Wilkes-Barre Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I wasn't sure how the swim would go as my left shoulder has been hurting the last week and I've gotten into the pool just twice. I could tell I lost fitness and my arms were burning soon into the swim. I honestly got a little bored and was ready to get out pretty early on. Surprisingly, my shoulder wasn't bothering me. I made the two turns and headed back to shore. At this point, due to the sun, I could only breathe on my right side as the sun was glaring on my left. I felt my pace slow considerably which could have been due to lack of swimming recently or because of the warm water. The last leg seemed to take forever, but I finally made it to the shore.

More swimming prior to race. I only swam twice.

I ran over the mat and to my bike when I heard Sissy yell, "great swim, K". I shook my head "no" after looking at my watch.
I put on socks which probably cost me a few seconds. I threw on my helmet, glasses and shoes after squirting the sand off my feet with my extra water bottle. I shoved everything into my T1 plastic bag and I was off.

Hurry more. It was great hearing our cheering section yelling for me though!

Since the first few miles were downhill, it was great to warm up the legs. I haven't really been doing much of any training, let alone on hills so I thought this may be interesting. All in all, the hills weren't awful. I just spun up them. Since Brad and Tim started a few waves behind me and Laura, I knew they'd be passing me. Tim caught me and offered some comical comments on my aero helmet. Brad soon caught me and passed singing a funny song. Anticipating them catching me probably helped make the bike go by so quickly. I actually tried to pee a few miles before the end of the bike leg, but just couldn't do it. Before I knew it, I made the last turn to head back to T2 (about a 2 mile gradual climb). As I approached the dismount line, I heard Sissy yelling, "You rocked the bike, girlfriend"! Such a great sound!

Nothing. I was happy with my bike performance considering the course and lack of training.

In true K fashion, I pulled into T2 and had to pee, but didn't want to 1) waste time hitting the port-o-potty or 2) start the run having to pee. So I sat down to take off my bike shoes and put on my sneakers and peed right there in T2 in the grass. I know...gross. But as Laura previously mentioned, I squirted some water to make it a little less gross. I grabbed my visor and water and was off.

Nothing. T2 time would have been faster without the pee break.

I started off feeling OK and actually ran the first mile. By the time I started the run, it was HOT and SUNNY! I kept sipping my water and wasn't feeling great, but was feeling OK. I turned right and had a huge hill in front of me. It got to me and I started to walk it. From then on, I told myself I'd walk the uphills if I needed to and run the downhills. I couldn't keep cool and there wasn't a lot of shade on the course. As I progressed, I was walking more and more. I wasn't happy about this, but I was very hot and didn't have a lot of motivation to run. I mustered through the rest of the run drinking as much water as I could without it sloshing around. I made the final turn to see the finish area. I started the run and saw some friends and family as I ran down the chute to the finish.

Run more prior to this hilly course.
Since the Ironman, I ran a total of 7 miles.

Saw my mom at the finish. They actually announced how my mom has been volunteering at the race since they started 26 years ago and how how her daughter was doing the race...pretty cool! Grabbed some grapes and a freeze pop (great idea!!) and found our group.


Lack of training and the heat (on the run).


This was a local race which was on a fun, challenging course. I actually liked the two different transition areas. There were volunteers helping you in T2 find your stuff which was nice and the freeze pops at the end were great! There were loads of water stops on the run and one on the bike. They should have written your age on your calf. As a whole though, I had a fun race! It was great to race with Brad, Tim and Laura again and awesome to have our families there cheering us on!

It was also fun to race on our 7 year wedding anniversary! Hard to believe 7 years ago today, I was getting my hair and make up done for our 2pm wedding. And 7 years later, Brad and I are competing in a triathlon! Hard to believe, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!