Athens Triathlon - Triathlon

Lap pool swimming so nothing new. Set people off about every 20 seconds. No buildup on the turn arounds

PR for the 300m distance, so not much.

Weak transition. I didn't practice and it showed. Need to practice the flying leap. Given this was a warmup even I didn't think it was needed.

More T1 practice

Solid pace effort trying to hold it at just between training pace and low race pace. Definately felt I could have gone out harder, but not sure how it would have impacted the run. Rough riding definetely impacted the first 3 / last 3 miles.

Very little. Running deep wheels with this wind was managable, but a little touchy once you peaked at 35 mph running down the large hill at the end of the turnaround.

Left my flat kit in my back pocket so needed to turn back to return it. Lost a shoe off the bike as well. Need to be able to keep the shoes on the bike. These two items probably cost me 20 seconds.

More T2 practice.

Overall, run went well and felt strong for the effort despite the missteps on running the wrong way for 2th of a mile before correcting the issue. Garmin indicated a 7:10/mile average, which is about 10s/mile off my standalone pace.

Review the course. Not well marked with nobody to guide (there were people they just didn't know the direction)

Three items need improvement (2 for me / 1 for race)
1. Improve T1/T2. Based on missteps, I would estimate I lost 25-30 seconds to the 1st/2nd place guys by not practicing for T1/T2
2. Know the course....I could blame the RD, but it is ultimately my responsibility. The real issue was I ran a portion in warm up and the sign was pointed one way...during the race it wasn't there and people were running two different ways....I took to way the sign was originally pointed, but I guessed wrong. based on my ave time and my garmin time I lost 2:00
3. RD needs to have cones or signs (to be honest painted arrows on the ground (especially when there are orange and blue and they go in different directions) doesn't work when you have been pushing hard for an hour.

Final comment, improve run direction and T1/T2 and I feel like I would have challenged for 1st. I always said I wouln't practice transisiton until I was a minute out of placing....it appears that day has come.