Luray Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

No wetsuits allowed = perfect. Since this was my first Olympic of the year and I saw a guy I raced at Culpepper and knew was fast, I decided to lay back a little and drag. This worked out really well as the big guy (he is 6'6ish or so) took off right from the beginning and I simply sat on his feet the entire course. Our wave was set up so it was all M 34 and under.

My swim was very relaxed and I did not feel at any point other than the first 200 yards or so that I pushed this. I was able to put over 3 minutes of time on the 2nd place person in my AG.

Not much - I went a little off course at the end but overall my pace was ok and the effort level was cruise control.

This was a disaster. Everything was fine until I tried to put on my tri suit - it took 3 attempts and at least a full minute to get it one - first time inside out, next time upside down and then finally on right. I lost 1.5 minutes on all the top guys.

Next time I am either wearing my full tri suit or not putting on a shirt at all and going topless. This is what the top people all did.

This course was really hilly and really fun. After about a quarter mile you start on a roller coaster like downhill. It is the biggest hill I have ever been on and my top speed was 43 mph - whoohooo - fun stuff. Climbing the hill was not so fun (as in 7mph not so fun) but oh well. This was a very challenging course but it was still a very pretty ride and the drops were amazing. There was a little loose gravel around some of the turns so if anyone is doing the sprint tomorrow - be careful.

The actual course was listed at 25 but a bunch of my friends bike computers showed this was 27.1

Need to practice hills - downhill and straightaways I can somewhat keep up with the fast people...uphill I get smoked.

Had some trouble with my shoelaces - need to get those speedlaces.

The course description said 6.2 miles but peoples GPS's said 5.8. The winning times seemed to confirm this.

My legs were toast from the last hill and this was a struggle. Running is my weakest event anyway so throw in a hard bike and a rolling course and ouch. I kept a steady pace the whole way through and made it in. Time was better than I expected even using 5.8 miles.

Practice more and ask my father why he could not pass his running genes to me. He wins his AG in all the events he does.

Ate and drank a lot. The food was phenom - pizza, burgers, hot dogs, pbj, gatorade, water, cookies, pretzels, all types of fruits, chips, etc....worth it just for the food.


Need more practice on the run - I always get caught on the run.


I was happy with my performance as this race had a ton of depth at the top (My time would have placed me 18 overall and 2 or 3 AG last year) and was maybe the most competitive field I have faced to date.


Really fun race - course is beautiful. Saw a bunch of people I train with and met Shelly from BT who is way cool. :)