La Porte YMCA Triathlon - Triathlon

I was in the second wave. The waves were fairly big (it was a small race), so I was in with women 30-49. I lined up toward the back, but wish I had been a little further forward. We got in and I had nowhere, I mean nowhere, to go. Every time I tried to swim, I just got kicked in the face. It was a lot tougher than I expected, but I'm really proud of the way I handled it. It was actually a lot of fun! I ended up breastroking quite a bit of the first 200 meters, but before I knew it I was at the turnaround. Once I started heading back to shore I found some open water and was off. My last 200M were great. Never once did I feel panic or hesitancy. I just did my thing and before I knew it my hands were hitting sand and I was out of the water. I almost didn't want it to be over!

Maybe start a little further front? Trying to get around people at the beginning really slowed me down. Other than that, I just need to get a swim coach so I can get faster! All in all, I'm really happy with my performance and how calm I was able to stay.

My transition times just stink. Even though I was way faster than my first tri, I'm still too slow. I think (hope) this will come with experience.

Be faster.

Although I was fairly calm during the swim, my heart rate got a little out of control at the beginning of the bike. Don't know why. The course was fairly hilly and I'm not used to riding hills, so this was a bit of a challenge. Passed a decent number of people on the bike, but my bike is still too heavy to compete with those on tri bikes. Hopefully that will change in the next year or two. Probably could have pushed it a little more on the bike, but I'm still too new to this to know what is a good pace. Pretty happy with my performance.

Train on more hills. Push just a little harder. Drink more.

Now why did this transition take me 1:30? That's just waaaay too long. I fussed around double-knotting my shoes (really not necessary) and then taking a drink of my water. I know I can knock a good :30 off of this one.

Get serious about my transitions. I need to get in and out quicker.

I really blew up on the run. I haven't been running well at all lately and was really frustrated to have another bad run today. The first mile felt like about three and I was so discouraged when I saw the Mile 1 marker, as I thought I had gone further. I felt a little better between one and two, and picked up the pace a bit. It was starting to get hot on the course and I was a little overheated. I didn't really drink enough in the morning or on the bike and it was catching up with me. In general, my nutrition in this race was really off. Started the run with a few CLIF Shot Bloks but threw them away almost right away because I couldn't stomach it. The last .3 really felt much longer (jowisc agreed). Maybe closer to 3.5?

Need to do more speedwork and get more comfortable running outside the comfort zone. Jowisc says I strain too much when I'm tired and he's right. I was really bummed with this run...I should have been at least a minute faster. Aargh.

Grabbed a Rice Krispie treat from the refreshments. :) Yum. They had really great food! Walked a little bit from finish to transition and then back to car.


Consistent training. I lost most of the month of June because of my dad's death and really feel like that set me back in my training. Although I've gotten stronger on the bike, I feel like I'm worse off on the swim and the run. I need to train harder and more consistently. The good thing is that racing motivates me to do this!


This is really a little gem of a race not too far from Chicago. It's small enough that it's manageable, but it's really well run. They announced that this is the second-longest running triathlon in the U.S.! I would DEFINITELY recommend it and hope to go back again next year!