Boilerman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Didn't get a warmup swim in, but still felt loose, pumped, and ready to go. The water wasn't quite as cold as I expected when stepping into it, but it still definitely took a little of my breath away when I dove in. I wore double swim caps to keep my head warm. I took off from the back thinking that I wasn't going to be one of the top swimmers and just wanted to survive the swim without completely draining my body. It took a good 20-30 strokes to get used to the cold water and get into a rhythm, but still came up into breast stroke a few times to sight and maintain composure. I ran in to a few people here and there in the first 2-300 meters, but it wasn't too bad at the start. I made a good turn around the first buoy and finally got into a good rhythm. I was in the second wave, and felt like I was already catching and passing people from the first wave. I had a lot of problems with running in to people (one literally), but kept on swimming. I felt like I was maintaining a fairly straight swimming path, trying to use the sun as a reference, but it was out of the corner of my eye, so it wasn't a great reference. I'm sure I still swam a little zig-zag. After rounding the last buoy, there was only ~100-150 meters left. I wanted to relax to make sure I wasn't disoriented while trying to remove my wetsuit. I reached out nice and long and passed even more people on the home stretch. I was really surprised with how many people I was passing during the swim. The swim was most definitely short, and I'm guessing it was about 1100 meters. Kind of a shame that it was so short, but since swimming is my weakest discipline, it probably helped me out. There was a nice long run up from the shore to the transition area. One really nice thing is that we finished in an area that didn't appear to have a beach, so the bottom surface came up very steeply and didn't require running through the water for more than 1 or 2 steps.

I'm sure I could have been a little more aggresive and swam a little harder. I may not have chosen the best lines to swim either.

Getting the wetsuit off went better than practice, but still could use some improvement. This T1 was probably a little slow for my standards, but I was mentally trying to decide if I wanted any extra layers on the bike. I was feeling plenty warm with the sun hittin us now, and decided to only go with a cap under my helmet to help block some wind off the scalp.

Need to practice the wetsuit removal a little more and stay mentally focused.

Overall a good bike leg. Took off and had a good flying mount. I forgot that the water bottle in the rear cage creates problems, so I hit it with my thigh, but didn't knock it out and still got on the bike just fine. I got up to speed easily and quickly since it started downhill. I hit 28 mph easily before I even got my feet in my shoes. I got into the shoes quickly and was ready to go before I hit the first incline. I only got two straps tightened on each shoe, but it was plenty because I didn't even notice they weren't strapped. I felt really good on the way out and felt like the pace was moving along very easily, so I assumed I had a little bit of a tail wind. When we turned south, I was really booking. The road was VERY smooth, flat, and we had a tailwind. I was pushing high 20's during the entire stretch, which I think was at least 4-5 miles. We headed east again and began the lollipop portion of the ride. When we turned towards the north, the headwind became problematic, but it was a little off to the side, so not as bad as it could have been. I kept moving at a decent pace and kept passing people left and right. After heading back west, I had one person just barely pass me, so I picked up the pace a bit and stayed with him. We turned due north, straight into the wind and I felt like I was gaining on him, so I kept pushing and overtook him for a little bit. It motivated him to come back at me and after he passed me, I couldn't quite hang with him. I kept him in my sights for the remainder of the ride and almost caught back up by the time we hit the dismount line. I had a perfect dismount and pushed up the hill into the transition.

On the ride, I consumed a CLIF bar and a CLIF shot (gel). The CLIF shot was Chocolate Cherry... I'm sure it was an alright flavor, but chocolate in the middle of a workout is NOT a good taste to have in the mouth. I also had a bottle full of concentrated gatorade and I downed at least 90%. On top of the Gatorade, I took in about 44 oz of water, which was just about right. I really felt like the nutrition was spot on for this event. I'm going to have to look into doing gel packs next year for anything Olympic distance and longer.

Can't say much here other than possibly pushing just a touch harder. However, if I had pushed harder, I might not have had such a good run.

The transition was setup as 3 columns of racks. I knew I was in the 3rd row upon re-entering, but I forgot that I was one column over. I also didn't do a walk-through before hand, so I hadn't really focused on it. When I came in off the bike, I was frantically looking for my towel, not realizing that I was off a bit. It only wasted 5-10 seconds, but those are free seconds all because of a DA attack and I know I can do better. Racking the bike and getting the shoes on went smoothly, but again, not my best transition. I also was confused about which direction to run out. I knew where we were going after we ran out, but you actually have to run out the opposite end of the transition and run around. This, again, was my own mental and lack of preparation mistake. Should have easily been 15-20 seconds faster.

I just need to focus and push myself instead of trying to relax in transition. Again, I need to do a better pre-race walk through.

I took off on the run and really felt great, right from the get-go. I strided out down the hill and pushed what I thought I could the first couple miles. I was starting to have some borderline cramping in my quads. I ran through it and didn't really have any major issues. When I hit the first split at 6:05, I knew I was doing well and just hoped I could hold on to that pace. I relaxed mentally a little bit on the second mile and probably tensed up in the upper body which slowed my pace. I took a small bit of water every couple miles, but didn't really want it sloshing around in my stomach, and I was really quite comfortable as far as the heat goes. After mile 2, I picked the pace back up just a bit and tried to focus on pushing just a little bit harder since my muscles were feeling so good. In transition, I must have passed the guy who passed me on the bike, because he passed me with authority about 1-2 miles into the run. He was moving quite a bit faster pace than I was. I tried to pick it up and go with him, but didn't feel like I would have been able to hold that pace, so he pulled away from me. At the turn around, I saw him again, and he wasn't all that far in front of me, but I still didn't think I'd catch him. After 4 miles on the concrete, we circled back around to transition, past it, and began a loop around the lake.

I charged up the hill and I think running past the crowd helped motivate me a little. The run around the lake was a little challenging with some tall grass and very uneven surfaces. The beginning was a nice long slope downhill and high-stepping it through this section picked up my pace. My 5th mile came in under 6 minutes and it really felt good too. After about 1/2 mile, the "path" became packed gravel and it was much more enjoyable to run on than the tall grass. The last 1/4 mile or so came back to tall grass and a nice long gradual slope up-hill to the finish line. With a little more than 1/4 mile to go, I could see I was closing in on the guy that I battled with on the bike. This was some excellent motivation because I reeled him in and passed him just after the last corner on the home stretch. With about 100 meters to go, I felt myself letting off just a bit, but I thought I heard someone coming up behind me, so I cranked it back up and pushed all the way to the line. After finishing, I turned around, but there wasn't anyone close to me! Maybe I was hearing my own footsteps at that point.

Just like on the bike, I was passing people on the run left and right. I think just a couple people passed me on the run, and they were collegiate level, so no worries there, because I was already 3 minutes ahead of them at that point. This has been my best triathlon run ever, and I felt the best afterward too! I would rate this run better than any sprint distance run I've had as well. If only they could at least all FEEL this good! I know I didn't slow down much, if at all on the last mile, so based on my splits, I'm pretty certain the run was a little more than 10k.

SPLITS: 6:05, 6:15, 6:13, 6:11, 5:57, 8:17 (6:50 pace???)

Again, not much I could do differently other than maybe focus and push a little harder through miles 2-4. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

Other than being tired (duh), I really didn't feel all that badly after this race. My leg muscles were actually feeling pretty good. It was really nice to have such a great performance, AND not feel like crap afterwards this year! I got some water and some pizza while walking around and chatting for a while. Hit the port-a-pots at some point in there too. Mike Mosier went on a cooldown run with me. We ran out about 4-5 minutes and back at a nice, leisurely pace. Distance was probably around 1 mile. I had a little more to eat and stuck around for the awards. I rode my bike back to the car and tried to keep a high cadence to get the legs moving get some lactic acid out. I stretched just a little from the waist down when I got back to the car and called it good. I really felt pretty good.


Being sick for a week+ and continuing to recover for 2 months certainly didn't help my "ability to perform faster". I wasn't quite as focused during this race which I'm sure cost me a little time here and there, especially in transition.


Some people complained about a lack of organization, but I think it was run fairly well. They ran out of swim caps which isn't a big deal for me since I took a few extra swim caps with me, but honestly, who runs out of swim caps?? I think the volunteers did an excellent job of instructing/directing during the race and provided lots of positive comments at each turn.