Three Rivers Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Thank God it was wetsuit legal! I would have been really hurting otherwise. My sighting was probably a bit better, and I was faster, but the wetsuit had a lot to do with both of these. I started well, maybe too well (too fast). After that I was fairly fatigued and my HR was probably way up there. Time must include long run up to transition area plus transition. I was out of the water at 28:30. As with all of my tri's so far, no one ahead of me overall had a slower swim, but for once there were several people with a slower swim.

I hadn't used my wetsuit in months, so I could have been smoother in getting it off. Not terrible though--I just had to sit on my cooler to pull it over each foot. Then I had to wipe off my glasses before taking off because they were covered with rain. I should have just left them in a soft case.

Practice taking off wetsuit. Don't leave glasses out if it's raining.

Holy cow was this hilly. The bike course went right past a ski hill! I was once going 37 mph downhill without pedaling (on wet roads with sand and crap)! I saw people walking their bikes uphill. At the beginning I was mashing up the hills in the large chainring, often standing. On the return I just tried to get as much momentum as possible on the downhills to get me through the uphill with as little pain as possible. I really felt like I was recovering from the swim for the whole first half. I think that time is accurate--T1 included with swim and T2 included with run.

Practice hills.

Had trouble with the insole of my race shoe coming up. Had to retry putting my shoe on several times before finally flattening out the insole well with my hand before sticking my foot in there.

Make sure insoles are seated well after warming up before the race.

I found that one of my two Amphipod bottles had somehow leaked dry. But I probably didn't need it. I felt OK on the run, better than during the swim or bike. My main problem was the large blister I could feel forming on the instep of my right foot (which was filled with pus when I woke up Monday morning). Note that time and pace include T2, as there were no timing chips.

Put on socks before runs longer than 3-4 miles.

None.


Hills. Fatigue from swim.


Great post-race food (pancakes, sausage, fruit, pretzels, etc.). The hills were tough, and the use of timing chips would be nice. Of course they can't control the weather, but it would have been a lot better without the rain.