Cleveland Triathlon - Olympic Course - Triathlon

Course had to be changed last minute due to a Coast Guard incident. Because of this, it was extremely short. Due to the deep water start, there was a lot of traffic at the beginning and I could not get into any kind of rhythm until after going around the 2 sprint buoys. Then I was able to draft a little bit.

Swim is still a major weakness. I am seeing faster times in the pool, but it is not translating to open water. Need to spend more time training in open water instead of the pool.

9th overall

Strong north winds meant cross winds the entire ride. Always climbing or descending on this course and the road way is very rough. This is where the power meter is so helpful. Just stuck with my watt targets while going up as well as going down so that I didn't burn out my quads.
Aside from the roughness, it was a fun ride though with a huge variance in speeds. Would crest a hill going 13 mph to immediately be 30 mph+ on the descent. Then, turn-around and do it again.

5th overall

Felt great the entire run for once. Because of the single wave start and all of the turn-arounds, could tell I was in 7th place to start the run. 5th and 6th were very close to each other about 2 minutes ahead of me and then there was a big gap to 4th place. At about mile 3, I passed both the 6th and 5th place guys and then tried to pick up the pace a bit to make sure they didn't pass me back. After that, I knew I would not be able to catch 4th place, so just settled into a steady pace to finish the run.

Walked around and talked with people.


As always, poor swim.


Overall, I like this race. It will be interesting to see what happens to the bike course as the shoreway is already very rough and will only get worse unless the city re-paves it. Food could have been better (just fruit and bagels), but no big deal.
I have done the Greater Cleveland Tri the last 3 years. This was my first time at the Cleveland Tri. I like the course better at the downtown race (riding and running through the city's landmarks as well as the protected swim in the harbor). However, the GCT has the advantage of easier logistics (don't have to pick up race packet day before, parking is right next to transition, etc.). I also like the GCT post race activities better. Overall, it is hard to justify paying 2 times as much for the downtown race versus GCT. It will be a tough decision as to which race to choose next year. I wish these two race directors would just agree to disagree and then not schedule for the same day every year. I would think they would both benefit from that decision.