Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Started the swim way to fast. I was definately a whole body length in front for the first 25 yards. Then they all caught me. I managed to out-swim my AG, but quite a few of the 25-29 year olds in my AG kicked my butt. I felt alot better with the full suit this time, but it still takes time getting used to. My arms feel more fatigued with sleeves.

This swim never felt comfortable, but I am pretty happy with my time so I can't really complain.

Train more than 900 yards this month ;)

I thought I was SLOW during transition but I was 7/85 in my AG so probably not that bad.

Not sit down in transition :)

Started out the bike with a bunch of ladies, including my friend Jean. Jean is a great biker (she smoked me by 14 minutes at Kinetic on the bike) so the goal was to keep up with her. She was in the wave 6 minutes ahead of me along with Nikki and we were trying to catch Nikki (but never did). We had a group of maybe 5-6 gals that kept passing each other over and over again. The turning point was the big hill after the cows where we got rid of most of the group except for my new DCtriclub friend Cassie. We kept hammering through the ride that was filled with crap all over the road (pumps, extra tires, ....) and a few casualties of the wet conditions including a guy laying on his side moaning waiting for the ambulance. Staying with a group of people gives me a good idea of my strengths/weaknesses. I definately probably pushed the hills too hard because I would pass them just to get passed again at the top. Where I felt the best was on the flats. Not that there were any at all. I got in front of our little group and almost broke free. All the loops at flat HP are paying off! Makes me look forward to a flat course like Eagleman!

At the end I was surprised that we didn't get penalties but it was IMPOSSIBLE to get away from all these girls all at the same speed but with different strengths/weaknesses.

Maybe throttle back a little bit on the uphills to save more for the run. But I am a sprinter, and this is what I like to do - Hammer :)

The results were hilarious. Nikki and I joke that we are pretty similiar in bike fitness. She finished with a 1:21:21, I was 1:21:31. Jean was 1:21:24. Now that is some crazy stuff.

Faster than I thought - again. 15/85 in AG.

Not sit down :)

Yes I suck at the run. That wasn't my slowest Oly distance run, but close (the other was single track trail 10k at Charlottesville Oly tri). I felt stronger as the run went on, so that must be a good thing. I passed one 30-34 chica but got passed by 1 around mile 2 and 3 or 4 around mile 4-5. If I just could have had a bit more lead (or a bit more speed HEHEH) I could have beaten these girls. I was 3.5 minutes out of a podium spot so with focused oly training and more than a 3 day rest I am pretty sure I can come back to this race in the future and kick some butt!

The cool thing is that I beat Jean out of transition and I dropped her. But she showed up on my shoulder at mile 6.05 and we agreed to finish together and we SPRINTED to the end. I would not have pushed the finish that hard without her! Thanks Jean!

Nothing - really.

Food!


Training for an IM with little or no speedwork I guess. And if I actually swam I probably could have gone about 2 minutes faster which would have been nice.


Great race! I never found the food tent - but then again I had the DCtriclub tent for a great hot dog! This was my first race that was over around 500-600 participants. Wow what a difference 1500+ people makes! I know this is silly but the coolest thing was the results were up at the end of the race and were posted by AG. Now that is cool!

Races like this remind me that after this IM "experiment" that I am training for now that I will be back racing 1-2 Olys a month. Its my favorite distance (LONG SWIM relative) and I like to hammer. Pacing is not my thing. :)