Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Swim Time - 33:46
Age Group - 54/60
Overall - 819/968

This was my first olympic triathlon and as I would later find out, I picked one of the toughest Oly tris in the country in Columbia. Thanks! The swim was cool though. It was my first race with a wetsuit, and wow was it helpful. I told myself I would start in the back and avoid the mad rush as I know I'm not a great swimmer. So we were all treading water waiting for the gun to go off when one of the guys in the back with us yells out: "I'm not dead yet!" It was hilarious and people started yelling out, "I'm not dead yet!" all over the place. Really funny and great stress reliever. I think I'll yell that out in all future races to come! We started and as usual I had trouble getting into a rhythm. Luckily, since I was in the back, the kicking and cramming was kept to a minimum. The big problem this time around was my goggles kept fogging up - REALLY annoying - made it difficult to see out of them - but they did keep the water out. My big problem throughout was navigating as it always is. I tried to draft someone, but I kept going off course... apparently I can't swim in a straight line. Another goal of mine was to go fast enough that I didn't get overtaken by the NEXT wave's swimmers which are separated by 5 minutes. I made it all the way to the end but alas, a few of them caught up to me. Nonetheless, 33 minutes is a very good time for me. I'm happy with this part of the race.

I need to learn to navigate properly. Also, I swear I take too many strokes. I need to learn how to glide in the water and elongate each stroke so I'm not wasting energy. In the pool, it's always incredibly embarrassing when I'm huffing and puffing away on my freestyle and some ten year old kid is crusing past me with a butterfly. I should invest in a master's swim class. I bet I could seriously take 7 or 8 minutes off my time.

Time - 5:39
Age Group - 58/60
Overall - 679/968

I always stink at transitions. I told myself I would take my time on the transitions, as my goal was just to finish this race. Mentally I was hoping to do well on each event with some benchmarks in mind, but really, I made the overall goal of just finishing. As I ran in from the water, the spectators and fans were awesome. They were high fiving us and cheering like I was some superstar. That's always the amazing part of these races and this was no exception. Immediately out of the water I pulled down the string as instructed and pulled the wetsuit down off my upper body. At my bike, I pulled off the wetsuit while lying on the ground, poured water on my feet to get the sand and dirt off, dried them off and put bike socks on. Then I put the bike shoes on, helmet and shades. I also put my bike gloves on - people were saying that you don't need it for this short of a distance, but honestly I need all the help I can get so I put them on. Then I jogged the bike out. BIG MISTAKE: I didn't eat anything in transition and put only one gel pack in my tri top pocket.

EAT EAT EAT.

Time - 1:29:02
Age Group - 48/60
Overall - 679/968

I pushed myself really hard on this course. I wanted to have a good bike time by my standards but with a 48 out of 60 age group ranking, that didn't really happen. The hills killed me. I guess I don't really have any excuses... I did hills in my training - but there aren't any areas in south jersey, where I'm from, that have this difficulty of hills. The big problem on the bike was, I only had one water bottle and I drank that pretty much up and then I was out. My gel pack fell out of my pocket, so I had no nutrition during the bike ride. I had a horrendous run, and this lack of nutrition probably did it.

Eat more on the bike, otherwise just train hills. I have an entry level road bike (Trek 1000) with aerobars put on them - but like Lance says, it's not the bike.

Time - 3:24
Age Group - 57/60
Overall - 852/968

Why do I suck so much at transitions? I was exhausted after the bike. I pushed myself hard, too hard, on the bike and I was feeling major major tightness in my quads during the transition. Maybe I was "dead yet" after all. I took about 45 seconds to stretch my quads and calves out before getting into the run. I took my time to wear a fuel belt and a running hat. I wanted to put dry socks on, but the rain had made them wet, so there was no option there.

Not sure.

Time - 1:04:47
Age Group - 53/60
Overall - 825/968

Terrible run. This part disappointed me. I'm not great on any of the events by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel running is my best event and I do a lot of running. Unfortunately, I run on flat terrain for the most part and the hills once again rocked me. Right off the bat, my quads went into spasms - the front part right under the knees and towards the inside. This was obviously evidence that I had 1) pushed too hard on the bike and 2) not eaten enough. It was humiliating to me because cardiovascularly I was feeling incredible and ready to attack that run, but my legs gave out on me. Right off the bat, there was a short but ridiculously steep curving hill that I had to walk. Then it was hill after hill after hill. I hadn't expected this. I had to walk all the hills and run the downhill and flat portions. Honestly, I don't know how I did it in 10 and half minute miles - I felt so much slower. It was depressing and humiliating.

Obviously, eating would help. I'm guessing gel packs and maybe even some granola bars or something. Drinking was fine, as I had a fuel belt. I got some ridicule for wearing it, as people were telling me it's not necessary but I've always trained with it so I wanted to keep the real thing as close to the training as possible. How do I get better at this part? It seems my legs are always failing me during the run portion - be it my calves cramping up or quads.

I was dejected aftewards and didn't do much of anything. It was cool to finish my first Olympic and I know Columbia is a difficult race, but the run kind of upset me. Ah well.


Poor navigation in the swim, not eating on the bike, wet roads, long transition times, hellacious run.


Great setup, transition area security, organized, everything was on time, volunteers were incredible and helpful. Great race setup.