile. I had to tell myself to run my pace as I was getting passed by numerous people in the first mile or two. I knew if I tried to keep up I would burn out toward the end and I wanted to finish strong. I did a very good job of running my race and not letting anyone else dictate my pace. At the end my run pace was right where it should be for a race like this but I felt a little down seeing my run rank and knowing I left a lot of time out on the course during this portion.

I also discovered that HEED is not for me. They were serving this on the course and the taste of 1 cup instantly tore up my stomach. I had to settle for water and Gu which worked well.

Train this offseason to pick up the pace. As for this race, there is nothing more I could ask of myself.

Grabbed a soft drink and a sandwich. Walked around for a few minutes before heading back to transition and wringing out all of my things left there.


I think based on my current level of fitness this race went about as well as could be expected. I can see plenty of room for improvement but that is what keeps me motivated to do more races in the future.


The race course itself was very well marked and volunteers were enough to keep aid stations stocked but there were not so many that they got in the way of racers. My only real complaint was the finish area. There were very few volunteers at the finish line and no one to cheer for finishers other than the competitors that stuck around for lunch and awards. They also did not give out any kind of finishers swag. I know $75 for an international is not very expensive but I would have thought there would be more than a cotton t-shirt and some sandwiches for lunch. No beer, no medal, no finishers gear, etc.