Mighty Hamptons Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I need a coach. I need to attend Master's swim classes. I need to start swimming three times a week. I need some books, dvd's, audio cassetes; I need to dial 1-800-learntoswim - I need some serious help with my aquatic abilities. Granted I separated my shoulder three weeks ago, I still felt strong - my stroke felt good. The swim was definitely long, but I still finished in the 52 percent-tile. Unacceptable if I expect to be competitive in the future.

Seek some professional swimming help in the near future.

27th Overall.
I should have a great T1 as I didn't push near hard enough on the swim.

Oh, and I met Ralph (rtocco) running in transition! Second time now I met a BT'er during the race! Very cool.

Run even faster through transition.

I've never rode my bike in the rain or on wet roads. Ever. Sixty seconds into the bike I rode off the road onto the sand - saved it and got back on. Very scary moment. Then, sixty seconds later, I dropped my chain at the bottom of a hill. Stayed calm. After a minute of not being able to get it on, I realized I had to put it back on the small ring, not the big ring as it dropped as a result of me trying to go into my small ring. DUH!

My goal was 1 hour 10 minutes, so considering I took corners very conservative and rode the brake on a lot of dowhills, I'm kind of satisfied with my bike. A guy in front of me skidded out on his back tire and almost bit the dust; an ambulance flew past me at one point and did pick up a guy who took a hard spill; and even T.J. Tollakson (who set the course record with a 1:57) commented that he almost lost it on the bike once.

What I was not happy with was right at the beginning of the ride there were one or two decent climbs and right away my heart rate went through the ceiling and I was panting and getting passed.

I just realized that I don't train enough on climbing. I ride rollers constantly in training, but I never do repeats on consistent climbs. This was my achilles heel in my first Olympic and HIM. I need to not just practice rollers, but climbing.

331st overall. Feet out of shoes, A+ perfect dismount, ran super fast with bike. Racked it - on my way to a smoking fast T2 time, bend over to put on left shoe, then put on right shoe - BAM! - right quad bulges out of my thigh and I fall on my ass. I'm in agony and I feel like a small alien is trying to break through my skin. Relax. Smack the muscle around a bit. Get shoe on. On the loud speaker I hear, "And here comes T.J. Tollakson who just set a new course record." Yay! I'm freaking thrilled for him :p

Normally my calves cramp. Today it was my quad. The good news is earlier in the season my legs used to cramp a lot more. I just need to keep training and racing and hopefully one day these muscle problems will be a thing of the past.

I've been spending a lot of time running and if my run failed me today, I would've lost my mind. Thankfully my quad relaxed and I slowly increased my cadence. One by one I picked off a bunch of guys who passed me on the bike. It was very satisfying to pass one particular guy who I was sling-shotting with for half the bike. In total I was only passed by four people and passed well over a hundred people.

Around mile 3 I was set on really picking up the pace and trying to make up time lost on the swim, and wet conditions of the bike, but my right quad threatened to cramp again so I just settled into as fast a pace as possible.

One day I'd like to replicate my road race times into triathlon running times. I guess it'll happen eventually if I just keep training and racing.

Bs'd with Ralph (rtocco) from BT who had an amazing first Olympic race and beat me!


Bombing the swim, wet roads, dropped chain, quad cramp.

What aided my ability to perform was experience. This is my eighth triathlon in my first year. Like JohnnyKay, Rollinbones, and a lot of other BT members have mentioned to me: Experience makes all the difference.


The Mighty Hamptons was a decent race despite the rainy, wet and cold conditions. I certainly did not have an ideal race, many other things I didn't mention went wrong, but I made the best of it and maintained a positive attitude. The race was well mapped, organized, and staffed. The bike was scenic and run was flat and fast. It was also kind of cool having T.J. Tollakson there.

For me personally, I'm grateful to even be able to participate in this race after separating my shoulder exactly three weeks ago. I'm already eager to sign up for this race next year and race it in ideal, sunny conditions. My personal goal is a sub 2:30 and I am determined to continue training for and racing this course until I accomplish it, no matter how many years it takes.