Wauconda Triathlon - Olympic Course - Triathlon

Bangs Lake is filled with seaweed, so I was grabbed at and got caught on many plants. The lake is extremely calm however. The sighting out to the turn buoy was poor, I had the sun in my eyes the entire time. I stayed slow and steady and breathed well the entire time.

These slow swims are really starting to mess with me. I need to start pushing myself to swim faster.

Another less than stellar T1. I should be getting better at these things. There is an approximate 50 foot run included in the T1 time. My suit got stuck on my timing strap and I struggled to get it off. Everything else went well though.

Gotta move faster here! I've said it a million times, but seriously, I'm not joking.

Quite possibly my worst bike ever. I'm blaming on the fact that I just did the Racine 70.3 a week ago and my body is still in recovery mode (at least that's what I'm telling myself). It was soo cold, about 52 degrees, and I was not prepared to push myself while being freezing cold. The hills on this course were horrid and despite some 25 mph downhills and 19 mph straightaways, the hills dropped my average immensely. The highlight of my bike was that I saw my boyfriend at the end of my first loop. He was doing the sprint and just finishing the bike portion. This was his first tri and I was so happy to see him pass my slow butt. My nutrition and water & sports drink intake was good. I've practiced it alot.

Push harder and trust that my legs will be just fine for the run. There is no way I should ever bike under 18 mph.

Clearly today was not my day. I am usually closer to 1 minute transitions, but today things went awry. First off, I came back to my rack to find that people had racked their bikes in my spot. So, I had to rack my bike in a completely different rack and probably pissed someone off in the process. Also, these bikes that were in my spot (despite the spots being labeled with our names & bib #s) were completely hindering my ability to access any of my gear. I literally had to slide bikes over to get to my running shoes and my bib belt. How can people be so rude! This really ticked me off!

Nothing I could really do here, except maybe not get so mad when things don't go my way.

This course was VERY hilly! I mean, there were at least 10 hills on this course. 3 of those 10 were INSANE and the others were more of a nuisance. So, be prepared to be running on your toes ALOT. I stopped only at the aid stations and got good encouragement from the volunteers. I passed many people on the run. I continue to surprise myself on my runs. I feel very strong and confident and have no problem pushing my pace. I thank my extensive brick training for this.

Nothing really.

Walked around. Ate breakfast (pancakes, sausages, bananas, bagels), courtesy of the race organizers.


I really think that since I just did a half iron a week ago, my body was still in recovery mode and I didn't push myself as I usually do.


This is my second time doing this race. This is a smaller race, but I love the camaraderie of all the participants and volunteers. The course is moderately challenging and I love that. The race organizers really do a great job. I loved the breakfast waiting for me as I crossed the finish line. The post race activities consisted of raffles, in which I won a $25 Pearl Izumi gift certificate. Awesome, right?