Washington Olympic Triathlon - Triathlon

I felt like I had a good swim. I was able to draft some guys for some of it. I swam a pretty straight line and sighting was good. Based on my Garmin and my time (almost 29 minutes) the course was long. 1.05 according to the Garmin.

Nothing.

The transition area was really small and I was right near the bike out. So I put on my shoes in transition. My time was 5-10 seconds slower than the fastest times (don’t know what they did with their shoes). The bike mount in first couple of hundred yards was congested with guys weaving all over. This surprised me until I realized that these were the mid-pack or slower sprint athletes.

My bike mount with my shoes on was a bit sloppy. Should probably practice a running mount enough to do it confidently in races.

I rode really hard. I don’t think I could have gone much harder without damaging my run. But I still came in at 22.7, below my 23 goal. The wind must have been more of a factor than I thought because I should have been able to match my ride at White Lake. I drank 2 bottle of Nuun and ate 2 gels.

T2 was really fast. I changed shoes grabbed my stuff and took off.

Nothing.

I focused on running about a 7 min pace (which is about what I've run in the last 3 Olys) or below but it was really hard. I've been focused on 70.3 distance so I didn't feel like I have a good top end. I managed to stay around 7 for the first couple of miles. In my first mile I saw the leader going the other way, mostly through his first loop. But because of the sprint athletes mixing with the leading Olympic athletes I couldn’t tell how many were between first place and me. I would have guessed I was 5th or 6th. After the first turnaround I saw the guy who I thought was the closest behind me and he was a couple of minutes back. Then I saw some other Olympic guys behind him. When I made the second turn at the end of the first loop I could see that the guy behind me was losing ground and no one behind him was gaining either. And I hadn’t seen anyone ahead who it looked like I could catch. So I eased off the pace just a bit and ran at about a 7:10-7:15 pace. I probably could have run harder than I did but it would have hurt and wouldn't have changed the results. I had a few swallows of sports drink two or three times during the run.

Gone harder if pushed.

I finished and waited around for results. It took forever. I texted Wendy and told her I thought I finished 6th or 7th overall but probably won my AG (which was small... only 13 guys). I was ready to leave but finally they posted the Olympic results. I had finished 3rd overall. I was excited, even if it was a small race.


Overall, I really enjoyed the race. It was small and informal. It felt almost more like a meet-up than a serious race. The course isn't ideal because of the out and back double loops, but the surface is good and it's flat. I'd probably do this race again.