Steelman Triathlon - Olympic Distance - Triathlon

This felt very good. I was able to get out in front of the wave early without having to sprint, and basically put the pack behind me (except for one person who got out far ahead) after passing two or three buoys. By the turn-around, I was already dodging the back half of the wave in front of me. I had a bit of difficulty navigating once I made the first turn because we were headed into the sun and the glare was intense, but I tried to keep near other swimmers and eventually found my line. Only once was I significantly off-course, and another swimmer in my wave caught me. After swimming together (really crashing into one another - I had someone on my other side and couldn't avoid her) for a minute, I kicked in a sprint to pull ahead (a very short one, because she pulled up quickly and I never saw her again). The rest of the swim was pretty good. I felt smooth and was keeping a great tempo. I'm not usually good at swimming fast in open water, but this was definitely my best effort at it.

80 degree water meant wetsuits were optional - advantage me.

Not much. Just sight better, but conditions made that difficult today.

Decent T1 - definitely an improvement over last time. I struggled a bit getting my bike shoes on, though, because I forgot to leave the straps open and couldn't slide them on. Other than that things went pretty smoothly.

Make sure my shoes are open!

The bike course started out with a killer hill. It was really rough to get up on cold legs, and I was pretty gassed by the time I turned onto the highway. I did pretty well once I was onto the loop, though. The hills were bigger than I expected, but were comparable to what I have done on training rides, so I handled them well. I got up some great speed on descents, too. The only thing I did poorly was navigate the turn-arounds - I had to slow to nearly a stop in order to turn comfortably, which killed my momentum. Other than that, I did really well and felt good about it.

Get comfortable with sharp turns on my bike. My bike handling in general could use a bit of work. Also, I completely forgot about nutrition for the first hour and had to shove a whole bunch of Shot Bloks in my mouth at once to try and compensate. I was so worried about staying hydrated that I forgot about taking in calories.

Got through this fairly quickly. When I racked my bike, I squished my finger between it and the rack, which slowed me down a little. Shoes went on easily and I remembered my nutrition, but I forgot my watch and had to run back for it.

Remember my watch! This isn't the first time this has happened.

It was extremely hot, so I didn't put much pressure on myself. I tried to run as much as I could, but didn't beat myself up about walking, especially on hills during the second half of the race. I brought a water bottle with electrolytes plus some Clif Shot Bloks, and also made sure to drink plenty of the cold water (my bottle was steaming hot) from the aid stations. I also doused myself in water repeatedly, took advantage of the guy spraying us down with a hose on the course, and put ice down my back twice. The ice was a huge help - I felt my running improve significantly when I had it. My last mile was pretty solid - I was able to run almost all of it. Since my warm-up run took me through the finish chute, I was completely prepared for the finish and was able to not only keep running, but speed up a bit toward the end. As I turned for the finish, another woman came up alongside me. I sped up, so she sped up. Then I said, "So we're sprinting this? Let's go!" and sprinted into the finish just past her. (I hope she found that fun and not obnoxious - I meant it as fun). I had no idea who she was and never even got a look at her, but turns out she was in my age group and I beat her by a second! Let's hear it for last-minute sprints!

Until I get faster, not much. This is basically how I've been running in the heat, but a little slower because I was tired from the other legs. The only other thing I could do to improve is to lay off the other legs a bit, but I'm not ready to do that right now.

Walked around, ate some fruit, hydrated. I sat and chatted with a few women for a bit. Got results and then tried to stick around for awards, but I was too overheated and uncomfortable, so we skipped out early.


Heat was the killer today. Yesterday was in the 90s with a 110 degree heat index and super-high humidity. Today was a bit better with the humidity, but still hot and icky. The heat took a toll on everyone.


This was a really nice, well-organized race (as the 39-page athlete note attests). There were tons of volunteers who were very enthusiastic. There were plenty of water stations on the run course and they did not skimp on water, Gatorade or ice - a very welcome thing on such a devastatingly hot day.