St. Anthony's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Best. Swim. Ever.
Let's see: salt water, wetsuit legal, totally calm conditions, simple course, visible bouys. This is the recipe for a PR swim.

I started in the back and in the middle. Didn't want to get caught up in the thrashing. I don't know that I should have started further up because I passed a lot of guys, particularly after the first 200 yards. These were guys who went out hard and then died so even if I had gone out further up, I probably still would have had to pass them, but they would have been in more of a pack. The sun was in our eyes on the out portion which made siting buoys hard, but I just tried to keep in the center of the swimmers visible ahead of me.

I focussed on form, not going too hard, and sighting frequently. This was a really fun swim. Managed to draft behind guys twice for about 5 minutes each. One started to drift too much to the right so I let him go. The other just pulled ahead and I didn't want to tire myself out trying to stick with him.

I only went a bit off course once, after the second turn when I let my mind drift a bit and found myself veering left and in line with the buoys. Didn't lose much at all though so it wasn't a big deal.

Nothing. Just gotta keep doing what I'm doing in the pool. It's paying off.

178/301 AG
The wetsuit came off well. Stepped out of it. Had a hard time getting on my right shoe which added a good chunk of time. Maybe I just need to run harder.

Go faster.

I don't remember too many details of this ride, I just recall really enjoying being on the bike.

Crowding wasn't an issue on the course and I only saw one blatant pack.

Kept the HR in Z2, except for the last 5 miles when I went somewhat harder. My bike fitness is really bad so I didn't want to push this and ruin my run. Just enjoyed the ride, the weather and the day.



train on the bike

202/301 AG
Not good. I need to get quicker at this. Some bricks with transition practices should do it.

Felt tired to start the run but I also knew that it was only 10k so it didn't seem daunting. Marathon training definitely has benefits. The first half I just worried about getting in a groove and keeping moving. I probably should have worked harder because I don't think there was any reason not to have sub 8 min. miles here.

I picked up my pace at the turnaround and focused on one thing: passing people. I'd find someone ahead of me and work on picking them off, then I'd find someone else. I did manage to pass a lot of guys in my age group on this part of the run.

I got gatorade at one aid station and water at 2. Walked briefly through those to get the liquids down, not more than 5 seconds of walking though. Last aid station I see a bunch of kids so I took my hat off and tell them to give me a shower. They always enjoy this and I like to give them something entertaining for being out there. A few of them dump water on my head, but one kid takes a cup of water and launches it right in my face from very close range. I heard the rest of the people at the aid station gasp. I may have to stop that little bit of entertainment.

At the 6 mile marker I passed a guy and said "C'mon! Come with me!" trying to see if we could push each other to the finish line. He says something like "no, you go", I reply "come with me!" he still says "no" so I pull ahead and he yells "OH NO! You're in my Age Group!". Can't say I didn't give a shot at me. ;)

Saw a few BT'ers: KendallF, rkreuser, CubeFarmGopher. Heard a few shouts of "Go BT" and "marmadaddy" but I didn't catch who yelled them.

Right at the end I saw Julie on the left side of the course and then coredump, rkreuser, parrj and brian(?) on the right. What a way to come down the chute. Great stuff.

Push harder right out of T2. I think I held back a bit too much, but I wasn't confident I could handle the heat.

Got my blue-towel-soaked-in-ice-water-from-heaven, some gatorade, some water and walked around looking for Julie and/or the guys I saw at the end of the race. No dice. I did run into Kendall and his beautiful family.

Finally found a few folks at the banner. Didn't get any food at the site because I wasn't really hungry (probably due to the heat). We had to check out so we went back to the hotel, I packed the bike, took a shower, loaded the rental Kia Sportage and determined via wireless that the place to be was La Veranda. Went there, hung out, showed some folks the super double secret back alleys of BT, gave rkreuser back the goggles my wife purloined from him the day before (but only after extracting a diet pepsi from him) and set off on our way back home.

This was a great race and BT'ers are damn fine bunch of people.

It was one of those weekends that's so good it felt like a week long vacation. It really doesn't get better.




age
genetics
how I spent the first 40 years of my life
a serious lack of time in the saddle over the last 6 months


This race is a big deal. It's huge and incredibly well run. They really pay attention to the details. If you like destination races, this is a great way to start your season. The area right around the venue has lots of good restaurants, hotels, shopping etc. and the course is great. I was surprised that with so many participants I never felt crowded.

If you like big event type races, this is highly recommended.