Cranberry Trifest - Olympic Course - Triathlon

Felt the swim went okay, for me. I kept a steady pace, and drafted a few people where I could. I still am a very average/slow swimmer, but I navigated a little better. The sun was still fairly low on the way back, so sighting was tough. I was in a middle wave, so it was easier to follow other swimmers when the buoy was hard to see. But even so, I still went off course a couple times. Its surprising how even just a few strokes in the wrong direction can take you way off course.

Try and sight more often. But I was pleased with my time. My Olympic swims previously have all been in the 2:30+ pace, but for this one I hit 2:11. Not fast, but faster, and it was good to see all the time in the pool training for the HIM had paid off some.

Went pretty smoothly. Stumbled as I came out the lake, so walked up the steps, but all good apart from that

Tried to settle into a comfortable pace and take it easy, work on hitting a good cadence and using the gears. First Oly since I had aero bars added and a bike fitting, and definitely feel that they added 1-2mph between them. Did two laps of the course a few weeks ago, so that also helped with some idea of what to expect. This is a really nice bike course - interesting to ride and scenic. The last 4-5 miles are more uphill than down, so I tried to hold back on those to prepare for the run.

Not a lot. I was pleasantly surprised by my 19.4 mph avg speed, as I did felt I succeeded in riding within my limits to keep something for the run

All good. Running dismount, no big mistakes or wasting time. Remembered everything, took a glug of water and off I went

I have a recurring problem with cramps in my legs on the run. I thought the improved fitness wih the HIM training might cure that, but it was not to be. Felt good off the bike, ran at a very comfortable pace for about 1/2 mile, then my right hamstring cramped. Walked it off in about 2 minutes, then the left went about a mile later. Needed slightly longer to walk that off - maybe 2-3 minutes, then was good for the rest of the run. After that I kept a pretty steady 9 min pace, which is good for me, and ran the whole way including the hill near the end, where a lot of people walked. Just back from vacation in Vancouver, where I ran lots of hills, so that seemed to pay off. In fact, I felt strong finishing and passed 9 or 10 people in the last mile or so.

Maybe walk out of the transition? Take an extra minute at the beginning to avoid losing time later. It was not very hot for this race, so I can't blame dehydration. If I can get rid of the cramping problem, then I'll take a few minutes off my run time with no problem. Keep getting fitter and maybe add some salt tabs to the mix

Nothing special - ate about 50 orange segments, walked around with an ice towel on my head and watched the other racers finish.


Cramping and poor swimming technique. Apart from that, I felt I paced this race right. Blood sugars were good all the way through the race also - trending a little high at the end (210 when I finished) but steady apart from that.

This was my first Oly 3 years ago, when I finished in 3:24. I've been training for the HIM, so was obviously hoping for something faster. While I was deliberately not watching the clock today, I was thinking something around 3:05- 3:10 would be nice. So very pleasantly surprised to see 2:58 for my time. 3 years older and 26 minutes faster - I'll take it.


I like this race - have done 2 olys and a sprint here now, and every one has been well-organized, with an enthusiastic team of organizers and volunteers. Thanks to everybody who lends their time to make it go so well. I even liked the band better this time, a change from my curmudgeonly feedback last time.

Only thing I would change - please publish age group rankings for the splits in the results. Cool Running doesn't let you see those or download the results into a chart to let you do it yourself.

That small thing aside - I would very much recommend this race.