Toyota US Open Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I was in the 2nd group of 4 to start out the swim. After freezing while waiting for so long out in the cold, the water was surprisingly refreshing! With it being a time trial start, it was a lot easier for me to swim at my own pace from the very start...a problem I had during the Stonebridge mass start. Everything in the swim went well. This was my first wet suit swim and boy was that ever cool! I never really had to deal with much of a crowd until we all started to funnel to the finish ramp which one would expect. The only thing that was wierd is a motor boat that was helping out ended up right in the way for a few of us. They finally realized it at the last minute and I actually had to pull up for a few seconds to let them get out of the way and to change directions to speed up the process. Oh well, I can't complain...I had a great time!

Not much. Maybe pull a little harder because I felt like I could have swim a lot farther today with the wetsuit on, but I'm not complaining. I had a great time!

The transition area was insanely rocky, so I was VERY happy that my bike rack was on the closer end to where we ran in from the swim. I took a little extra time to dry off my feet to make sure my socks went on ok. I also had to pack up everything (wetsuit, towel, goggles, etc.) into a bag to be picked up since this was a point to point race.

Nothing

Not sure if I did this right or not yet. I ended up cramping badly for the entire run, so I might have pushed too hard for the bike, but I can't complain about my 5th place finish, so I'll live and learn. I was very glad that I didn't dump all of my 2nd accelorade bottle into my areobottle right before I lost my straw! This was a long hard bike for me. I've only raced 12mile courses, but I felt like I held up pretty good. It was a little hard to stay motivated at times because I ended up pretty separated from the pack for a while near the end. There was a good 15-20min where I only saw 1 other biker. It was very odd, but such is life. My biggest complaint was the fact that my feet went completely NUMB after the first probably 5 minutes on the bike and remained numb for the rest of the ride. I'm not sure if it was from the cold water from the lake or what, but it sure made my run into T2 entertaining for spectators :)

Not much other than figure out if I took in fluids right and/or needed to eat something as well in order to feel better on the run.

This transition went quickly but was a comedy routine. First off, I came in with completely numb feet. Got off my bike and tried to run in my bike shoes to the bike rack. I'm sure people watching me (all 0 of them) were entertained because it was a rather awkward sight I'm sure :) Next I racked my bike and then realized I racked it the wrong direction. The new areobottle caused my bike to fall off when racked by the brakes at the last race, so I went by the seat this time. I learned just the day before that it did matter which way you bike faced while racking it by the seat. So to avoid a penalty, I took a few more seconds to swing it around. Then I swapped shoes and promptly inverted the heel on one of my running shoes while slidding it on, so I had to put it on twice. Then FINALLY tried to run out of T2 while my feet were STILL NUMB!!! Despite all of this, my T2 time was still pretty good.

Bring feet warmers! :)

I felt HORRIBLE on this run. It was all I could do to keep myself from stopping or just simply hurling on the side of the road. I cramped from the moment I started running out of T2. It went all across the top of my stomach and had me gulping air for most of the run to keep what little I had left in my system down. I did try to take time to enjoy the atmosphere of running downtown and what a big party this race was for everyone. It was really neat and a cool course. At the end I saw my wife who had already finished the Olympic distance about 200 yards or so from the finish line (right before the turn up towards the shoot if you ran it) She egged me on to push it to the end...right about then I saw that a guy just 15ft in front of me was in my age group...well, there was my incentive...I gave it all I had left and right about the point I caught up to him, he realized what was going on and he kicked it into high gear as well. We were neck and neck to the end until I pulled just a second in front of him as we crossed the line. Aside from wanting to throw up and pass out on the spot...it made up for some of the slow run in my mind :)

Figure out how to not cramp up!

Walked around for awhile. They handed out towels soaked in ice water which REALLY helped me out. Downed a water and 2 Dr Peppers, 2 banana pieces, and a bag of cookies. (I was hungry!)


Cramping...that was about it.


I've only done 3 triathlons now, but I've been to a number of them along with tons of running races and a couple bike races. This was by far the coolest race event I've been to. Aside from the rough road and unfortunate tour of areas not happy to be having a race blocking their roads, the race was awesome! I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone and I plan to be back next year!