Swim
Comments: This ended up being my strongest leg overall compared to the field. I started at the back of my wave to hopefully avoid significant contact. Then I just went for a leisurely swim. I didn't have to deal with much contact and the congestion wasn't too bad. The water was fairly calm. It got slightly wavy further out. But not bad overall. Navigating wasn't too bad. I tended to be on the outside of the pack. But got fairly close to the buoys. I ended up pretty close to the pace that I was hoping to make. What would you do differently?: Nothing really. I need more fitness and open water practice. But I was pleased with how it went for my first OWS of that distance. Transition 1
Comments: There was a decent walk from the shore to my bike. I didn't run, but instead walked purposefully. I wasn't significantly concerned with time (at this point at least), so I just wanted to not waste energy and also wasn't sure how I'd adapt to being upright after 30+ minutes in the water. Once I got to my bike, I finished stripping my wetsuit and got my bike gear on. Again, I wasn't rushing as fast as I could. Rather I was just moving with purpose. What would you do differently?: Probably could have sped this up a bit. But I didn't make any mistakes, which was my main goal. Bike
Comments: I had a duathlon 3 weeks prior where the bike totally killed my run afterwards. In my defense, it did have some nasty hills. But I wanted to avoid that in this race. So my plan was to just take it easy and be sure to take in good nutrition. Fortunately, the rain held off during the entire bike. And the roads weren't all that wet from the earlier rain. So that wasn't a factor. This was the inaugural ride with my new xlab torpedo (BTA bottle) and that worked great. Prior to using this, I only had a single bottle on my seat tube. So I needed something more to stay hydrated. I did one bottle of perform and one bottle of water. I also had a bonk breaker that a took a big bite out of every 5 miles. So I took in about 450 calories on the bike (just over 300/hr). I saw the result of one crash. Looks like maybe 2 people were involved. But there were already a couple of people helping out, and nobody looked too bad. So I kept on riding. Evidently I was slow as molasses based on my AG ranking. But speed wasn't my goal. Finishing with enough in the tank for the run was the main goal and I achieved that. What would you do differently?: Other than more training, I was happy with how I did on the bike. Transition 2
Comments: I walked my bike back to my rack and got switched over to my run gear. But I couldn't figure out where the run out was. Evidently I wasn't the only one as another person asked me the same thing. I had to head over to a volunteer and ask. So I burned 20 seconds or so just figuring out where to go. What would you do differently?: Don't assume there will be signage to tell me where to go and figure it out ahead of time. Run
Comments: This was what I had been focused on during the first 2 legs. Keep gas in the tank so I could run the entire time and hopefully stay fairly strong without feeling like I would collapse when I finished. I started off and the legs felt good. I tried to settle into an easy pace, which has been upper 9 minute miles as of late. But my Garmin was saying I was closer to a 9 minute flat. So I tried to slow myself up just a little. I did the first half of the run averaging closer to a 9:30/mile. Once I hit the turn-around, I was still feeling good. I also was checking my overall time and saw that if I kicked it up a notch, I had a shot at breaking 3 hours. I didn't think I even had a shot at that at the beginning of the day. So I hadn't been paying very close attention. So I decided to go for it and did the next mile at 8:40. I figured I needed to average a 9 minute mile to make it happen. After that mile, I was feeling it and decided to ease back to my previous pace. I did that for a short while. Then I checked my watch, did the math, and realized I had a little extra time than what I thought. I made the decision to just gut it out for the last 2 miles and see if I could make a sub 3 hour time happen. In the end, I finished with just over a minute to spare. I know I was one of the slowest people in my AG but it was a great victory for me. I went faster than I thought that I could. I raced smart. And I finished strong with a negative split on the run. I also have hope on being able to survive my half iron race in a few months. What would you do differently?: Nothing. I was very happy with my performance. Post race
Warm down: Strolled over to the pavilion and chowed down on the buffet of snacks that was supplied. I felt pretty good overall and What limited your ability to perform faster: Lack of training was the biggie. Event comments: Very good race overall. I'll definitely keep this as my first tri of the year if I stick with the Oly distance. Last updated: 2014-02-22 12:00 AM
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United States
Buffalo Triathlon
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 191/253
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 28/30
It was raining almost right up to the start of the swim. So everything was wet and it looked like it may be a miserable day. Fortunately it stopped in time for the swim warmup.
I had coffee and a clif bar on the drive to the site and munched on some more carbie goodness up to the start of the race. Got all setup in transition. Tried to find a place that wasn't in the middle of a puddle. After that, I hung out in the pavilion to stay out of the rain.
I did a little swimming prior to the start of the race. This was my first olympic distance (and only my 2nd tri). I had been woefully undertraining due to life getting in the way and I wasn't sure of my ability to finish without keeling over. So my plan for the race was to just take it easy, be smart, and try to avoid having to walk on the run portion. I figured I'd come in around 3:10 if I could avoid walking based on recent training speeds and adding in some slow-down factor for doing all 3 disciplines in succession.