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 Swim
Comments: Ah, swimming. My old nemesis. This was a 1/2 mile swim as opposed the 1/4 I was used to for open water. It wasn't a huge deal, I figured. Well wouldn't you know it, the first 400M went terrific. The last 400 was... well, less than that. I was in a blue swim cap. For the first half of the swim, I was surrounded by blue swim caps. Then slowly I began to notice green.. then pink.. It didn't help that the landmark I picked to sight off of was less visible in the water once I got in there, so I ended up blindly following some guys into oblivion way outside the buoy. I'd like to say that since the last race my per 100m pace over 400m has improved significantly, but since my last half of the swim was so abysmally slow, it averaged out to be exactly what it was in the last race. Shoot. What would you do differently?: I really need to pick up my endurance training in the water. I'm going to be doing OWS training with P3 (a local coaching company) starting next week. I really need to get this swimming thing down. I'm going to be focusing on swim technique and endurance WAY more in the coming weeks leading up to my Olympic distance in August. It's my biggest limiter.  Transition 1
Comments: I came out of the water, got my wetsuit down to my waist, looked down at my "water resistant" watch and saw... a blank screen filled with water. Cheap piece of junk. Therefore I did the run leg without time reference. This was the first time I attempted a Swim-Bike transition with shoes on the bike. I'd been practicing in private over and over and over, and I had it pretty much down and I was at the point I was confident enough to try it in a race. One thing hit me right away: I had never attempted this after a 1/2 mile swim with my heart rate at race level and my adrenaline pumping. Despite this, I had a successful albeit somewhat wobbly and disoriented mount onto the bike. As per advice given to me, I chose to mount well beyond the mount line so that any incidents of that kind would not cause a dangerous situation for other riders. Additionally, the rubber band I chose to hold my left shoe up didn't break. to my surprise it simply stretched to accommodate the entire pedal cycle. I had to reach down and yank it off myself. What would you do differently?: Don't buy cheap stuff. It breaks. Don't buy extra stretchy rubber bands. They don't break.  Bike
Comments: I had a great bike leg. The course was mostly flat and there weren't a lot of sharp corners. I didn't have the skiddish-ness that accompanied my first race, and I was a lot more aggressive as far as passing people. There still seemed to be a lot of people blocking on the left, and bunched up into groups, and this was a little frustrating. Also I should note that this was my first race with my aero bars, and I feel like that made a significant difference in my time (that and the fact that this course was pretty flat. Maybe mostly that. SHH! Let me justify my purchase.) What would you do differently?: I feel like I could have pushed it a lot harder. Also, don't buy cheap stuff that breaks. Transition 2
Comments: Had a good T2. My bike dismount (shoes still on bike) was spot on. When I got back to my spot, someone had thrown a wetsuit on my stuff.. oh well, I just moved it slightly. Helmet off, shoes on, hat on, race number on, and I'm off. What would you do differently?: Be faster!  Run
Comments: Seemed really long for a 5K. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you could see the finish from the entire course and in your head you're thinking "that looks really far". I wish there were more aid stations (there was one at mile 1.5) but on such a great course I guess I don't have much right to complain. What would you do differently?: Run faster! Post race
Warm down: Medal, bagel, banana, water, Gatorade, stretch, almost pass out. In this order exactly. What limited your ability to perform faster: Swimming, swimming, and also swimming. I'm currently doing Lauren Jensen's swim faster training with Tri-Faster, which is excellent. P3 also has open water swimming sessions that I plan on attending. I will be a fast swimmer if it's the last thing I do!!!! Event comments: Turns out due to the fact that the two top overall finishers were in my age group, I ended up getting a 2nd place age grouper medal (actual place was 4th). Hardware! Due to Technicalities! I'll take it. Overall a great race, I had a great time Last updated: 2012-06-26 12:00 AM
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Overall Rank = 56/403
Age Group = 20-24
Age Group Rank = 2/4
I decided just to stay at home the night before this race, an hour away. Therefore, I was up at 3:00 AM after an unusually decent pre-race slumber on the couch under the air conditioning. Had 3mg of Melatonin (normally have 1.5mg on some occasions), which possibly contributed to the logistical challenge of getting from my couch to my bed. Luckily I had exactly 3 alarms distributed strategically throughout the house.
Rolled into the venue at about 4:40. My bike was already racked from the previous day so I just had to get back to my spot and get the rest of my gear set up. I spent a good amount of time memorizing my spot and tracing a path from the In/Out's to my gear.
My pre-race nutrition consisted of a PB&J upon waking, a bottle of Ensure 1 hour prior to race time, and a Hammer gel washed down with about 8 ounces of water 15 minutes before the gun.
None. From the looks of it there was about 10 minutes to get into and out of the water, my shoes were in transition, and I was more concerned about making it to the porta-john in time despite the miles-long line.