Hammerhead Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I had a horrible swim, and three things really hurt me...first, my foot, it still felt detached, though not as bad as last weekend's biathlon...still, I didn't kick with my left foot at all because it hurt...which leads to the second thing...I kicked extra hard with my right foot to compensate for not kicking with my left foot...since my spotting isn't great to begin with, this made it even worse...I kept veering to the left, probably happened about 8 times, I didn't realize it at the time, but this was caused by the difference in the kicking with my feet...third, coming back in, the sun was in my face (and everyone else's too), I'm not the best spotter to begin with, but this was crazy, I stopped two times just heading back in, and literally just took off my goggles and tried to see where in the world I was going...had no idea...

Honestly, just my worst swim ever!

Next time, I dont want to have a hurt foot, and would suggest that anyone doing the race just go literally directly towards the sun on the way back in to shore, you can't go wrong...

Hey hey, this is great for ME!! It was a long transition, and I actually walked most of it cause my foot was throbbed...but once I got in transition, I was so fast...I actually beat last year's T1 where I was trying to go fast, and ran to the transition area - weird!

Not hurt my foot, and run to transition...I coulda been in the 2:30 area - which would have been amazing for me on transition...

I started out obsessing about my little jolly rancher which I wanted to eat - it had melted to the wrapper...so I was veering all over the place trying to get the thing out...finally did, and was happy to be sucking and drooling on my candy...from there, flew out to the first turnaround, my speedometer said 18.0 avg - great for me, since there had already been a few hills - but, then it was like I hit a wall, going back from the u-turn was tough, I was going 14-15, and then proceeded to talk about it to anyone around me - I thought I was just being friendly, but it actually probably slowed me down...at the next turn, a girl who was about 15s behind me crashed really bad on loose gravel - hope she is ok...anyways, wind was in my face going back, and speedometer said my avg. was 17 by the end of the first lap...I focused more on the second lap...by the u-turn, I was up to 17.3, felt like I went better going back from the u-turn this time, and my speedometer said 16.8 for my total avg...I really thought I'd beaten last year's 16.6 avg - but I didn't according to the official time (Jeff said that it was actually 26miles, so maybe that explains it?!?!) - anyways, was 55s behind, so that was very disappointing...I'd really done a lot with the bike and haven't improved at all...

Probably not talk as much on the first lap - focus on going instead of talking, take the u-turn a bit faster, and have my jolly rancher out of the wrapper...and maybe the foot thing...ohh, and train more on hills!

I knew that the run was going to hurt a lot, so I was pretty focused while doing the transition, I only improved over last year on the transitions, ugh! Took a big sip of water, and a deep breath, walked to the run mat, and then started...

Nothing, this was fine....

I was expecting to have a horrible run - worse then last year, hadn't trained hardly at all on the run since hurting my foot...walked most of the first mile, then I thought to myself, I gotta do something, so played a game in my head to walk 40 steps, then run 3x that (120 steps)...it worked really well up until that hill (around 3.5mi)...walked up the entire hill - at the same time, my foot started feeling detached, and cracking - a lot...ouch! anyways, ran down the hill, then there was another (smaller) hill to mile 5 - walked that...then walk/ran the rest (at around mile 5, my leg muscles started getting tired)...ran from mile 6 to the finish...

Gotta also make a comment about the volunteers...
The volunteers are from the military base (and Kendall and family also!!!), and they really outdid themselves to make it fun for the competitors, cheered on each one of us, and had these amazing ice cold sponges at every run mile...I put a sponge in my hat, in my sports bra, in the back of it, and down my pants at every stop, also put ice down my shirt as well at the drink stops - the guys going the other direction thought that was pretty funny, since not only was I umm - a bit square - there, but the ice made a chaa-chaa-chaa sound as I ran - cool, and also cool!!

I really didn't feel as bad as I thought I would on the run - I could have run more of it at the beginning, and should have...think I could have been about 5minutes faster easily...was only 11s behind last year (thought I woulda been about 10min behind last year)...
I went into it thinking that it would be bad, and it definitely wasn't as bad as I thought, so I probably psyched myself out a bit...
also, not having a hurt foot that was cracking for every step for the last 2.5mi would have been nice...

Stand under the showers...


foot, and mind...


Really hard - but great race...it is much harder than St. Anthony's cause of the hills and the heat, but I like the atmosphere so much!! And, its the only race where we dont have to get a hotel!