Pinehurst International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Swim felt exactly like my open water training swims. I didn't push any harder than I did in training since this was my first open water swim in a race. The group start was invigorating but rowdy. I drifted far right and probably swam considerably longer than the required distance. Part of this was bad navigation and mediocre goggles and part was a natural tendency to drift to the right.

Need to work on my sighting and navigation as well as pushing harder in the water. I have't spent much time working in HR Zone 3 or 4 on a swim, something I can probably correct pretty easily in the pool

Terrible transitions overall with T1 rank in the bottom 3 of age group. I didn't put any focus on quick transitions but didn't think it would hurt much. WRONG. Probably dropped 10-15 places overall due to poor transition times. Messing around with my Garmin contributed to the bad transitions as well.

Practice transitions in training

I went out pretty hard on the bike right from the beginning, with my HR about 10-12 BPM higher than my target. I was a bit worried that I was pushing too hard and would suffer on the run, but I felt great and kept pushing anyway. Given my performance on hills in Velo4Yellow, a 60 mile group ride 2 months ago, I was VERY happy with my performance here. I tackled hills in training with gusto and dropped about 7 pounds due to optimal (vegan) nutrition. I've had dramatic improvements in my strength to weight ratio and it paid dividends BIG TIME. It was SOOOOooo satisfying reeling in all the 180-200 guys on the hills, then bombing down the other side leaving them in the dust.

I had a Vega bar during the ride and stayed hydrated, drinking two bottles of water. About 3 miles from the end I ate a gel and finished my second bottle of water. I paid for that on the run with cramps and a sloshy gut.

Eat a gel for the run 5-6 miles out or don't drink so much water

Transition again was pretty bad. Had to reset my Garmin to "Running" instead of "Biking". Maybe I'll get one of those nice multi-sport models in the future

Practice transtions

The run was HARD. I knew it would be from the few bricks I did in training, but the hills were punishing. My pace (from my Garmin) was so erratic that I just stopped looking and kept my HR redlined instead. I am used to running in Zone 4+ so I just put my head down and got it done. I wanted to walk countless times, but just kept moving. However, I did walk through 2 aid stations. I only took one sip of water at each aid station and poured the rest on my head because the cramps were pretty bad. I feel like I went into the run with too much water in my gut, but ended the event very dehydrated.

Given running is the only event I have ever done formally before, with a 10K PR of 58:56, I was elated when I found out I blew my former 10K PR away by over 6 and half minutes. Not too shabby training only twice weekly

Stop drinking earlier on the bike and drink more on the run

Didn't leave much on the course and just wanted to lay down in a hammock somewhere. Drank some coconut water and felt better. However, started to blackout at the transition area when I stood up quickly after packing up my stuff.


I guess I could have trained more, but family and work life would have suffered.


I am extremely happy with my performance. This was my second tri, with the first being a neighborhood sprint that I did on a whim with no training.