Litchfield Hills Olympic Triathlon - Triathlon

water was beautiful. if i was a stronger swimmer i would have foregone the wetsuit. But i need the bouyancy. was a little crowded in the beginning as its a narrow starting channel, but nothing to worry about. i am a lot more comfortable swimming shoulder to shoulder with people. most of them pass me by the first bouy anyway.

breath every 3rd stroke more frequently. pause less. swim a bit faster.

its a 1/4 mile to transition up a gravel road. i'm glad i read the reviews, so paying it forward, definintely WEAR SNEAKERS to the water. i took my wetsuit off at a picnic table by the water and got myself covered in sand to the point i felt like a piece of fried chicken. did a mix of walk/jog to t1. got my helmet on, grabbed a gel and a swig of water and lft T1. there was a very small staging area to hop on the bike so hard to really get going as it was a bit crowded

run faster to t1. other than that, its just a slow trip in this one with the long walk and narrow exits

once on the open roads, in the sun, you could feel the heat really kicking up. it was like 100 degree heat blowing in my face. decided to take an extra salt tab because i knew i was sweating bullets.

i got screwed on the last big hill. somehow i got boxed in and nearly ran off the road at 7 mph. i caught the person in front of me and 2-3 passing me on my left and everyone was wobbly on their bike. i ran out of places to go and you cant really slow down at slow, so i ended up stopping and walking my bike about 50'. walking uphill with the bike cleats... something started to get sore in my groin muscles.

anticipated the slow down and gone to the left and away from the mayhem. this cost me big time.

got myself to gether pretty good. ate another gel, popped another salt tab and took one for the road. swigged down some water. grabbed my sunglasses and race belt and took off

i'd rather catch my breath and be ready for the run than save 5 seconds.

run was cut to 5k for good reason. it was hot as hell out there. i can see people being bummed that were either racing their first olympic or trying for a PR but for the sake of the volunteers, its just not fair to keep them out there as the temps soared to 95 and was really humid. my groin muscles were sore from the bike issue. i had a hard time getting going and staying going. managed the trail piece fine, which was a feat since i never run off road. but the temps were unbearable. tough to really get going, especialy with the injury

try and hold off the pain. wasnt a good effort at all, just wanted to be done and over with at thsi point.

packed my sh*t and got out of there. i changed out of my tri suit in the wide open parking lot. for those of you who are offended, i'm sorry. for those that were intrigued, i'm married :)




having to walk my bike and not dealing well with the strained muscles.


race was completely undermanned. not many volunteers or police on the bike course. The roads were largely in good shape but the first downhill that starts it out was terrible.