El Dorado Lake Triathlon - Olympic Course - Triathlon

I'm positive this swim is short, but I'm not sure by how much.

I did a fantastic job sighting, sighting every five strokes on the first lap, but trusting myself more on the second, sighting every ten-twelve strokes.

We have to run out on the beach for 10-15 yards between the loops, and I responded to that differently than I thought I would. I thought it would be a break that would help me, but it raised my heart rate and made me very uncomfortable for the first 100 yards or so on the second lap.

Even, so, I love OWS. Really love it.

Nothing. I enjoyed the swim. I could practice running around for 30 seconds between sets, but I'm not going to bother doing that.

I didn't realize I was so fast here. I had the 14th fastest T1 time. Some time I will no longer be surprised that people sit down in transition to put their shoes on.

Nada.

This was a miserable ride. I questioned why I was doing it at all. At one point, the gusts were so bad, I fully expected to be blown off the road. I wondered at what point if they would just call the ride over and come pick us all up. It didn't help that the roads were in horrible shape. It turns out that the riding I did in Austin on the unpaved trails wasn't bad training for this ride.

The roads in the race were all paved, but some places were paved extremely poorly.

To top it off, I dropped my chain for no reason I can think of. I don't know if I was trying to shift when I hit a rough spot. My hands were filthy, which figures into my time in T2.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong on the bike. I know conditions were bad, but I was 1.50 mph slower this year than last. But this ride felt so much harder.

I had make up remover wipes with me, so I took the time to clean off my hands. I knew I was taking forever here, but it had to be done.

This time was 60/63. Ridiculous.

Not drop my chain and mess up my hands.

Everything was going fine until I was crossing a wooden bridge at the end of the first lap and tripped. I went down hard. I wanted to cry. A volunteer was right there and helped me up, and I kept going, but I was in pain. No blood.

On the second lap I was hot and hurting. But I pulled myself together and had enough in the tank to pass a woman in my age group to make it 3rd in AG.


Pick up my feet. Seriously.

My focus was to cool off. My head felt like it was going to explode. I ran through the finish, got rid of the timing chip, picked up my finishers medal, and went directly to the showers. Medical was helping one guy who was overcome by the heat. It was hot out there.


I don't know. There are so many things. I was hoping to finish my first Olympic in 3:30, so I had a very modest and safe goal. I didn't want to be last. And I wasn't, not even in my age group. My mantra on the bike and the run was "I'm not last. I'm not last."

My"if everything goes perfectly" goal was under 3:00. Only 38/63 races today managed that, so that wasn't a realistic goal for this race, but I still have it as a long-term goal. I can probably make most of that 20 minutes up on the bike.



This was my first sprint two summers ago, so I have sentimental feelings about this race. I know the route, and I'm very comfortable in the lake. But the road conditions took a lot out of me this morning. I don't know if I can do it again. I was seriously concerned if my bike could take it. The roads were that bad.

But the swim and run are great. I wish they could reroute the bike to avoid the poor roads.