Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The water was very cold to me and in the five or so minutes of floating around waiting for the start, my feet and hands began to feel uncomfortable. I started in the very back of the group, but that was a little bit of a mistake because there are apparently some really slow swimmers out there - I thought it would be "clear sailing" from the back, but I had to pass quite a few people. My goggles fogged up shortly after the start so I took them off to clear them up, but I think that got a kayaker's attention - I was calm and not planning on giving up! I was very much at ease for the entire swim and treated it basically like an "endurance" swim. I didn't push too hard and was realatively breathing fine at the end. The overcast skies made sighting the buoys very easy.

Start a little closer to the center of the pack and pick up the pace down the backstretch.

2005 - 29:26
2006 - 30:29
2008 - 31:55

Had a little trouble getting my wetsuit unzipped, but once that was done, everything went pretty smoothly. I'm getting better at these transitions every year - at least there's some improvement somewhere! :)

2005 - 4:56
2006 - 3:00
2008 - 2:46

Age Group: 29 out of 219
Overall: 310 out of 1730

I really tried to take it easy on the bike so that I would have some energy for the run. I was thinking I'd shoot for a 17.5 or 18 mph pace, but only really concentrated on my cadence - and it turned out I hit 17.8! My bike really flys downhill (I can't wait until there's a little room in the budget for me to get some race wheels) and I tried not to push it hard uphill. Like the swim, I approached this as an easy, endurace training session.

There was one long, gradual downhill that I pedaled down and passed about a dozen people - that's the only time I let my competitive nature come out on the course - most of the downhills I was passing people without pedaling.

2005 - 1:18:47
2006 - 1:20:18
2008 - 1:25:47

Did I mention that I'm getting better at transitioning? That camp stool was really nice! Got my shoes on, hat on, gels in the pockets, and looked around thinking, "this is pretty comfortable, but time to go" and took one last sip of the Gatorade and took off.

I forgot to take my salt tablet.

2005 - 2:22
2006 - 2:10
2008 - 1:37

Age Group: 67 out of 219
Overall: 518 out of 1730

The plan was to have enough left in the legs to not walk this year. Well, after climbing that first hill, my quads locked up on the downhill, so I had to stop and work the cramps out. That continued off and on for the first couple of miles until I decide to check my watch to see if I might come across Steve going the other direction - according to my calculations, he would have probably finished - TWIST, ALMOST FALL. I stepped on the edge to the trail and twisted my ankle. The ankle was okay, but a little further down the hill and my achiles/calf area began to bother me and I had to run really slowly and walk quite a bit. Good news is that my quads stopped bothering me! I was putzing along with about a half mile to go and Paul catches up to me. I picked up the pace to chat with him for most of the way in but then had to ease off - he beat me by 11 seconds.

Keep my eyes on the trail and not my watch.

2005 - 0:55:13
2006 - 0:58:41
2008 - 1:12:50

No warm down. Steve was there to see Paul and I come in. I had my calf massaged/stretched and iced it down a couple times that night. I went back to the transition area to get my sweats after the massage and by the time I got back to the awards ceremony, the food was gone. Steve took 4th in his age group (and he beat me by over an hour).


I had another terrible month of February (and April) - I've got to find a way to keep doing each sport at least once a week. Overall, I think I did pretty good considering I only really had one month of traing (and then a one month "taper").


I knew with the lack of training I'd be going a lot slower this year, and actually thought a 3:15 would be a good goal - I was anticipating losing some time on the swim and bike, but was hoping for about a one hour run, which (if I did the math correctly) would have come out closer to a 3:00 event. So I inadvertantly hit my goal time almost exactly on the nose!