Ottawa Riverkeeper Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

I managed to end up in a large group of swimmers out to the first buoy and had to stop several times. I'm not used to swimming in big groups yet, and with the goggles on (I didn't wear goggles in my last race) I got a bit panicky at times. After the first buoy things cleared out a bit and I was able to swim better. On the second loop I caught a good draft out to the first buoy. After the buoy I lost him, but got into a good rhythm and swam well. At the end of the second loop I was passed by the leaders, which kind of threw me off, and the third loop didn't feel as good.

Start more to the outside of the pack (I thought I had). Other than that, I think things will improve with experience.

Oh yeah, and learn to swim fast!!! I hate being nearly the last one out of the water.

The time for transition is a guess, based on my time for T2 (I put my watch on in T1 - and the race doesn't time transitions). The biggest problem was that I was extremely dizzy after the swim. This made me have trouble getting the wetsuit off my ankles. Other than that it was fine.

Step on the wetsuit and pull with my legs rather than using my hands to get it off my ankles.

I was happy with my ride - not super fast - just nicely paced and 2 kph faster than my last race. Managed to pass a lot of people given how far behind I was out of the water.

Not much other than more training and getting my speed up. I was fairly happy given that I had been on my bike consistently for only seven weeks.

I ran much slower than I thought I might. I drank half a cup each time I hit the aid station (4 times) and poured the rest on my head to cool down (I was wearing a hat too). I was thrilled when I crossed the finish as I had beaten my upper range goal in spite of thinking I had blown it while on the run.

Go faster - and wear socks. I had tried to go without socks to save time in transition and ended up wearing all the skin off both ankles. This was in spite of having gone sockless in training for a few weeks.

Collapsed, had lots of water, bagels and a banana.


I'm too slow at swimming and running!!!


Went for a swim afterwards and chatted with a friend who did the sprint - his first tri.