Race For A Reason - Athletes in Action Triathlon - Triathlon

Entered the water and pushed off the wall in one movement and got off to a pretty decent start. Decided to settle into a pace that felt kinda like a "Zn2" effort and just hold onto that. The feet ahead of me got away quickly, and one person passed me, but that's it. Got a little sloppy with my form in the middle, but overall I held together pretty well and climbed out of the water feeling strong and fresh.

Ran across the short bit of pool deck, out the door, down some steps, down some more steps once outside, then a 100 yard or so run across gravel and asphalt to T1.


Given that all of the training this year has so far been aerobic type work, nothing. In the future, however, I would have done more work at higher intensities.

This was my first time really trying the pre-clipped flying mount thing, and the result was my best T1, ever. Ok, I had attempted it in my first ever tri two years ago, but I didn't practice beforehand and it was a colossal mess. This time, things generally went smooth and I had the faster T1 in my AG.

Nothing, except perhaps make sure my derailleurs are properly adjusted before the race.

In the first quarter mile following my best T1, ever, I shifted up to the big ring... and dropped the chain. Of course, the chain then got wedged between the crank arm and the chain ring, and actually into the chain ring. I had to grab a full handful of chain and give several very hard full-on yanks to free the chain, totally gouging my knuckles in the process (shifters, aero bottle, and head tube were blood covered by the end, as was my entire hand). Garmin shows that my total stopped time was only 13 seconds, but it felt like ages. Got passed once. Put the chain back on, hopped back on and started to ride and get up to speed when... the chain came off again, got passed again. This time I realized that my front derailleur was over-adjusted to the outside and I feathered it back a bit. Total stopped time the 2nd time shows as only 5 seconds, but if you look at when I had to brake the first time to when I finally was fixed and going again after the second time, it was a hair more than two full minutes.

The rest of the bike was uneventful, the shifting was a lot better as I was more conscious of it. The hills on the course were WAY more than I had expected/remembered from my last time there and I was more than a little disturbed at how slow I was having to take them.

Despite all of this, I made it back to T2 feeling good and generally ready to run.

I need to get a LOT stronger on the bike, and a lot lighter in body weight. 198lbs and a hilly course are not a good mix.

Best T2, ever, for me.

it was as quick and smooth as it is supposed to be.

Nothing at all.

Course started off a little different than the last time I raced here, but I adjusted pretty well. Volunteers helped steer the way. Ran out of T2 without paying attention to much other than trying to feel the turnover rate of the feet, then at about 30s in, I glanced at my pace and saw what I thought at the time to be a pace that was maybe a little too hot and I consciously pulled back a bit, opting instead to try to build into things.

Felt really good when I hit Mile 1 and pushed up the pace a little bit, but not too much as I hoped to negative split each mile. Skipped the water at the aid station at the halfway mark, and was slightly regretting it at Mile 2 when I was starting to get a little cotton-mouthy. Had spittle flying all out of my mouth and onto my face a bit, to which I tried to wipe it away, forgetting that I was using a bloody hand. So, I wiped the spit from my face, but apparently left some BraveHeart-lookin' smears in its place. Pushed the pace up a wee bit more for Mile 3 and was now just playing the mental game of telling myself to not let up, keep the legs going, etc.... hit Mile 3 and the turn to the finish line and I opened up the legs and left the last little bit I had out there.

In hindsight, the pace I was at 30s in (6:25) is a pace I probably could have maintained and just forced myself to hold onto, or close to it. I probably lost 25-30 seconds, maybe a bit more, by not trusting my legs.

Met up with my cousin who had come down to spectate, wandered about, cleaned up the blood that was pretty much all over me. I got my results printout and saw "Division Rank: 7" and assumed that it meant 7th in AG, and so we skipped the awards ceremony and feeling a little dejected, we went and found some food ("Burrito Buggy" Rocks!!). Come to find out later that it meant I was 7th OA, and I had in fact gotten a podium spot as 3rd in AG!


Fitness. Training so far in 2014 has lacked attention to the top-end work; that comes later.


This is a great event for anyone looking for an early season triathlon in Ohio.