Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - International Course - Triathlon

really frustrating - especially since the swim is my strength. goggles broke at the start and I fixed them or so I thought. Broke again before the first buoy turn - maybe 1/8 mile in. spent a minute or two on my back kicking trying to fix them but shouldn't have wasted my time. Swam the rest without - hoping that I wouldn't lose a contact and constantly having to swim longer stretches with my head up in order to sight. Made it much more difficult to stay straight and get around other swimmers. Got caught behind a guy doing breaststroke for quite a while - the second I would start to go wide to get around him he would switch to freestyle and move ahead only to switch back a little bit later.

Always take the spare goggles that they offer at the start if yours breaks. Don't trust that you fixed them!!!

Would like to get a bit faster but just focused on staying calm which was pretty good. Definitely did a bit of the awkward/don't fall over dance as I got my bike shoes on. Was a little annoyed at the group of 4 guys just outside transition, leaning on the railing by my station, talking about detailed finance stuff. Wanted to yell "trying to focus here" but took a breath and focused on me.

make sure that I setup my towel to extend a little bit beyond my bike so that I have room to stand on it and dry my feet a little before putting my shoes on. I tucked it a bit too far under the rack which made it a bit awkward - hence the don't-fall-over dance!

Bike felt really good and I may have been able to push a little harder. I took one gu and drank one bottle with nuun. Also had about half a pouch of stinger chews (love the cherry cola flavor!)

My new bike fit really helped me stay comfortable and be able to drop to the lower bars for the climbs. May still need to get a new seat as I was a little sore! :)

Course is relatively flat on the first half with a few good climbs while the second half is a bit more rolling. Was still a little bit chilly especially on the back half where there were still some foggy areas. They had a couple of aid stations with just water. One was at mile 4-5 which seemed unnecessary to me but at least it meant additional people on the course in case.


take more nutrition - especially remember to take a salt tab even if it is cloudy - so that I have it through the run.

Second guessed myself a little too much - started to leave and paused, debating on if should snag a gu or something (which I should have but didn't) and then started to jog off only to realize that I forgot my race belt/numbers. Back to grab it and then finally got going.

Put my wetsuit more out of the way in T1 because it was extra time shifting it twice to get to my other stuff.
Have a spray sunblock that I can put on quickly before heading off on the run.

Came out of transition and got into a nice slow steady pace right off the bat. My first mile was just over 11mins which was my goal to stay between 11 and 11:30.

Sun finally came out in full force after the mile 1 marker. Didn't help that it was now 11am thanks to the delayed start (Damn you fog!!!). Still felt ok but thought that I would definitely grab some gatorade at the aid station because I was beginning to sweat a lot more. Unfortunately the aid station only had water so I grabbed a cub and walked through to drink it. Moving on to the gravel path with the only 50' of shaded section on the course. The gravel path kept going and going and going. You would come around a bend expecting to see the turn around and you would just see runners all tiny in the distance making yet another bend. Another aid station came and again only water. (Although apparently I was lucky - when my friend went by 10 mins or so ahead of me they were out of cups and telling people to snag one off the ground and they would fill it up for them!) By this time I could taste the salt coming off my face and knew I should have taken more nutrition or at least the salt tab on the bike.

When I saw the mile 5 marker ahead I decided to walk a bit and then run once I got to it. By this point my face is encrusted with salt - I probably should have just licked my arms to get some back in me. The sun was still beating down and now we are approaching noon. My fair skin was not happy and any sunscreen that was put on back before the delay was long gone. I hit the mile 5 marker and struggled to make myself run. so walked a little bit more and then told myself the sooner I got moving the sooner I would be done.

There were some great volunteers on the run cheering everyone on and directing traffic - from the very cheer-tastic full-body arm pointing, to the high-fiver, and the firefighter banging on the trash drum calling out numbers and making up rhymes (although mine was "I don't have a rhyme yet for seven"). Even the photographer was cheering (although maybe that was because there was absolutely no one else around me - I'm slow!)

I picked up the pace the last 400m and finished strong. And immediately guzzled down the entire gatorade bottle that they passed out!

Have a gu in my race belt just in case.
Always put more sunscreen on in T2 - worth the extra few seconds.

just walking back to transition and then the car. Seemed to be a frustrating race for all of us and we were just ready to get out, get some food and head home.


My goggle snafu and II really wasn't prepared for the sun when I started the run.


Overall a good race. I really like the swim (or at least I think I would have liked it if we had been able to do the larger Oly triangle) and bike course. The transition area is very convenient. Lots of good volunteers especially on the run. Just wished that they had had gatorade at the drink stations. According to past race reports they have had it so I don't know what changed. I don't know much about the post-race festivities since we were just ready to leave due to how late it was.

Also surprised that they didn't just cancel the swim - granted the swim is my fav part so I wouldn't want it to be cancelled! The frustration was more the just sit and wait. They kept announcing about seeing another buoy and that they will start immediately once it clears which is tough to adjust for when it is longer than 15 mins. I would have appreciated a set time delay so that we have an idea of what to do with our nutrition. So delay it in 30 mins or one hour segments - see how it is and then if needed delay it further.