St. Anthony's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The last warning you had that your wave was starting was at 1’. I luckily looked at my watch when they said 1’ so I would be able to start my HRM about 10” prior to the horn. That way all I had to worry about at the horn was GOING. As I stated in the pre-race routine, I ended up in the second row in the middle. That was NOT a good starting location. I would have preferred to be on an end right up front. Lesson learned for next time to start my warmup sooner so I can seed myself properly for the swim. It was a run-in start. I was right behind the front row chicks but the two in front of me seriously slowed down once they started swimming. Sheesh, people…if you’re going to seed yourself in the front row you’d better be going FULL BORE when you hit the water! It took me 20” to get between those two chicks. Once I got around them I was going full out and searching for feet but I didn’t have any luck. I just couldn’t stay directly behind anyone. It was SUPER crowded (yet another reason I wish I had been on an end) and basically a big washing machine. I also was not feeling very fast.

After about the first buoy the crowd settled out and I actively searched for fast feet and just didn’t have any luck. But at least it had thinned out enough that I didn’t have to sight a lot either. I swim very straight so I just put my head down and settled into a race pace. I had a LOT of chicks swim crooked across my path. I showed no mercy and swam right over them. The way I see it, I was helping them out. I was letting them know earlier than they would have noticed that they were not swimming straight.:-) This nice open space lasted until midway through the second leg. About then we started to catch up to the previous wave’s stragglers. I went by several of them like they were treading water. But I was hurting. Breathing hard and arms were feeling it. I never really got into a GOOD rhythm. Once I turned around the final buoy it was just a crowded mess. There were so many people I had to stop my long sight-less stretches and start sighting more often so that I wouldn’t run into people. That last leg was really uncomfortable but thankfully it was pretty short. I got to the stairs and sorta pushed right by some folks taking their time. I landed on the stairs on all fours (the folks pulling you out of the water were kind of useless). I kept three to four points of contact on the stairs until a guy at the top grabbed one of my arms. As soon as I hit the solid ground I pulled off my swim cap and goggles, glanced at my watch to see 24:xx and ran towards T1. I had to watch my footing through a 10’ long mud pit but then finally hit grass. Hit my watch crossing the timing mats then walked and started to pull down my wetsuit.

I would line up earlier so that I wouldn't get stuck in the second row. I want clean water to start in!

Okay, the running was killing me, so I definitely walked fast through T1. I did get the wetsuit around my waist before getting to my spot (the transition area was HUGE). Once at my spot the wetsuit came off in seconds. I pulled it down and pulled out one leg then stood on it to pull out the other leg. Threw it back behind my bike. I fumbled around with my helmet and sunglasses. Then I took a few extra seconds to squirt on some sunscreen to minimize the inevitable sunburn. At least for once I knew that EVERYTHING I needed was ON my bike so as soon as I had my helmet and sunglasses and stuffed the gel in my pocket I grabbed the bike (had a LITTLE trouble getting it off the rack) and ran. Hit the stopwatch as I crossed the timing mat but forgot to start the Ergomo right there.

Practice. I knew what to do and fumbled with my hands.

Stats from the Ergomo:
Entire workout (171 watts):
Duration: 1:16:21
Work: 784 kJ
TSS: 126.8 (intensity factor 0.998)
Norm Power: 180
VI: 1.05
Distance: 24.731 mi
Elevation Gain: 374 ft
Elevation Loss: 413 ft

Min Max Avg
Power: 0 581 171 watts
Heart rate: 0 179 165 bpm
Cadence: 36 116 93 rpm
Speed: 2.2 30 19.4 mph

Those watts include running in transition though....

I ran with the bike to the mount line. My shoes were not quite even on the pedals and one of them was dragging along the cement but I didn’t stop to worry about it. I’ll remember to place them better next time. Once past the mount line I darted past the chicks who stopped literally just on the other side of it and got myself a clear space. I don’t have the flying mount perfected yet, so I stopped, hit the Ergomo start button, threw my right leg over the bike and got ready to start. If I don’t hit it JUST right I screw up the shoes. I pushed down on the right shoe/pedal (still standing on the bike) to find out that I was between two gears. I thought I set the gears right during transition setup, but I guess not! The pedal gave way below me (OUCH) but I managed to keep my seat and got enough forward momentum to get my left foot on the other shoe and start pedaling. I pedaled on top of my shoes for awhile since the first quarter mile was on cobblestone. I didn’t feel like eating it that early in the bike segment. Once off the cobblestones and around the first curve I coasted a bit to get my shoes on. I watched a chick drop a bottle off her bike and not go back for it (WHERE are the officials when you need them????) and I managed to avoid it. Then I was on my way!

My instructions were to have watts and HR working but not look at them and go by RPE. I was supposed to hit an RPE of 8 out of 10 on the bike. It’s a fast/flat course and I wanted to see what I could DO! I went pretty hard and immediately was passing people. It REALLY helped that the older women’s waves went off before mine. I don’t remember specifically passing anyone in my AG but I passed a TON of 30 and 40-year olds! Um, and a few 60+ but I don’t usually feel that great about passing them! I had a few people pass me, but I DEFINITELY passed more than passed me.

I just concentrated on pushing as hard a gear as I could while maintaining over 90RPM. My average RPM was 93 so I probably sandbagged a bit on the power! The way my Ergomo was attached to my bike, I couldn’t read my HR but I could see watts and RPM. So, even though I wasn’t supposed to look at watts…I kept stealing glances every now and then. It did not do me any good since they were insanely irratic all day! The first leg of the bike went along the water for a short bit then there was a gradual uphill away from the water to a turnaround and gradual downhill back in. The out portion of this segment was the only time I was in my small ring all day. It was just a little too uphill for my big ring. I immediately started on my nutrition plan which was to drink water when I wanted it and take several swigs out of my 300+ calorie Cytomax bottle every 10’. I usually like Hammer products, but I had this tub of Cytomax powder I needed to use up. So it was Cytomax for the race! I passed the 5 Mile Marker at 15 minutes. I did the quick math and realize that was 20mph pace. And it was all over. I got it in my head that there was a chance I could break 20mph and that’s all I thought about for the rest of the bike.

Right around this point in the race I met Teal Zoot Bikini Bottoms Girl. Teal Zoot Bikini Bottoms Girl and I traded places on the bike a million times. Okay, maybe not a million, but a whole f’ing lot. I actually traded places with many people several times, but SHE is the one I remember the most. Surely someone with such ugly taste in cycling clothes wasn’t going to beat me!!!! :-) I noticed that in general I would end up trading places with people on gradual hills. I would get passed on the uphill portion then pass them back on the flat or downhill side. Just a trend…

I passed through the 10 Mile Marker at 29 minutes even (on my Ergomo which was probably about 20” off my official bike time since I did not hit the button until after the mount line). Woohoo! I was still on track for 20mph! Somewhere in here I got passed by a huge pack. ONE of them passed me on the right and I yelled at him. I saw SO many blocking/overtaking/drafting violations out there! I know there were several officials out on the course, but there just were not enough to catch everybody. That pack pissed me off so much that I pulled out to the left and sprinted past as many as I could. I never really saw too many of them again. The pack pretty much got broken up by the crowded course. Coming around one corner I almost crossed the yellow line by accident. I was trying to pass a two or three abreast group (yes, it was that crowded) and had to catch myself before going completely over to the other side. Whew.

When bottle exchange rolled around, I slowed down and picked up a water bottle. I hated to lose the few seconds, but my face felt hot and I didn’t want to dehydrate that early. I poured about half of it in my aero bottle then dumped a bunch on my head until I hit the end of the exchange zone and then tossed it aside.

I went through 15 miles at 44:23 so I was slowing down, but not by much. I figured it was probably the bottle exchange that made it slower. I simply pushed it up a little bit and set out to pass as many people as I could. This is a good time to mention that I was working pretty hard. I would kind of bounce back and forth between a 7/10 RPE and an 8+/10 RPE. I didn’t meant to keep falling back to 7/10, but it’s just a comfortable spinning RPE for me. Many times I was still making good time at that RPE if it was downhill or flat, but I was supposed to be maintaining 8/10, so whenever I caught myself I tried to gear up and get moving again. There were many times I was breathing pretty hard and several times where I thought to myself, “I am SOOOO going to pay for this on the run.”

Mile 20 came and went at 59:50ish. I saw the hour mark coming up and started looking for the 20 mile sign. By this time I had remembered that I started the Ergomo late, so I knew I was right at 20mph pace or just a few seconds late (since technically the course was only 24.8 miles). I pulled out my gel here and it took me awhile to eat it. When I tore the top off I accidentally tore it pretty high so the gel was coming out VERY slowly. The gel problem slowed me down a LITTLE bit but I was still passing some people even with only one arm on the aero bars. As soon as I was done with my gel I pushed it up again because I was SO determined to make that 20mph average! But alas, it was not to be. As the course turned back towards transition it was right into a headwind and I saw my speed drop to 16-18 mph. I would later find out it was a bit of a gradual uphill too. I was pushing pretty hard and still passing people. I thought I would maybe have a chance if I pushed it up.

I had to throttle back a bit the last quarter mile. I wanted to get my feet out of my shoes before the cobblestones. Then I didn’t want to eat it on the cobblestones. So the last quarter mile was a spindown. Hopped off the bike at the dismount line, saw 1:15:xx on my Ergomo, and ran the 20 seconds to the transition mat. Hit the HRM lap button at the mat.

Nothing. I pushed 180 watts NP/174 average. Holy crap. SO close to 20mph. I have never been that fast in a bike segment before!

Okay, okay…so I would learn the flying mount. My little pedal/gear issue drew blood! I looked down after the race and I had a small gash on the back of my right leg!

Transition was HUGE! I jogged with my bike towards my spot. Jeff Bostic (bostic) caught sight of me and shouted hello. I turned my head to wave. Geez, most of the guys I knew were already done and I still had to go run a 10k!

At my spot I racked the bike, put on the socks (socks took forever) and shoes, sprayed sunblock (again desperately trying to avoid the inevitable sunburn), exchanged hat for helmet, made sure I still had a gel in my pocket, grabbed my race belt and RAN!

My transitions seem kind of slow, but NO ONE in my AG went under a minute on either one. The transition area was just that big. Some of the pros went under a minute but I bet they were sprinting.

Go faster.

Splits first.
Mile split/AHR/MHR
10:02/164/169
9:41/167/171
9:35/167/172
9:38/167/188
9:25/170/180
9:00/176/185
2:02/181/185

These splits are off my HRM so they don’t quite add up to the official results. Off by 4” and I bet those can just get taken off of the 0.2 since I stopped my watch several seconds after crossing the finish.

I was instructed to take the first 800meters easy then gradually build the effort keeping a 7/10 until the turn around then 8/10 for mile 4, 9/10 for mile 5, 9+/10 for the last mile. Final instructions, “It is all about how much pain you can take.” Yeah…those were the instructions. Immediately my legs were hurting. I mean…seriously…I pushed HARD on the bike! Mostly my CALVES were feeling it. I am not entirely sure why. But I forefoot land when I run now and every step I could FEEL my calves aching. I actually thought they might cramp up eventually but they never did. But my legs were pretty tired so the easy 800meters turned into an easy mile. As you can see from the splits, the first mile was the slowest in 10:02. During that first mile Teal Zoot Bikini Bottoms Girl passed me and went out of sight. Dammit. I was kind of happy that an aid station came up pretty early in the run because I planned to walk the aid stations. Instead of 9:1 which I used in training, it was just FAR easier to walk from just prior to just after the aid stations. The aid stations were approximately every mile so it worked out well. I don’t think I ever got a full minute of walking in, but I got enough and it enabled me to drink water and let it settle for 15” before running again. I will admit that EVERY time I had to start running again I was having to work hard MENTALLY to get my butt going. A couple of times I used the “3…2…1…0.5…0.25” or....”no, the NEXT cone” excuses, but I don’t think I ever delayed it more than 15” or so.

At this point in the race I had not seen another BTer YET! I started looking at the runners coming the other way hoping I would recognize someone to say hi to. I know this maybe distracted me a bit…um, but that was the point. I had to get my mind on something OTHER than running. I don’t think it slowed me down too much though. I was able to bump up the effort a little after the first mile marker. There were lots of people out on the course with hoses and I took advantage of every one of those. It was WAY hot! Every aid station I drank a cup of water and dumped one over my head.

Miles 2 and 3 were very consistent as I just tried to maintain a steady effort. I think it was during the third mile that I saw Christine (Lucy) going the other way and a few other BTers (in BT gear) that I didn’t recognize but shouted a “Go BT!” to. Finally made the turnaround and tried to push up the effort just a smidge. But I ended up walking twice during that point because I walked for the aid station just before the turnaround then hit that aid station AGAIN pretty close AFTER the turnaround. It was a good thing they were close though, I forgot to eat my gel before the turn around so I ate it right after that second aid station. Gooey mouth for a bit but at least I knew I had just had plenty of water to digest it! But as always, that much water and gel close together gave me a little queasy stomach for a few hundred yards. So, mile 4 was about the same speed as 2 and 3 due to two aid stations AND a gel despite the faster “effort”. I think it was during mile four that I passed Sue (sue7013) and then almost immediately after saw Jess (Tri Take Me Away) coming the other way. It had to be really close together. I heard Jess and Sue say hi to each other. Shortly later I saw Janice (Janice) coming the other way too. Yay! Go BT! I passed Christine and another BTer and said hi to both.

Mile 4 was also where I came to the conclusion that my legs were a little better. I had that “no, I didn’t ride my bike today” feeling. Or at least that, “well, I wouldn’t necessarily GUESS that I had ridden by bike today” feeling. I am actually not sure exactly where that transition took place, but it did!

So, with that knowledge, I managed to push up the effort a LITTLE bit for mile 5. It was slightly faster. Just slightly. BUT THEN… I SAW her—f’ing Teal Zoot Bikini Bottoms Girl! And she was going slow!!!! Hahahahahahahah! I PASSED her at a good clip and never looked back. I think she was in my AG.

As I passed the mile 6 marker I tried to pick it up with whatever I had left. Which wasn’t much. Somewhere in there my form started to go to crap. I started compensating for the achy calves by heel striking more and had to consciously try to force myself to forefoot strike, though I wasn’t doing a good job! I just kept telling myself that it wasn’t much farther. I knew I got one more walk break (which by then I was actually REALLY looking forward to). I checked my watch after that and estimated I only had 5-6 more minutes of pain left. Now the form really went to pot and I was just hanging on for dear life. I got passed by a few people in the last quarter mile but as far as I could tell none were in my AG.

Typical finish…got some space for my cartwheel and knocked that out and crossed the finish line. Can I stop now? Whew.

Tough. I was really surprised I went under an hour. The way my legs felt when I started…I would not have expected it. But I know I can go faster. It was supposed to be all about how much pain I could take, and the honest assessment is that I probably could have taken a little bit more. Don’t get me wrong…I was hurting pretty good. But can’t you always hurt more?

Anyway, I have to be happy with it. My mile splits went down as I went along (in general of course) so I can’t ask for much more than that. I think I executed the plan.

I got my icy towel (ahhhhhhh) and a water and they took my chip off. Then I made my way to where I knew the BT banner was. I chatted with the BTers for a second and then went off for some post-race food. I ate it even though my stomach was still doing flip flops because I knew I had put in a hard effort and had to get something in my system. I had to hit the porta potties shortly after that (WHY does this happen to me every race???) but then I felt better. I was soaking wet and covered with salt but I was pretty sure the majority of that salt was from the ocean. I never cramped up and I don’t ever take salt tablets, so unless I had a highly unusual day, it had to be the ocean. I just hung out with the BTers until we all decided to head back to the Bed and Breakfast to rally up. So I gathered up my transition stuff and walked back with Jess. I took a shower right away and that SO made me feel better!


1. Lack of run training.
2. Lots of work travel in April (mostly impacted the swim due to lack of pool time and general fatigue).
3. The 20 extra pounds I carry around!


Let’s see, let’s see.
ast year:



29 1188 Jennifer Dicarlo 27 Abilene TX 19 27:06 2:49 38 1:19:34 2:16 41 55:40 29 2:47:23

This year:

35 1358 3700 Jennifer Dicarlo 28 Rapid City SD 2:44:52 23 25:03 1:41 1:55 35 1:16:17 19.5 2:20 57 59:19 9:33

So, I was only 2:xx faster than last year. I gained time on the swim (duh…it was WAY flatter this year!) and the bike (all that extra effort and only 3 minutes faster???) but lost time on the run. Transitions were slightly faster. Hence, slightly faster overall. It’s NOT a PR (I ran faster in Memphis last year) but not a bad effort.

The race in general was VERY well organized. Everything went on time. However, I was disappointed in a couple of things. FIRST, that they put the chicks in the last waves again. They claim it causes the least bike course congestion, but if you ask me it was WAY congested on the bike. There can’t be just one wave start solution and it really screws the chicks over. We end up having to deal with more wind and much worse heat than the boys. It got VERY hot out there.

Second, I didn’t see a single official on the run course and saw at least two people running with headphones. If you announced a rule a zillion times before a race, you really needed to have people out on the course enforcing it. I saw several officials out on the bike course, but with a race this size I felt like they needed more.