Tempe International Triathlon - Olympic Distance - Triathlon

I've been swimming a lot the last four weeks and I was hopeful that it would show during this race.

I stood on a ledge in the water and waited for the start horn that went off at 6:55. I started near the back knowing that even if I had improved my times over the last month I was still slower than average.

After the first couple of minutes I was able to get into a rhythm and made my way to the first turn buoy. I felt like I was moving at an OK clip but was a bit disappointed with the freedom of my arms to really reach into my stroke. My reach was pretty awful for the last races that I've worn this wetsuit so it was less of a factor.

Once I realized that I'd have to focus on extended my arms more than normal I was OK.

I had a few sighting issue on the back half of the swim but nothing terrible. When I stepped out of the water and glanced at my watch I was pleasantly surprised that my time was 28:30. This was an 11 minute improvement over last month and two minutes faster than last year. Nice!

I ran up the hill, over the timing mat, stripped the wetsuit, etc. Nothing new or exciting here other than I also turned on the Garmin Virb so that I could record my ride.

As I've said in the past, I'm not a fan of this bike course but it is what we have locally and I am coming to accept it.

The course consisted of two 12.4 mile loops/laps/or something.

There are so many 90 degree turns and even four 180 degree turns in the width of a lane. It is tough to get into a rhythm and it shows by my average speed of 21mph (I go faster than this on comfortable training rides).

The bike is my favorite part though and I did have a good time. I was pleased that I was further up in the pack and didn't have to pass so many people along the way but I was also passed more than I am used to.

I swapped shoes, tossed on a hat and headed out. Nothing exciting.

The run was two loops. Luckily the temperature was still not too hot; about 84 degrees.

I felt pretty good on the run and maintained a 7:35 pace throughout even though I stopped at almost every water station along the route to drink a cup and dump one on my head.

Being so late in the year this race provides ample stations every 3/4 mile or so.

I managed to pass around 20 people on this leg and got passed by a few really fast runners.

The last half mile was pretty painful as pain lanced into the right side of my body. I struggled on knowing that the race was almost over and after crossing the finish line a few minutes later I felt better.

Plenty of details on my blog: http://tritoachieve.blogspot.com/2014/05/race-report-5182014-tempe-...

The race went much better than last year. Mostly because it started on time. I believe that the temperature highs for the day were about the same each year but starting 45 minutes earlier made all the difference.

I also have a year of experience under my belt and a really good month of training.

This was a PR for me and I am excited to break 2:30 on my next olympic distance event.