Black Squirrel Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

First off, there's no way this swim was 1000 yards. My time for 1000 yards in a pool is around 16 minutes so this was well short considering my time, even with a wet suit, so I'm saying this was about 700 yards. Overall, I felt terrible in the water. I knew I wasn't going to be where I had hoped to be because I've only swam five times since the Papio tri. I really was uncomfortable during the first few minutes. I finally managed to calm down and my second half was okay. I think I was worried about trying to get out of the water fast because of the crazy bike course. Amazingly enough, I was the 10th one out of the water. I figured that I was 25th or something intially. Unfortunately, I was really spent after swimming and that had an impact on the rest of the race for me.

More swim training the weeks leading up to the race and do at least one OWS.

We had to run at least 100 yards from the swim exit to the transition area. I thought I would be okay since I had my wet suit down half way by the time I got to the transition area, however, I had some difficulty getting it off.

If I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't wear a wetsuit as I'm not sure if it helped enough in the water to cancel out the additional time needed to take it off. Also, I have decided that I will for sure get a tri suit before next year's tri season so that should help too.

The ride around Lake Manawa and the trails on the way out were fine, but we had to get off of one bike trail, ride on some streets, cross through a busy intersection, and then hook up with some more trails. The road that we got off on initially was in terrible shape. I saw one guy from BT (joeyrolling) at this point trying to fix a flat. He evidently couldn't get it fixed because I saw him walking his bike back on the way back. That sucked because that guy is really good (108th overall at Hy-Vee). Anyhow, after a while, I found myself all alone because of all the twists and turns. I seriously couldn't see anyone in front of me or behind me. Then, before hooking up with the second set of trails, there were cones that directed us onto a sidewalk. It was kind of at an angle and so I kept going at that angle up a hill on a road when I was supposed to continue onto a sidewalk. After about 15 seconds riding up this, I just didn't feel like it was the right way. I stopped and looked back to see two other guys start to go up the same hill, but then they stopped too and we decided that it was the wrong way so we on the sidewalk. All and all this cost me between 30-45 seconds I estimate, but fortunately it didn't matter in the overall results. Just frustrating. Anyhow, the real crazy part of the course was when you came across the leaders coming back. They were riding on the same bike trail, which made it very difficult, and often times dangerous, with all the twists and turns, and even blind spots! I heard after the race that there were several crashes so I'm just happy that I made it through after hearing about that.

Much like my swim training, I haven't done a whole lot of bike rides since Papio (only four rides total), therefore I need to make it a point to get in more of these workouts. Also, know the course better, which now I do.

I took my feet out of the pedals way too soon and I stopped pedaling too soon before the no pedaling line.

Stay focus through the end and know where to take my feet out.

I felt like I did decent on the run. I was fairly spent at this point, but tried pushing myself out the gate. I think one guy passed me and I passed one or two I think so I was able to hold my overall spot. My mile splits were approximately 6:53 (I thought that was good coming out of transition), 7:21, 7:42 (really starting to feel it), 7:28, 7:40, 7:19 (starting to push it as I see a guy starting to close on me), and 3:20 to finish up.

Probably nothing as far as the race goes but more brick workouts while training.

Walked around, visit with some of the other athletes, got some water and doughnuts, then took off.


Not being able to train as much as I would have liked to.


Other then the dangerous bike course, I liked this race and I plan on being back in future years.