Springs Back Triathlon - Triathlon

I was in the last Olympic wave to go out. It was the older men, clydesdale/athenas and relay swimmers. Being a slower swimmer I wasn't quite the last Olympic swimmer out of the water but it was close. Early in the swim I started sighting off of a wrong buoy. A kayak paddled over and got me back in the right direction. I don't think it cost me much time.

About half way through the swim it felt like my top was riding up on me. I grabbed the sides and pulled it back down but it still felt weird. I probably should have stopped to check but just kept swimming. When I got out of the water I noticed it had unzipped itself all they way to the bottom (it's a full zipper). Having it full of water for half of the swim probably didn't help things.

It was overcast when we started the swim so I went with my clear goggles. On the back half of the swim the sun had come out, was directly to my left and I only breathe left. So every time I turned I was looking right at the sun. A bit of a pain but not a huge deal.

I had plenty of energy left after the swim. I think I need to learn how to push a bit harder. At 2:17/100 it is obvious swimming is not my strong suit and I always try to take it easy but I think I could shave a little time off and push a bit harder.

Average transition for me. Not far from swim exit to bike. A little concrete then grass. Had a gel and a little Gatorade. Put the shoes and helmet on and headed for the exit.

Nothing really. Want to start leaving the shoes on the bike but not a big deal.

I pace using HR data. In my last race I kept it around Z4. I felt good at that one so I thought I would push a bit harder and tried to maintain Z4.5. I did that for most of the ride and felt ok. Most of my 5 mile splits were 19-20mph but the last one had some hills and was into a good wind so that killed my average.

Train more and go back to Z4 unless conditions warrant something else.

Very short trip from dismount to rack. All grass so I ran with shoes on. Had another gel with Gatorade. Lubed up a bit. Through shoes, hat and race belt on and jogged out of transition.

I wanted to apply some body glide after the bike but forgot to leave it out of my bag. Had to dig for it.

I was probably one of the last runners on the course. There were only 2 water stations and the first one at about mile 1.5 was out of everything. I couldn't get any water until about mile 2.5. This really kind of pissed me off. It was probably about 85 degrees, sunny and humid at this point. I felt ok after the first 2 miles but after that thinks started to go downhill. I would like to blame it on the lack of water on the course but I think I just pushed to hard on the bike. I had to start doing a run/walk thing for the rest of the race. I had checked the course map online before the race (but didn't look at the one in the race packed). The one online had the Olympic racers doing an extra little loop around the finish line area. When I got to that point all arrows pointed to the finish line and there were no volunteers directing runners. My Garmin had me at only 5.75 miles so I just figured it was a short course. So my office pace of 11:29 is rather generous. It was closer to 12:20 which for me is unacceptable.

Paced better on the bike to save some for the run.

Crossed finish line and grabbed a water. There was nothing else left. All bananas were gone. There were supposed to have beer but I think it was gone too. I went to grab another water and they were even out of that. More on this later...


Training, heat, lack of course support.


As mentioned in the warm-down section, there was basically no water left at the finish and no real food. They had breakfast tacos but that doesn't work without anything to drink.

Also, there timing is horrible. I was pretty sure I was the only Clydesdale doing the Olympic race. I checked the posted results as soon as I crossed the line to be sure. There were 2 others with posted finish times. Both of them had swims of 16 minutes for a 1:07 split. The timer guy was sitting right there so I mentioned it to him and he admitted it didn't look right. He did some digging and found both of them were age groupers and were in the wrong category. So indeed I was the only Clydesdale in the Olympic race to I got first and last place.

I am supposed to do this same course in the fall. They basically had a 2 for 1 promotion going on when I signed up so I am signed up for it. I might skip it but if I do go ahead and race it and the support is as bad as it was for this one this event organizer will be blackballed for me.