Monticelloman Triathlon - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

This was the part that frustrated me the most. I worked really hard all through the winter at the swim, and made good progress, as best I can tell. Then when I got into the water yesterday, I found I couldn't go more than 20-25 strokes without looking up and swimming breaststroke for awhile in order to catch my breath. I think the reason for this was the temperature - 66 degrees. My body wasn't cold b/c of the wetsuit, but putting my face and head into the water made me gasp for breath. I'm guessing the only solution for this is to do it more often. The chaos of the group start (123 people started in my wave) was also disconcerting, and I found that swimming over people (or having them swim over me) made it hard to establish a rhythm. I also need to work on sighting - I think between my zigs and zags, I swam farther than the full distance. I ended up swimming breaststroke a little more than half the distance, and felt fried at the end. Sigh. Lesson Learned: Do more open water swims in cold water, I guess...

I had managed to arrange everything so I could get to it easily, so this didn't go so badly. (Probably also helped that many people had come and gone already by the time I got there.) It was chilly (high 40s and overcast at the start) outside, though, so I decided not to wear any tri-singlet under my wetsuit for the swim, which meant I had to put it on in T1, plus two other layers. I also put on socks in T1, which took time. Lesson Learned: I'll try to learn to go without socks and do the shoes-on-the-pedals-in-advance thing at some point, but I'm not ready for those yet.

I felt strong and confident on the bike, so this went well. It was a hilly course, and that's what I like the most, so I ended up passing a lot of people on the hills. I wasn't sure how to manage the no-drafting rules. The group occasionally got bunched up and I was nervous we'd be called for drafting, but nobody did, as far as I know. Turns out I made the right decision about three dry layers for the bike, since I heard several other people complaining about how they were so cold they couldn't ride fast.

After several miles, I ended up riding in the same vicinity as a group of about 4 or 5 others of about the same ability. They'd pass me on the downhills, and I'd catch and pass them when the roads turned up. We ended up all finishing at roughly the same time. I also planned to have two gels on the bike, but ended up only having one. I didn't really know what to do, so I went hard on the bike, without intentionally backing off to save energy for the run. I might save a little more next time. Lesson Learned: Have the two gels, and save a little bit more for the run(?).

This went pretty smoothly. Ran in my bike shoes for about 40 yards from the dismount line into the transition area proper. I'll eventually learn how to do the take-feet-out-of-shoes-while-moving thing, but I'm not there yet. Stripped off the outer layer, helmet, popped on race belt with number, popped on shoes, and ran.

The first four miles of the run were really hard. My legs felt really dead when I got off the bike. All of the people I passed on the bike passed me back on the run, at least if felt that way. I had one gel on the run - around the end of mile 1. Here were my (unofficial) mile splits: 8:51; 9:22; 9:04; 9:12; 8:55; 8:30; 0:53. I thought I had gotten faster as the run went along, but looking at the times now, it wasn't as big a difference as I thought. Maybe I should've run harder toward the end. I also need to work on drinking from paper cups while running. I either spilled it all, or gulped equal parts water and air and then had to burp the air back up - no fun. I did have one awesome moment of inspiration - at about mile 2, when I really needed it, I passed by a guy running with a prosthetic leg. Seeing him out there with only one leg but fighting and not letting it defeat him made me feel really great for him, and it made me hurt a little less. Lesson learned: Do more brick workouts!

I was pretty wiped out at the finish, but felt better after I sat down and had something to drink. I had a great endorphin rush after finishing, and on top of that, the sun came out, so it was a nice way to finish. I had hoped to finish faster than 2:45, but in the scheme of things I'm still really pleased with 2:48. It gives me a good baseline to work from starting now, and gave me some great understanding of things to do and things not to do. I lay down on a grassy hillside and sunned myself like a walrus for about 15 minutes, had some food, stretched out calves and hamstrings, packed up my gear, and got on the road home.


I really enjoyed this race, and it seemed to be well organized. The volunteers were really friendly and helpful, and the venue was really nice and scenic. The only minor gripes I had were the parking issues I mentioned above and the fact that the time statistics they provided at the end aren't as robust as I'd like. Unless I'm reading these incorrectly, they provide what each athlete's cumulative place is at each stage in the competition (i.e., Matt was 47th in his age group overall after the bike), but they don't isolate and rank how each athlete compared to the others in each individual event (i.e., Matt had the 40th-fastest bike in his age group, and as a result of that, plus his mediocre swim, he was 47th in his age group after the bike). These are really minor gripes, though. I enjoyed the race, and will definitely consider doing it again. Thanks very much, Charlottesville.