American Triple-T Race # 2 Individual Time - TriathlonOlympic

I thought this swim was horrible. Again, even with the warmup, I spent the entire first lap gasping, or at a minimum, never getting a rhythm. My strokes were short and choppy, breathing labored....

Based on my starting position (297 out of 328 or so), I really didn't have too much opportunity to grab any feet. I was a quicker swimmer than most of the folks at the BOP, so no feet there. The pros and elites were passing me on their 2nd loop, and they're a little too flipper for me. Dammit, no feet there. So I was on my own.

The swim time turned out to be a solid time - either I was moving more quickly than I thought, or the course was short. Either way, I was really happy with this swim.

And one funny side note...when starting or finishing the swim, due to the shallow and silty nature of lake, each athlete churns up the lake silt into the water - making it a big cloud of muck close to the swim start / finish. And the silt had a unique taste - let's just say you could tell it wasn't just plain lake water. My first thought was 'hey, that doesn't taste too bad', and I just started giggling, literally, as I'm finishing my first lap on this swim. The 2nd lap, as soon as I tasted the silt, I just got this huge grin on (again, in the middle of the swim), and knew I was close to done.

I never thought that tasting the bottom of the lake was a happy thing; but in this case, each hint of silt signaled one more event was close-to-over.

I was so damned cold that I forgot how to do everything. This T1 was long...it included stripping the suit, putting on a shirt and arm warmers, fastening the race number belt, in addition to the usual stuff. And a long run. And both hands and feet were numb. I'm just glad I got out of transition with all the gear I needed. That in itself was a victory.

Do a tri in a place with a warm lake.

Well, this was the beginning of the tough stuff....at mile 4, we're grinding up a hill, and I'm pretty close to calling it quits. I felt myself tapping into reserves I *knew* weren't healthy for this point in the weekend. But I shut out those thoughts, and just kept drinking water and gatorade. Keep hydrated, keep eating...

After the first hill, we did a big...long...downhill, which gave me fits on two fronts (other than the rush of going downhill). First, there were these , err, dirt bumps. The parks road maintenance folks had apparently carved maybe 2ft wide gaps in the pavement from shoulder to shoulder, and there were maybe 10 of 'em, spaced out maybe 200 yards apart. So you've got two choices...bunny hop 'em in the aero going 35 mph, or just ride over 'em and hope for the best.

So I rode over 'em, and hit a few of 'em really, really hard. One time I'm sure I heard carbon, so I stopped to inspect my wheel. Sheesh...no visible damage, but damn....I saw at least 10 dudes with flats after these bumps.

Second, the bumps activated my 'behind the seat bottle launcher' and I shot two of 'em into orbit, and making a funny story short, 6 miles into the ride I'm down to half a bottle of Gatorade. Damn, that's not cool. So now 20 minutes into a grinding ride I'm metering out liquids. Gah.

Anyway, the rest of the ride was more of the same...grinding hills, fast downhills. One particular downhill was a 40mph'er, with a hairpin at the bottom, then a 1 mile grind up Thompson hill at a major grade. I saw 4mph on my speedo at one point. It was brutal.

The best part of this ride was about 4 miles from the finish, Jenn (jungle jenn) had gone to the top and spray painted 'Last Hill, Go Golden C'. 5% of the field knew that it was for Dollar, and laughed out loud. 100% of the field was glad to see that someone pointed out that it was the last hill. Good stuff, Jenn. :)

Not fling my bottles into the wild, and maybe drive the course to know about those bumps ahead of time - not that there was a helluva lot we could have done about 'em anyway.

I was spent. And along the lines of 'not thinking clearly', I decided on the way into transition that I was going to ride on my shes for the first time (as there was a really long run into transition which was tearing up my cleats), and even though you're not supposed to try things for the first time on race day, this worked. Ching!!! Another triumphant victory over the unexpected. I will achieve ultimate fame!!

I won't have too much to say about the run in any of the longer races; it was just tough, and frankly, it was hard to remember many of the details. Same thing each time...Grind to the first aid station, walk the steep hills, run the flats and downhills, drink as much as possible, eat salt pills, walk the aid stations.

I do remember that they announced my name leaving transition, and right after, they announced Gordo's name as a finisher.

I went out at a reasonable pace, and felt good off the bike...and held it steady throughout. 9:30's uphill, 8's or better downhill. One of the cool parts about an out-and-back course is that you see the leaders, and your buddies, multiple times each run. Even the elites always had a 'nice run' or 'keep it up' or 'get in my belly, you bitchy hill' to keep it loose and encourage. Uber-cool, that's what makes this event special.

In looking at the results, no one that finished in front of me through 10 places behind me ran slower than I did - and this theme was repeated through each of the races - I was consistently the slowest runner by a wide margin.

I need to learn to run. Faster.

Finished with a big-azz smile, feeling pretty good. Since we had another race in 4 hours, we had to get after the important stuff.

1) Grabbed some food and drink from the refreshment tent. Diet pepsi, oreos, 3 bean salad, some thick bread, fig newtons, etc. Got that nutrition in me.

2) Walked over to the lake and stood butt-deep in the water for 15 minutes, icing the legs. This was perfect.

3) Get out of the sun, and rest. Found Dollar and Jess' urban campsite, threw down a blanket in the shade, bs-ed with Farmer Johnson and Kick for a while, and went to sleep for a couple hours.


Run speed, hill training on the bike, and that crazy-ass course.


2nd race down. 2 more to go. Now I'm somehow starting to believe I an finish this beast...and going into race 3 I'm tired, but iced, full of good food, hydrated, and haven't blown out all my energy on the early race Saturday.

I like my chances. :)