Holten Triathlon Premium Cup - TriathlonOlympic

I started in the back again on this wave and I really shouldn't have. Took a while to get going and had to swim around/over a lot of people. Water was damn cold at first, but half-way through I was pretty warm. My swimming mask started to leak again half-way through and I had to stop 8 or 9 times to fix it before I finally got it to stop leaking. I will be buying a lot of new goggles and testing them out.

Start closer to the front and buy new goggles.

The transition times weren't tracked at this event, but I feel that I did much better than my last tri. I jogged out of the water and did just fine taking off the suit and getting my stuff on. I used the rubber band trick for my shoes on the bike and it worked out really good; I just need a little more practice getting into my shoes and I think I'll be good.

Practice getting ito my shoes and getting up to speed.

This course kicked my rear end. I live in flat farm land and this course had a lot of big, long hills. As soon as I jumped on the bike out of T1 I was fighting a strong head wind and struggling to get above 15 mph. When I hit the city I vividly remember turning onto the first street and being greeted by a vicious gust of wind. I remember thinking “this is just ridiculous” and I knew I was going to be in trouble on the bike.

The course through the city was OK but a lot of the streets were made of bricks and was pretty bumpy. Once I turned onto the road to go into the forest, life really began to suck. The hills were just so much more than I was prepared for and I really struggled to keep moving forward. The urge to get off my bike and walk was definitely there and I think if I would have seen anyone else doing it, I probably would have as well. The road was normal asphalt except for one 100 yard portion that was made of larger stones. The stones varied in height and it was an amazingly rough ride. It actually hurt to try and hold onto the handlebars and I almost lost my tool bag. I am pretty sure that had I not had the new wheels, my race would have been over here because there is no way the old rim would have been able to withstand that much punishment. Because of the out and back loop, I had to cross this 4 times and it never got any better, a horrible idea for whoever came up with that on a course. I got passed by a butt load of people but I was just happy to have it over with. On a good note, going out on the course was a lot harder than coming back and I was able to get a new top speed of 38 mph (this should be a clue as to how many hills there were).


Practice riding the course as much as possible before the race and strength training for my legs. Time on the stationary bike in the gym does NOT count towards biking time.

I did great at this transition but the volunteers and the language barrier cost me some time. When I racked my bike the guy started talking to me and I had to ask him to put it in English. He said something about my number and pointed in the direction I had been heading anyway. It also took a few seconds to find where they had put my box (I later found out that we are supposed to turn our number around as we are coming into the transition so they can have our box ready). Time was still much better than last time and so lesson learned. Lock laces on the shoes rock, I went into transtion with 5 other people and was easily the first one out even with the problems.

I missed the toilets in T2 and so I was looking for them pretty much right away. The great thing about this run was that some of it was along a small patch of woods; the perfect place for me. Felt much better afterwards and ran fairly consistent laps. My stomach started acting up again after 5 km and I finished with the same type of cramps that I had in my last tri. I did however get to take my little girl across the finish line with me and that definitely was the highlight of my race.

Figure out the stomach cramp issues and plan toilet breaks better.

Ate oranges with my girl in the after race area and then took her to the bouncy castle. Drove home and then headed to base for our 4th of July fireworks.


Hydration/Nutrition, not enough time spent on the bike


No medal for this race, only a cheap cotton T-Shirt; kinda sucked. I met all of my personal goals for this race even though my bike was not the greatest; however I still finished at the bottom, a little discouraging.