Hickory Knob Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I wasn't disappointed with this swim, despite my painfully slow time. This was my first wetsuit swim, and first (nearly) mile OWS swim, so I took it easy and kept a pace that I knew would get me through the whole course. The first 400 meters or so were hard, I couldn't find my rhythm, but after that I was able to manage pretty well. Another first was drafting... with about 400 meters to go, I found someone who had caught me from the next wave, but they seemed to be going about my pace, so I was able to draft nearly the whole way in After climbing up the ladder to the pier and pulling myself up the ramp by the railings, I remembered that the transition area was still a good 200 yards straight up, via mostly hard, cold, and very spiky pavement. I realized that a good two minutes of the swim was the climb to T1 (at least for me).

Nothing much. I just need to spend more time in the water... same story with me, I'm still a pretty weak swimmer.

I was pretty dizzy after the swim and the uphill barefoot hike up that steep hill, but I sat down and peeled it off my legs. It was certainly easier to remove while wet, and I had unzipped and had it around my waist before I entered the transition area. Bodyglide helped a LOT.

Practice getting the wetsuit off.

It was cold, and this course felt a lot longer than it actually was. I'd been practicing 45-55 mile rides followed by a 3 mile run, and this was way worse than any practice, mostly because of the hills. I pulled on a long-sleeve jersey at the last minute as I was wet and shivering. It helped, but I may stuff some arm warmers somewhere on the bike for these colder rides.

More practice on hills. I don't see many climbs like that around where I live now, but maybe I'll keep looking and do some focused work.

I went down hard on the pavement right before the dismount line... ouch. I was on one side of the bike still clipped into the left pedal and the volunteer was pointing at the dismount spot. I was just about to jump off and run and my front tire hit a raised reflector in the street. The wheels went out from under me and my backside hit hard. Of course my wife and 5-year-old daughter were right there, hoping to get a picture (which they did) and everyone ran up to me asking if I was OK. I pulled myself up (swearing) and limp-ran into the transition area. After I got my running shoes on I was really unsure about making it through the run, but I pulled myself together and started running.

Not fall.

I felt good about this run, even though my upper thigh was throbbing from that nasty fall before T2. The hills weren't as bad as they looked, either.

Not much. I'm pretty happy with my running, considering I couldn't run a mile less than a year ago.

Grabbed a drink at the finish line and hugged my 5-yr-old daughter. What a high. I kept moving for a bit, walking around at the finish area, grabbing some food, etc. Then I showered and took my daughter to the playground for a bit.


Time spent practicing. Not much else...


I don't know if I'll be doing this race again next year, but it was really fun. I thought I was hooked on tris before, now I'm hooked on olympic distance!