Swim
Comments: Unlike the last race, I tried to move myself closer to the front of the swim start so I wouldn't get stuck behind so many people and have to battle it out. This worked much better. I ended up getting beat up less at the start and found clean, open water much sooner. The wind was blowing pretty hard, so there were waves crashing over my head on the way out to the bouy, but I've swam in worse conditions. For some reason, I never seemed to get entirely away from people. I seemed to always have someone next to me, in front of me, touching my feet, etc. I must have gotten stuck in a group of swimmers going my exact speed and we stayed together for the entire swim. I got a massive, foot-deforming toe cramp on the first trip out to the buoy. Then, on the second lap, some guy swimming behind me basically punched me in the foot and jammed one of my toes so hard I thought he broke it. That was odd and I'm still trying to figure how that happened. Then he proceeded to swim over me. Apparently, I was the shortest distance between him and the buoy. What would you do differently?: Not much. Transition 1
Comments: Having the sleeveless wetsuit made transition much faster since I didn't have to battle getting the sleeves of my full suit over my elbows. Adam's and Matt's wetsuits were in a pile right in front of my transition stuff, so I kind of had to step on their suits while I was taking mine off. They were a little slippery and I almost fell over. Being dizzy and disoriented didn't help much either. I never feel completely THERE after a swim. I wore my race belt under my wetsuit so that made things quicker too. Grabbed my glasses and visor and started the run. What would you do differently?: It's hard getting your feet into running shoes when your feet are really really wet, so I had to fidget with the tounge of my shoes for a little while to get them straight and comfortable. Not sure what I can do about that except dry my feet, but that would take just as long and with water running down your legs from your soaking wet tri shorts, I doubt it would do any good anyway. Run
Comments: I've never felt so bad starting a run in my life. I felt like I couldn't move my legs and both calves were on the verge of cramping. It took about a mile for them to start feeling normal. When I saw the split for the first mile was around 9:17, I can't say I was surprised, but I was pretty disappointed. But I guess that's what happens when your legs won't move. Eventually things started to feel better, and focused more on my form and picked up the pace. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that I didn't want to kill myself because I have a tri on Sunday, so I'm sure that I held back some, which in my mind was fine. I'd rather perform better on Sunday than at some mid-week training race. What would you do differently?: Move my legs? Not feel like total crap going out on the run? Post race
Warm down: Walked around, drank water, ate some bananas, then hung out with the BT crew and drank alcoholic beverages. Event comments: These races are better organized and more on time than last year. Last updated: 2006-06-02 12:00 AM
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United States
Surf & Turf Aquathon USA
100F / 38C
Sunny
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Picked up my timing chip and race number, set up my transition spot.
15 minute run with some high knees and pickups. It was about 100 degrees, so my HR was way too high almost immediately. Put on the wetsuit and did about a 300 meter warmup in the water.