Black Diamond Triathlon - Long Course - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The warmest I have ever seen deep lake at. Nice not to freeze your, ahem, off when getting into this lake. Also the first year where the fog/rain did not obscure visibility. In fact it was a nice sunny morning.

Swim started off really well. Usual scrum stuff, but it lasted for most of the first lap. I took a pretty solid smack to the face turning the 4th buoy, which knocked my goggles loose. Took a bit to tread water and fix the goggles but got right back swimming. After rounding the 2nd to the last buoy I found somebody to draft off of and figured I'd practice my drafting skills (because they suck)

Good news, I managed to stay right on his feet for most of the rest of the swim. Bad news, I'm pretty sure he was going slower than I would have been just swimming on my own. I really need to fine tune this skill. My sense of speed is way off in the OWS. Hard time telling when I'm gaining speed by drafting or just taking it too easy.

Net result was probably my slowest, or second slowest swim ever. I know for a fact I started off well, but with the goggle adjustment and (I assume) slower overall speed in the draft my swim was poor. Annoying given I have cut ~:12 to:15 /100 from my 1k time in the pool this year.

Draft better, or more wisely. I could also have skipped the getting hit part. Didn't really hurt much, but adjusting your goggles in a swim lane isn't really much fun.

I just just wear my bike top under my wetsuit. Stupid to take time to put it on in transition

Speed up.

Grrr. Black Diamond strikes again. After the comedy of errors in last years Black Diamond 1/2, I was looking forward to revenge (particularly after my mechanical issue at Lk Stevens). Was having a good ride, staying at goal power etc., when I felt that unmistakable feeling of a rear tire ridding on the rim... As I pulled over the course marshal rode up on his motorcycle and said something to the effect of "this patch of road has been rough, I've seen so many flats already I'm out of spare tubes". By this point I had found the source of my flat - Carpet tacks embedded in the tire. In talking to the marshal, seeing 2 other riders flat in the same section, and talking to another at the finish it was pretty clear some joker spread tacks in the road the night before. I don't have time to think of something clever so I'll reserve space below to make a snide, smart assed comment about the person who spread these tacks later.



Got back up and moving after picking up all the crap that spilled out of my bento box when I turned the bike over to fix the tire - Only to stop again in about 100 yards to fill up with water.

Special note: I don't like the change in the water drop this year. I understand not wanting to clean up a mess over miles, but it seems that unless you were outright exchanging a bottle the expectation was to stop completely refill and then put the bottle back at the station (or hand to a volunteer). Takes too much time and makes the course unsafe as you have a bunch of cyclists pulling over and re-merging into the race. Just let us do the exchange as always.

Last lap was uneventful, no flats passing the same location, mostly I think because I practically rode on the other side of the street there.

What would you do differently?:

Not flat, and perhaps practice changing a flat under pressure more. I have no problems changing a flat, can work my CO2 etc, but for some reason at that moment I decided it would be easier to put the tube back on first and somehow then get the tire back over the rim. Tire first, tube second. I never do it the other way at the house, but for some reason decided at this moment to try it out. Doesn't work and cost me perhaps 30s - 1min.

Flat adjusted time was: 11 minutes faster, so I blew a ton of time here)

What can I say about this run. Other than it sucked. Everything in training, all my brick runs, and the first 5 miles of the actual run said my run plan/paces were achievable given my bike NP. In fact, I had to really pay attention for the first 5 miles to not blow my plan by running too hard. I felt great - up until you head up the only long hill in the whole race. By this time of day (was probably around 1:30 or so) there is no shade in this section, nor any at the top of the hill or in most of the last out and back at the end. By the time I hit the start of that out and back my HR was super high and I just felt like crap. I started to take walking breaks from this point on and it basically just slid down hill from here. Run a little, feel my HR hit the roof, walk, recover etc. Also started to feel a bit of an upset stomach towards the end, but I think most of that was self-pity fermenting in my stomach.

To top it off, for some reason I started to get major blisters on the ball of my foot and on one toe. I was definitely in pain by mile 9. This is weird because in ~3 years of running, much of it in the rain, snow and just plain crap weather. I have never, ever had a blister (with the one exception of on my Achilles during a 10 mile down pour. Perhaps all the teasing I give my wife about Enumclaw (who grew up in the area) is coming back as Karma :)

My excuse: For those that don't live here, the weather in the PNW is almost always in the 50's, even middle of summer the morning lows are in the 50's so 99.9% of my training, and 100% of my bricks are at that temp. I think this means that I'm a warm weather weenie (which is ironic when you consider where I grew up or went to college...) and when the sun was out I just couldn't stand it and overheated quickly. Why that doesn't seem to apply to anyone else that seemed to be flying by me, and presumably also live in the area, I don't know. But that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I should be more happy with myself, I still PR'd the race, even when you include the time stopped to change my flat, but I don't feel I executed like I could have in this race, or certainly at Lk Stevens. Feeling a bit deflated today about the whole season.

Not blow up

I would however like to thank the organizers for the much improved schwag and post race food. The tech shirt is something I'll actually use this year, and while I didn't exactly sit well after the bbq pork and free beer was a nice touch