St. Anthony's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I got into the starting corral and thought I was going to hurl. I haven't done many (who am I kidding, I haven't done any) OWS. The swim the day before was a little choppy and I was nervous. I just kept telling myself, swim your race, be steady, push harder at the end, breath sight, catch a draft if you can. The horn blows and we run into the water. I stay back a little and find some open water immediately. Get out maybe 100-200 yards and I'm climbing over people because to many slower swimmers tried to start to far up. Up until the first buoy I was swimming good, keeping my pace. Sighting was hard because we were looking right into the sun, so I just followed the pack in front of me. Had a few people hit my legs and I had to go around a few people, but I tried to stay to the outside. Cut in on the first buoy and made the turn. My area had started to thin out so I was happy, but knew there would be no drafts. Between the 2 turn buoys the sun was on my breathing side but never really minded it. I started passing a few people from the wave in front of me which gave me some confidence. I didn't sight to well during this 2nd part. Cut in on the 3rd buoy but not a close as i would have liked and I was further outside then I wanted to be. Couldn't see the finish area, so I sighted the buoys. After the 2nd turn a few from the wave behind me caught up and I tried drafting off them but couldn't hold for more then maybe 50m. As I got closer I could see the finishing steps and aimed right for them. Had a guy on my right so I used him to sight and i'm sure that helped my time.

Overall this was a great swim for me not doing OWS much. With practice and maybe a wetsuit, i'm sure I could be faster.

Goal for swim was under 35mins

Sight a little better and work on drafting.

I had decided against keeping my shoes on my bike. Hadn't had enough practice. I also didn't realize how big St A's transition area would be. I had a great spot under a tree. So it was out of the sun. Came out of the water, onto the steps, took 2 step and was grabbed by two guys who helped me up. Walked for about 3 steps to make sure I had my legs under me and then ran to transition. It was about 30yds from steps to T1 enterance. Got to my bike. Use the water bottle I had by my towel to rinse my mouth of the salt water, then clean my feet with it. Dried them the best I could, socks and shoes on. Sunglasses on, GU's into back pocket and helmet on and strapped and I was off. I was about half way in transition, so I had an equal run both ways with my bike. Got out and mounted with little problems.

Need to work more on the run mount. Otherwise I was happy. T1 time were high for most people.

The bike started out on some Cobblestone, so it was hard to get up to a good speed and in aero. Finally got off of cobble and got into areo and was cruising. Came up about 7mins in and took a GU. Wanted to wait until my stomach settled from any salt water that I swallowed. The front poriton of this race was easy, flat long out and back sections. The second half you had more turns so it was a little more tricky. For the first 10 miles I was averaging about 20mph. Finished the first 10 in just over 30 minutes. After that, my right piriformis started to hurt so I was coming up out of the aero position to try and stretch. Plus the wind picked up a little. Wasn't strong, but enough to slow me down a little. My sunglases had gotten pretty fogged up from my sweat so I took them off towards the end and put them in my back pocket. Came back in with the bay on our right which was nice because we had a cool breeze. Got onto the cobblestone again and undid my shoes, got my feet out and on top. Being on the cobblestone I wasn't sure I wanted to do a running dismount, so I stopped and hopped off before running.

Goal for the bike was under 1:20.

Practice the running dismount and pray that my piriformis wouldn't hurt.

Ran into transtion, racked my bike. Helmet off, sunglases out. 2 drinks of water, visor on, race belt on and slid into my shoes and I was off.

Nothing. I was happy with this transition. Again transition was just so long.

Got out of T2 and was feeling good. My piriformis was tight and hurting but wasn't too bad. In the first mile my right quad (VMO area) really started to get tight and hurt. Thinkiing back it was hurting during the week when I was lifting. Did my first mile in 8:20, but knew I wouldn't be able to hold that pace with the tightness, so I tried to slow it down and I did the 2nd mile in about 8:35. I crossed the half way point at about 26 and change and figured this would be a good split and maybe I could do a negative split. I slowed down even more on the second half as you can see by the time, but I tried to push as hard as I could. Towards the end the piriformis started to loosen up but the quad was hurting. I hit mile 5 and tried to pick up the pace a bit. Felt ok the last mile+ and just finished as hard as I could.

Goal for run was under 55 minutes, but my PR is 48:50 and I knew I should be closer to 50.

Pray I didn't come off the bike with any pains.

I ended up in medical because the strap they gave us for the timing chip cut into my leg and I was bleeding all over my shoe. Walked about with a cold towel and a gatorade. Found Chris (coredump) and Rick (rkreuser) and watched Mike (marradaddy) and Kendall (KendallF) finish. Went to massage tent, then food tent and tried to catch some other finishers.


Tightness/discomfort in the butt and leg.


I had a ton of fun. Meet a lot of new BTers. I will definitely be doing this race again next year.