Finger Lakes Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

The lake is fairly low due to the lack of rain this summer. I know I am a below average swimmer so I staged myself towards the back of the wave and to the right of the group. I would swim and then have to get up and or stop behind those that were walking out further. After about 100 yards, most finally started swimming. I got into a nice rythm and tried to maintain a smooth stroke and breathing routine. It bunched up a little at the first turn but spread back out quickly after the short chute to the turn back towards the beach. This is where I lost perception of how I was doing as the waves started to merge together and I couldn't remember what colors was which. But I just kept swimming and trying to maintain as straight a course as possible. Considering the last couple of OWS I had a problem staying straight, I was pleased with my navigation for the most part.
With about 200 yards to go I decided it would be quicker to unload some coffee in the lake rather than wait for the portapotties so I slowed some.
About 50 yards from shore, most had gotten up to walk/run in as the water was less than 2 feet deep. Up the beach and down a cinder path about 200 yards to transition entrance.

I am pleased with the time considering where I am in my swim training. With that said, I have a long way to go and will use the off season to work on this area.

I took my time apparently getting dried off and into the socks. Didn't realize I was taking it this slowly.

Pick up the pace?

I took off out of transition and tried to get comfortable and settled into a pace before the first climb up away from the lake. Passed some people on the way up but being this early I tried to spin and not blow a gasket on the first hill. I took in a gel at the top of the hill to get some calories in early so it would have time to settle before the run, followed the first up with another about 30 minutes later. I made it a point to get a couple ounces of gatorade endurance every 10 to 15 minutes as well. I think the plan worked well, although I may have had too much fluid considering the pitstop leaving T2!

It was a great day, weather wise, for this event and the bike was the only place the wind was really a factor at all and it was minimal at that. I worked on pushing the bike without going all out and I feel I accomplished that for the most part. I was hoping to be over 18 mph and I accomplished that. Being as slow a swimmer as I am, I only get passed on the bike by the faster riders from later waves, so age group wise it is easy to think I am accomplishing more on the bick than I really am.

About the only downside to the bike was some moron in a dumptruck that either couldn't read the dozens of "race in progress" signs or he chose to ignore them as he went down the road forcing cars off the oposite side of the road and blowing his air horn when he came up on bikes passing. Some of you know that I am in the trucking business, and driving like this is the quickest way to the soup line at our company, let alone doing it in these circumstances, so I take this quite seriously.

All in all a pretty good bike considering the shape I am in.

Along with the swim, I have plenty of room for improvement on the bike. I have made strides this summer, but I know I can do better. Time in the saddle is key!

Again, I thought I was quicker.

Not sure, but I need to do something, wow!

I gave up a couple of minutes right out of t2 to hit the portapotty, didn't think it would ever end. The legs felt good coming off the bike and decided that with the marathon coming up in a couple of weeks I would try to keep the run just under 9 min/mile for the first 5k and pick it up some for the second. The pace for the entire run segment felt good and I should have pushed it much harder than I did, but I felt I needed to be careful of an injury.

The run course was 2 loops so I got to see a lot of the other runners and give out some shouts of encouragement along the way.

Push the pace harder.

Walked back down to where Connie was waiting, packed up transition and went to the food line. Sat and chatted with Dexter, yoshi, Kam32, Jackjack, ridgelake, rstocks, Marmadaddy, Jamjam,and some other BT folks enjoying the great morning!


IDK, Maybe the cold I came down with Saturday, but not much really. First time at this distance I took it somewhat cautiously.


This race is fairly well run. Lots of volunteer support. The weather has been great this summer so the lake was still 72 degrees.

Its nice to attend these races and meet or spend some time with the great people I have met here on BT! As you can tell by the results, I will probably never be an age group winner, so the thing I enjoy from these is pushing to get better and especially the social aspect that makes the training hours worth while!

I'm looking forward to doing it again next year when I can balance the training rather than having the marathon as a focus.