Colonial Bicycle Wallis Sands Triathlon - Triathlon

Here it is. The MF'ing swim that has broken me many times before. No matter how well I did in the pool or in OWS this ocean swim was one of the few I do during the year and the waves or whatever here just kill me. Finally I slayed that dragon. I went so easy on this. Waves were every 3 minutes and I was in the first wave so I walked into the water which is what most people did but some ran in. Waves were big but at 6'6" I could walk pretty far in before I had to swim without trudging through the water and feeling like I was wasting energy. Once I got swimming I just took my time, thought of BigFuzzy's swim tips (if you don't have those that he posted years ago let me know, awesome tips) and kept myself long and made sure to extend. Got out to the middle buoy really quick, turned it pretty hard inside some others that went wide, then made my way to the last buoy. I was a bit off on my sighting going to buoy 3 but corrected myself and when I wanted to pass someone, I did. Not to say I put minimal effort into the swim but I took it easy by design not to necessarily to leave more for the bike/run but just to not psych myself out.

Go harder. The demons are gone. Next time I'll feel perfectly fine going after this course and being in the top people out of the water.

Unzipped my suit running out of the water. Being tall I find it to be a big advantage to be able to start wading out of the water and getting my suit off before I really hit the beach, so that's what I do. Left my goggles/cap in my suit sleeve and jogged up to transition. Had a bit of trouble getting the heels out but for the most part it was ok.

Eh, move a bit faster but for the most part it was ok. I know in a sprint every second counts but for this race I wasn't super concerned with my transitions.

I had no doubts about my biking, it was really how can I pace myself after not racing for 2 years. For the most part I'm pretty happy with how it went. I kept it pretty smooth the whole time. Passed a few people right off the bat but I did get passed by more people than I've ever been passed by before. Maybe it was the way the waves were broken up or the fact I'm usually the last one out of the water, who knows. Regardless, just stuck with looking at my watch and seeing 21-23 MPH with a HR between 155-165 the whole time. Drank plenty of liquids, had 2 shot blocks just because I felt kind of hungry. I get my solace in knowing that the people that were passing me were on tri-bikes with deep wheels. Might be time for me to get on that. A little disappointed to avg under 21 MPH, would have sworn I had to higher but I know I could have pushed harder and chased some of those nice bikes down and I didn't since the run was really the unknown with me today.

Push harder. I've gone faster on this course in years before but maybe leveling off a bit helped my run

Took my right foot out too early and couldn't get my left. Not a huge deal, just had to stop a few feet short of the dismount line but my wife and kids were right there so I got to slow down enough to see them and give my son a high five.

Learn a flying dismount maybe? Race belt could go on in the wetsuit but I put that on while running out so not a huge deal.

Starting off I thought I was going slow. I haven't done ANY race pace work with the run lately, just all slow Z2 runs. On purpose I left the pace screen off my watch during the run so I'd just go by effort. Clicked the first mile off at 7:39 and I was in shock I was moving that fast. Missed the second mile split but finished at 7:13 miles which was awesome for me. I was pushing 165-170 BPM the whole way, so I had a little room to go at the end but that really felt like a good sustainable pace for the whole run. Maybe it was going a bit easy on the bike that set up for a good run but that was my fastest run at this race yet. Saw my wife and kids again about 100 yards from the chute and got a big high five from my son and supposedly he was screaming my name every time he saw me on the course which really just makes the whole thing worth it.

Push harder? Couldn't ask for much more where I am right now.

Saw my wife and kids, couple other friends, had some water and a couple bars and yogurts


Not training. I've been going at it pretty good for the last 6 weeks, mainly swimming because I didn't want to die in the Atlantic, but the fact I came out and put up my best time at this race in 4 attempts on my least amount of training is interesting. Funny how I'm getting faster as I get older. 2012 1:32; 2013 1:21; 2014 1:18; 2016 1:16. Next year I'm definitely getting under 1:10. I know where the lowest hanging fruit is and plan to pick it all off this winter.


Sadly the post-race stuff wasn't as good as years before. The shirts were typically cotton, not tech shirts. No pizza or anything warm after the finish, just some nature valley bars and bananas. They usually do a great job with the post race business but this year it felt lacking.