Cache Valley Classic Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

Absolutely TERRIBLE swim for me. I really did not manage the swim well at all. My goal was to go into the swim and relax and stroke it out like I have been lately in the pool, and at the LTF tri. Didn't happen. Didn't get more than 50 yards in, and I couldn't get myself into a bilateral breathing pattern. Never ever felt like I got into a good swim rythym the entire swim.

My sighting was absolutely horrid on the first lap. It got better on the second lap, but the first lap was attrocious. I'd look up, and becuase of the chop (caused by wind mostly) and the angle of the sun hitting the water, I couldn't see the bouys well at all, and consequently swam anywhere but a straight line. I'm confident that I probably swam at least and extra 250 or so meters because of poor sighting. At one point, one of the 'guard' boats stopped me and said "You need to swim around that bouy over there" and pointed to a bouy about 75 meters away that I had to back track to get to. This got me pretty discouraged. I felt like quitting when I got back to start the second loop. But, I hung in there. The race was really getting into my head though, and I struggled.

As I got to the starting area for the second lap, I noticed that they were getting ready to start the sprint racers. (30 minutes after they started the Olypmic men), This really bummed me out. I was probably 50 meters past the turn when I saw the first white swim cap pass me by. SO that told me I was well behinnd my goal pace of 35 minutes for the entire swim.
My head kept playing head games with me though. Still had a difficult time sighting the bouys, but I learned that if I started to watch the other swimmers around me, I'd do better swimming in a straight line. My time reflects that. I was nearly 30 minutes on lap one, and only about 20 minutes on lap two. That illustrates how badly I got off course on the first lap. Mentally, at this point the race had pretty much beaten me mentally. I nearly got out of the water and called it quits.

Work more on sighting. This has to be my biggest challenge in the water. I did learn during the race that if I sightied a bit more off the other swimmers around me, I swam a better course.

Work more on getting my head mentally into the race.

Tranistion ran from the beach to a set of about 30 stairs up to a parking lot where we had our swim/bike transition. I was mentally frustrated, so I walked the entire transition until I was leaving the transtion zone. I was playing the mental game about whether or not I should keep going. I did keep going, and glad I did

Simply focus on the task at hand, and keep my head in the game

This bike course was deceptively tough for me. I think the headwinds on the long straight away (where I'd hoped to ride well above 20 mph and ended up around 16) took a good toll. The back half gentle downhill was ok, I got up well above 20 on several sections, but the road had a lot of gravel and so I was hesitant to go much faster. Did get up over 32 on on a couple of the downhills toward the end which was great fun!

Try to get into the drops more. Haven't got aero bars, but had I gotten into the drops, the headwind would not have impacted my speed as much I think.

Keep my head in the game.

This transition should have taken me a minute tops. Had a really hard time getting my running shoes on. The tongue kept pushing into the toe!

Not much I could do.

The mental game was really beating me on this portion of the race. I started out for the first half mile or so at a good 8:30 pace and thought -- "maybe I can make up some time here". Then the hill came, and it became Mount Everest. I ran up it about 3/4s of the way and started to walk. That was a big mistake, because that started a chain of walks that really slowed me down.

Passed Drew on his way back in at about mile 2. Said I looked good ( he was LYING :) ) and asked me how I was doing. Told him "THIS SUCKS!" He told me later he got a kick out of that -- but I think he agreed!

Kept plugging along, drawing strength and inspiration from my wife. She ran her first triathlon a few weeks ago, came in DFL, but she finished. That told me to keep going. I was far from the last to come in, and so I HAD to finish. The fact she had finished her race was a great inpiration!

About mile 4 VMR719 (Victoria) caught up with me, asked me how I was doing. Told her that I was having a tough time. We walked together for a couple minutes, and we started to talk. I said, "let's get each other home". She agreed, and we paced together the rest of the race. It was REALLY helpful. She got me talking about things not race related, and it kind of surpressed the negative self talk about the race itself, and I was able to start to perform a bit better. Was a great thing. We actually, when running were pacing quite well, definately in the 8:45 range.

Got to the finish line and crossed pretty much together.

Dont' start walking, no matter how bad you want to! Again, keep my head in the game.

Drank lots of fluid, walked it off and puked! (Randy would be so proud!)

Temperature when I finsihed was 80 degrees.


This race was EXTREMELY difficult for me. I wasn't ready mentally for it. I didn't realize how much more mental focus was required to run an Olympic distance race. Physically, I was in condition for it and I think fairly well prepared from that standpoint, but mentally was not prepared at all. Add to that the emotional roller coaster I've been on this past week with my father-in-laws trip to the ICU for the past 6 days, and I just didn't have my game face on. I think had I not already registered for the race, I wouldn't have run it given the issues of the past week.

I was really discouraged during the race, and almost quit several times. I've really got to learn to beat those mental demons that hit from time to time. They hit hard and furious yesterday!

Victoria was a lifesaver! I probably would have taken at least another five to 10 minutes on the run without her encouragement! I have learned the importance of encouraging the other athletes and getting encouragement from them from this experience. Had I found someone to pace with earlier in the run, I'm sure it would have gone much better. I should have been at least 10 minutes faster on the run than I was. A pacing partner would have helped greatly.

Sighting on the swim for sure was another issue, as were the headwinds.

The important thing for me to remember here is that I have to take what the course will give me, and keep up the mental game.

I'm really glad I did this race, all things considered. As the day passed after the race yesterday, I felt much better about the race. I'm still not happy with my performance, but I'm very glad I did the race. Was a GREAT learning experience for me!




This venue is beautiful and a great place for a race. Several people thought the course was more difficult than Echo. I can't say, because I didn't run Echo.

My biggest concern about this race was that there really needed to be more volunteers/support crew in the water. There were only 2 boats and two kayaks on the entire swim course. There should have been more. The one boat would patrol along the long back section, which created wake to swim through, and had there been more kayaks in the water, swimmers might not get so far off course before getting pointed in the right direction again!

They could have done better at closing a few of the roads to traffic as well, particularly the roads closest to the transition areas.

I'll probably run this race again though, so I can beat the course, and not have the course beat me!