Mountain Man Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

I probably should have tried my new wetsuit before the race. I got it on not a minute too soon. I think I didn't pull the arms up on my shoulders as much as I should have. I picked a spot far outside. I waited about 10 seconds and took off. I had tons of room and didn't even make contact with anyone until we got to the first turn. That's when my trouble started, I don't know if I went out too hard, or no warm-up, but whatever it was, I couldn't catch my breath. Shortly after the turn I had to roll onto my back and float for what seemed like a minute. I thought I'd have an advantage at this elevation being a local. But for whatever reason I just couldn't get enough air. Eventually I started to freestyle again, but then my timing chip strap seemed to want to come off. (It seemed too big when I put it on). I decided to stop kicking. This strategy had an added benefit of letting me swim without loosing my breath. The rest of the swim went OK except I was constantly veering left (I can only breathe to the left). On the last leg back to the boat ramp I was swimming really close to shore. I really wanted to walk the last 100 yards in the mud, but I resisted.

More swim training. Try some open water swims in my wetsuit. Take some swimming lessons. Don't put my watch and chip over my wetsuit, it makes it extra hard to get off.

I was so ticked off about the swim I walked most of the way up the ramp.

Run through transition.

Once I got on the bike and out of the transition area, I felt better. The course felt good. It was fairly crowded, I think I was mixed in with a lot of Sprint distance athletes. I was passing a lot of people. I didn't want to go out too fast and loose it later, so I tried to drink some gatorade every couple of minutes. As the course rolled on I felt better and better. I ate one gel at the turn around. I had read that you should drink water not sports drink with gel. The only problem was that I only had one water bottle and I accidentally dropped it shortly after eating the gel. I drank more gatorade and it didn't seem to cause any stomach issues. I tried to spin easy the last couple of miles to let my legs recover.

I'm going to get an aero bottle so I can drink without having to reach for bottles all the time.

I finally saw Amy. She had Zeke in a sling and was shooting some pictures. I briefly told her about my bad swim and good bike. I was really happy to see her. My parents were a little further down the transition area. They were dealing with my other son in his stroller and didn't even see me until I ran right up to them and tapped my Dad on the shoulder.

Maybe I should learn how to take my shoes off on the bike and run barefoot through transition.

I felt great on the flat section. My knee didn't bother me. Shortly after the first aid station on the hill I got a really bad side stitch. I tried to run through it up to the first switch back. My side really hurt so I walked for a while. Finally it went away and I started running again. I passed a guy that had passed me a few minutes earlier when I was walking. He said "nice recovery" to me which I thought was pretty cool of him to notice. The down hill felt really good (obviously) and I passed a couple of people. The flat section back to the finish was really painful but in a good way. My legs didn't hurt, I was just hurting from exhaustion and I pushed as hard as I could all the way to the finish.

Not much other than I need to put in more training miles.

I didn't really warm down. I went to my family and carried my son around for a few minutes as he was having a breakdown. He was happy to see me and we checked out the cactus that he nearly fell into.


With a newborn son and a two-year old, I don't have a lot of time to sleep and/or train. I don't really need to go any faster to have fun.


The race was a blast. If I can just figure out this swimming thing...