TriUtah River Rampage - Triathlon

In spite of some advice from the race dir. I still found myself a little too close to mid stream islands and in some shallow areas where the flow of the river was much slower. This required turning 90 deg to downstream to try to find the fast moving stuff again. Not too crowded, and I pushed hard for the first 5 minutes to get clear of slower swimmers that would block the path further downstream. Going with the flow was a huge help, this was almost half the time of my best mile swim.

Do a better job of keeping to the deep and fast parts of the river. I picked a more straight line path, but that wasn't the best path in terms of speed.

I chose to wear socks on the ride as I thought it might get very hot later and the socks help prevent sticking and rubbing when I start adding sweat into the shoes. Putting these on and grabbing a few extra swigs of water before I left slowed me down a bit. I'm not confident jumping onto a bike with shoes clipped in already, so that slows me down as well.

It's time to start practicing a running mount. My T1 time has always been a bit long, and in this case it dropped me from 21st out of the water to 42 getting out the other end on my bike.

Started with a good cadence to spin my legs awake, and then took off catching lots of people in the first few miles before settling in a few dozen yards behind a group of riders who were moving at my pace and that I never managed to reel in. I definitely found my mind wandering (and as a result my pace dropping) during the latter half. I'm more motivated when I'm passing, and I couldn't quite make up enough speed on the group in front of me to feel like I could catch them without burning a little too hard.

After the initial rush of lots of people to pass, I needed to develop a little mental toughness and keep working with the big picture in mind. Bring another water bottle on the bike. I haven't had the time/budget to add a seat rack or aero bottle, but one 20 oz water bottle just doesn't really cut it when there are no aid stations on the ride. But that's something I should have a plan to overcome.

I did the same thing I've done in practicing the dismount, where I twist my foot as I jump off and unclip my shoe leaving it behind me. After recovering it, T2 was fairly quick. The temperature was definitely climbing so I paused to squirt some water into my jersey to jump start some cooling.

Be a little more careful on the dismount.

I tried to consciously run slow out of the gate because this was my first olympic distance and the heat was definitely going above my comfort range. It ended up getting very hot and humid from the wet golf course, but I focused on keeping my cadence around 90 and slowly worked my effort up to a high but sustainable level. I left a little too much in the tank as I was able to pretty much sprint for the last tenth of a mile without hurting very much.My stomach didn't always agree with the gel and HEED I put in, but getting those in during the first 3 miles definitely made me feel more confident that

I know better how I respond to the high desert temps and would have a bit more confidence that I won't bonk with a bit more effort.

Lightly jog after crossing the line, and then a brisk walk for a few minutes before grabbing some water, then later food and juice. The biggest issue was cooling down after getting quite hot by the end of the run.


1) Concern about moving up to Olympic distance 2) Concern about what racing in 85-100 deg temps would do to me 3) Not having enough fluids on the bike, and thus also limiting my food intake on the bike because I didn't have water to help rinse food down.


Fun race, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year! My only two problems were the drink station availability wasn't announced, but I asked and knew and just didn't have a solution, so that's on me. And, in general the instructions at the race were via bulllhorn that was often too quiet to hear or were just a little lacking in clarity. As a result it felt like a race where you had a definite advantage if you had previous experience on the course. Lots of volunteers, and staff were helpful and friendly, I felt very welcomed.