![]() Swim
Comments: Overall felt good. I passed about 3-4 people. I was held up about 1/3 length of pool once but otherwise no troubles. I felt fairly strong last 100 meters. Goggles remained fog-free. I used a drop of tear-free shampoo followed by a lot of rinsing -- this works great to keep them from fogging. Five minutes was my goal, so this part of race went well. What would you do differently?: 1) Work on flip turns under lane ropes. 2) Wear swim top ![]() Transition 1
Comments: I knew this would be interesting as this was my first transition and I hadn't practiced it. Came out of pool and jogged to bike. First I put feet on towel and tried to put on socks (not too bad) and bike shoes (took too long). Then I took off swim cap and goggles (good). The real problem was putting on my race top with number already pinned to front. The shirt curled up on my back and I almost ripped the shirt trying to get it down. The numbers ripped on one corner It is hard to put a tight shirt on when wet. This took at least 20-30 secs. Then I put on jacket, sunglasses and helmet and more or less speed-walked to bike start. What would you do differently?: 1) Wear swim top 2) No socks 3) Shoes clipped to bike 4) Run during transition! 5) Jump on bike 6) Most of all, practice this ahead of time.... ![]() Bike
Comments: Miserable. There was a 15-18 mph (mostly) crosswind the whole time. It was bitter cold even with my loose-fitting Nike wind "braker", which essentially acted as a wind brake the whole ride. Hands became numb but this really didn't bother me much. I felt like I could never get up to speed without wind smacking me down. Rode with full water bottle pretty much the whole way. Drank only about 1/3 of it. What would you do differently?: 1) Need a warm, tight fitting cold weather shirt for these cold, windy conditions. 2) Drink more water early on or bring less. ![]() Transition 2
Comments: Not as bad as first transition, but still pretty pathetic. Dismounting was pretty much coming to full stop. Speed walked/light jogged with cycling shoes on to racking area. Racked bike no problem. Helmet off good. Switching shoes went OK. Then I had to re-pin one torn corner of my race numbers which took at least 10 secs. Then I realized my legs were shot. What would you do differently?: 1) Need race number belt. 2) No socks and jump off bike 3) Run in transition ![]() Run
Comments: My legs were jello for first mile at least. I was literally concentrating on staying upright for about 300 meters or so. I never cramped, but felt like I was about to several times. I couldn't get my legs moving. I was cold throughout. My legs started coming around by the end. I suspect my last mile was better than my first two. I'm actually surprised my time wasn't worse because I felt like I was wading through concrete the whole time. What would you do differently?: 1) Practice running immediately after cycling hard. I need to adjust quicker. ![]() Post race
Warm down: suppress nausea, hug kids. Never even occurred to me to do a "proper" warm down. What limited your ability to perform faster: Hard to assess to what extent being sick this week impacted my race. Wednesday night and Thursday I had some sort of gastroenteritis and couldn't keep anything down. I had one solid meal on Friday. I suspect my fatigue especially during the run was in part a consequence of running out of calories to burn. Event comments: Didn't stay for post-race. I had no problems with race organization at all. Last updated: 2007-12-25 12:00 AM
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United States
44F / 7C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 98/274
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 17/34
Woke up at 6AM in Richmond after restless night sleeping. Loaded up car and family and on the road by 6:30AM. Ate a banana in car with coffee. Arrived at Luter YMCA at about 8:15AM and parked. Picked up registration. Set up transition area. Got race chip. Listened to wife complain about dealing with the kids. Wife goes to McDonald's. I go to locker room. Change into race apparel. Get markered. Warm up in pool.
Only warm up was in pool. I swam about 200 meters. I did not run or bike prior to race because I did not want to turn into an icicle.