St. Anthony's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

This was a great swim for me. I felt great in the water. I was nervous about the start, so I lined up on the right hand side (away from the bouys) but right up in front. My plan was to allow the faster swimmers to get going while I navigated my way over to the left during the first 200 yards or so. It worked out very well. By the first bouy, I was on the line and in a groove.


I passed a lot of people on the swim and caught quite a few folks from the waves ahead of me. There were two left hand turns and all the bouys were on the left. I'm a right side breather, so navigating was a bit tricky. The water was calm and I really just enjoyed this swim. The wetsuit and added bouyancy in the salt water made me feel very fast, I could see the water rushing by over my head as I came up to breathe.

I swam alongside this other fellow who was also in my swim wave. I breathed to the right, he breathed to the left. Our stroke timing was so well matched that each time we came up to breathe, we were looking right at each other. I never saw him again once I exited the water, but it was great, if not comical, to have someone there to help steer and to pace me.

The real problem with this leg of the race was the fact that I swallowed so much water and air. I've done this in the pool while training but learned to belch the air out while swimming. I guess I was so focused on everything around me that I didn't realize what was happening. I nearly threw up on the run into T1 and in hindsight, I should have put a finger down my throat and gotten rid of all that air and water. It killed my race performance towards the end, which I'll explain later.

Try to avoid swallowing so much water.

T1 took a while since my gut was really hurting. I sat for a few seconds just hoping I could rid myself of some of this air. No dice. So, I got my gear on and headed out with my bike.

Go ahead and puke.

I decided to really push the bike. All I could hear in my head was Fromer saying "attack, attack". So, I did. I rode hard, keeping my cadence up between 95 and 110. I hit 120 at one point. My HR was up around 160, which I knew was high, but it was a race and I wanted to meet my time goals. My gut was really hurting and it made it literally impossible to drink any fluids. I had a full bottle of my drink mix and only was able to drink about a third of it. Normally, I would have consumed all of it on the bike. I didn't get any calories nor fluids into my body during the ride. I was wondering when I would begin to "crash".

Changed into running shoes, grabbed my drink bottle, and headed out.

I ran the first mile at 8:30, the second at 8:45, then I basically crashed at the turnaround point at mile 3.1. I threw my fluid bottle away since I still couldn't drink. Even a small sip caused real discomfort. I ran with a stitch the entire time, trying to breathe out when my left foot hit the ground to minimize the pain. This run sucked. I trained very hard so that on race day, I would have lots of juice left in my legs for the run. But, due to the air bubble in my stomach, nothing could get past and into my system. Because I couldn't drink, I just crashed. I gutted out the final 3 miles in considerable discomfort.

Walked around looking for the other BT'rs as they finished.


Stomach ache.


St. Anthony's is a first class, well organized, and awesome event. I will be doing it again next year. This was great fun.

At 6pm, all the BT'rs (Wendi-G8RSAX, Mike-G8RLA94, Jeff-JkBostic, Chris-Coredump, Sue-Sue7013 and Renee-RENEE), met up at the Bar on the veranda of the Vinoy Hotel. We sat, drank, and laughed away the night while reliving our races and making fun of Chris (coredump) for getting dinged with a drafting penalty. We were in awe of Sharon's performance (Snikpos) who finished somewhere around 2:35! We talked about a lot of stuff and agreed that none of it should show up on the BT board. Suffice it to say, my legs are sore, my head hurts, but I feel great. Laughter is great medicine. The best memories I'll take home from this race are the times spent with the other BT'rs. Now I realize for certain why this is such a great forum. The people make it what it is.

Instead of posting pics here, I'll put them in my album...here's the link: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/photos/photo-thumbnail...