Riverhead Rocks Olympic Distance Triahtlon - Triathlon

Really liked this swim. We started lined up on a long dock, with swimmers jumping into the water in pairs every 5 seconds. I never did a time trial start and really liked not having all the crowing and navigation issues up front. It was in and go. The water was kind of weird -- it was a browish color and seemed a bit funky in places. I know a lot of people had concerns about cleanliness. I don't feel like it was dirty or that there was anything harmful in it, it was just different from the ocean and bay water I'm used to swimming in. I was also a little concerned because they pulled 4 alligators from that river earlier this year, but nothing nipped my toes.

I had a great swim. I usually train at around 2:00/100 or a little better, although I've recently added more structure/intensity to my swim workouts. I didn't try to push it, but new that I was moving well the whole time. I tried several times to draft people but it didn't work out. I passed more people than passed me, but every time i caught up to someone our speeds weren't close enough for me to draft on. A couple of people who passed me were going too fast for me to draft. There was one guy who i was behind for a while trying to stay with him but he was moving left and right and i kept losing him.

My navigation was off a little but not all that bad. We swam down the river with bouys on the right, then came back up again with bouys on the right. I wanted to stay tight to bouy line but found myself drifting off into the middle of the river. In the end I don't think it mattered much or added distance to my swim. I sighted the turn bouy well and hugged it tight on the turn.

I am now fully converted to swimming with ear plugs. I never swam with anything in my ears until I got a water proof ipod this year, and have been swimming with ear buds in for about 3 months, and I used ear plugs on my other OWS this year because of cold water. two weeks ago i swam without them and hated it -- felt dizzy, hated the water in my ear. i went with ear plugs again today and loved it. no water in my ears, no dizziness getting out of the swim.

In my only other Olympic distance my swim was 32:10, so today's time was awesome compared to that.

Draft someone.

Good quick efficient transition. I lost a little time because I decided this morning to go with socks for the bike and run, but I didn't get stuck putting them on so it was ok. In my other race this year I took off my Garmin (quick release) and timer to get my wetsuit off, but avoided that this time and it worked out.

move faster.

I'm disappointed in this bike. I'm been training bike the most and of all the disciplines hoped to improve my bike time most over my other oly in 2009. Instead, this was the only leg on which I did worse. Not sure what to attribute that too. Limiting factors i guess were: (1) i rode a lot at a higher cadence (85-90+) with an eye toward the run, (2) some shifting issues starting about a third of the way into the ride -- not technical problems, but trouble finding a good gear on the hills, and (3) the rode was pretty rough most of the way, with some construction areas and some areas with potholes that needed to be navigated. At times the course was very scenic.

my nutrition was good. I had 24 oz/240 calories of home mix Gatorade, a 24 oz bottle of water, and 2 gu. I was shooting for 450 calories expecting i'd be out there 1:30 or less.



gear better, ride faster.

Good transition. I got out of my shoes well, but came to a complete stop to dismount and big time jelly legs running through transition to return my bike.

Jump off moving bike, leave my shoes clipped on the bike.

Good run. 3:39 faster than the 10k in my other oly, and 1:55 off of my best stand-alone 10k time ever. Earlier this year I picked up a used Garmin 310xt, and I love running with it. I just kept watching my pace, and tried to stay as close as I could to or under 8:00/mile. I really like having the watch to keep me in check. I haven't gotten into training with data yet and using all of the functions, but it is a great tool.

I drank water at all aid stations and ate some Gu chomps on the run. At a couple of points on the run my stomach felt a little off, but it passed. I had enough left in the tank to pick up my pace for the last half mile or so and really finish strong.

Draft or find someone to pace me. I usually do well in races finding other runners with a good cadence who I can hang with to pick up my own pace. No such luck this race. There was one guy who had the perfect cadence to help me pick it up some, but he kept walking stretched. He would catch up to me and pass me, then I would catch him and pace his for a while, and then he would stop and walk. Then we'd do it again later.

Walked around a bit, drank water, ate a bunch of oranges, some watermelon and half a bagel.


My overall assessment -- this was a fun race with very interesting swim, an OK and sometimes very scenic bike course with many patches of bad road, and an OK run. I'm glad I did it, but I do think the price was too high for the product -- I signed up late though so I paid full freight, I might feel differently about that if I got in at the early registration price. I really like that they added the race so there was an Oly to do at this time of year.

When I was leaving the site my feeling was that this race might have a problem surviving because it seemed like there wasn't much if any support from local residents. During the race, I didn't see any local interest or support. After the race there were traffic issues problems (not unusual), but I saw some negative exchanges between people in cars and others who I presume to be local business owners, and racers and their families leaving the site. I'm not that experienced in how these things work out or how races grow in the early years (this is only the races second year), but I think if you're doing this type of production in the heart of a downtown area the people need to be into, and my sense was the opposite.