Carpinteria Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Swim felt good. Very relaxed.

Only bad part of swim was catching the slower swimmers from the previous waves and running into the Sprint event swimmers on the way back.

Must learn how NOT to blow a 7 minute lead over the 1st place finisher.

Nothing. Gotta love the swim!

Long run to bike exit. My rack was right in the middle between the bike exit/entrance and the run exit. Felt fast, but was 5th in age group.

Wet suit off easily.

Short of banding shoes to bike and going without socks, which I'm not going to do, I'm not sure what I can do to improve my time.

Felt very fast. 7/10 in age group. 219th overall. Very good ride for me. I really pushed this segment. My goal was 1:30-1:33 for the ride and I bettered that and held a good pace for the entire ride.

I think it was VERY helpful to have done a training ride on the course before the race. My hill work with Erin out in Huasna and on Orcutt has paid off. Major hills in race were painful, but I was able to stay with #1 and #2 on both the big hills.

I don't think I would have done anything different. I probably rode a little too hard which affected the run, but I was very pleased with my ride.

My biking has improved substantially this year. Keep working on my speed on the flats.

Bit of traffic when I returned to transition. Racers walking in and out of transition thru bike return. Must have been racers that had already finished, but weren't paying attention to racers coming in to transition to run. I basically just kept running with my bike and said "Excuse me." I wasn't going to slow down or stop for these folks.
3/10 in age group


I entered transition with a gal from my age group and I found myself foregoing taking that extra drink of water and mentally transitioning when I saw her preparing to leave for the run. I had to go out with her! What I didn't notice is that she took her water with her - damn, why didn't I think of that?

Ugh! Started out very well. Holding 8 min/miles, staying with the competition for first 2 miles. Mile 3 was about 8:20 min/mile. Miles 4-5 got slower and the last portion even slower. It felt like I was paying for the great ride with a terrible second half run.

I should have been at least 2 minutes faster.

More bricks! Don't worry about sticking to my 8 min/miles - Think about pacing myself and negative splitting.

Walked around for about 10 minutes. Sat for about 5 minutes. Drank lots of water and Gatorade and ate lots of oranges and bananas.

Drove home and attended a restorative yoga class to help stretch everything out.


Hard to say, but I would chalk most of it up to it being my first Olympic distance. I had the basics down from sprints, but I didn't have any idea of what it would feel like to be at race pace for almost 3 hours.

Need to add more bricks.


I was scared to death of doing anything more than a sprint when I signed up for this race. I was able to overcome my fears and I'm looking forward to doing more Olys next season.

I think this was probably the most enjoyable race I did all season.

In addition to the physical training for this race, I really concentrated on my mental preparation. This was the most relaxed (least nervous) I've ever been in any race. I was able to focus on every aspect of the actual race. Never once felt any anxiety/stress during the race. I felt "in control" of my race. I think this contributed to the enjoyment factor.

Carpinteria is a small town and you can't get lost. Motel 6 less than a mile from the race site. Lots of parking around the race site. Lots of good restaurants. Less than 2 hours from home. Great location.