USAT Age Group National Championship - Triathlon

Oh how I still suck at swimming! This was about a perfect a swim I could have asked for. Basically a quick out and back having to only go around 2 buoys. The water was calm, warm (no wetsuits) but I still somehow managed to swim well below my goal time of 25 mins. I got in a pack early, drafted well and felt relaxed but clearly I wasn't swimming hard enough and therefore was much slower than I was hoping to be.

Swim harder

Shoes, helmet and shades on and off I went. I ran past my rack but quickly found myself in the right place. Run was long but on nice grass so no issues running both barefoot and in my bike shoes.

Bike course was smooth and scenic. Given my history of cramping during the run, I decided to keep my bike hard but not overdo it and with an avg HR of 146 I more or less achieved my goal. There were a few spots where I found my HR dropping and I had a hard time pushing out of it but overall my bike was ok. Not great, not terrible. Given we were riding on a 2 lane road, there were a few sections where I got bunched up with a group of riders. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but I found out after the fact that I was hit with a 6 minute penalty which I can only imagine was for drafting. I've never drafted before, either intentionally or unintentionally, but clearly someone on e motorcycle thought otherwise. In the grand scheme of the results it took me from 83rd place to 102 so not exactly a deal breaker, but still frustrating.

Bike more and bike harder. This was a fast course and with the top guys in my AG biking around 24mph avg, I feel that I could get close to that without blowing myself up.

I took my feet out of my bike shoes before hitting the dismount line and ran into transition like a pro! This was the first time I've done this successfully in a race and it felt great. It helped that there was a long smooth road heading into transition so I knew I had time to do it but overall I was very happy with this and still feeling good.

Nothing

2 loop course and basically flat. I tend to cramp badly on the run so I brought some HotShot with me and figure I go out at a comfortable pace and hope for the best. Mile 1 was 7:25, then 7:02, then 6:52. When I felt a cramp coming on a took a swig of HotShot and while there were a few places where I had to slow down, nothing stopped me dead in my tracks and I was able to run hard the whole race. I was very happy with my overall run time and this was definitely a 10K PR (in a tri) for me. My overall pace was 7:09/mile.

I wasn't nearly as exhausted as I should have been which means I probably could have and should have gone harder but this was as close to a cramp free race as I've had in a long time so I was feeling good. My family was there at the finish line cheering me on so I couldn't have asked for a better ending to a long morning!


I think more training time, especially on the bike, would allow me to push harder without sacrificing my run. I also clearly need to learn to swim faster but as a self taught adult onset swimmer, I may just need to invest or invent in a motor to attach to my feet!


This race was truly a 10/10. Everything was extremely well organized, volunteers were great and I doubt there's another Oly distance race with this level of competition anywhere else in the world. Hopefully I'll qualify again and be able to do better in the future.