Athens Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I'm 152 going into the water giving a 5:20 time. I like to give 10 seconds up in a pool swim due to the circumstances the pool swim brings. Esther gives me the signal and I jump on in. Feet first, of course. Flip over and get to work. I know Duke is behind me, and he's a good swimmer. I chatted with the guy in front of me, and he assured me he was worthy of his time. Nice smooth strokes. This is by far the best I've ever felt during a swim in a race. Focus was on front-quadrant swimming and high elbow. About 100 I pass a guy standing at the wall. I think he was really struggling, gave a wrong time, and was just letting people pass. Hmmm, very reminiscent of myself last year! This was the only real action of the swim. I kept thinking I might catch the guy in front of me, but never really came close. And I could see Duke closing in, but he never was within touching my toes. In fact, I was probably giving him a nice draft. I wasn't close enough to the guy in front of me to get any. Needless to say, this was as uneventful a pool swim as you could ask for. Just felt like a smooth 300 practice. And I believe I could possibly swim this pace for a HIM. Probably not the full though.

Last year: 7:14, 20/20 AG, 270/437 Overall
This year: 5:34, 12/27 AG, 88/336 Overall
Improvement: -1:40, 8 AG spots, 182 Overall spots

Nothing. Maybe speed up to draw some effort from the guy in front. But with only 300 meters, it's almost not worth it.

I had a bit of trouble getting out of the pool. There should've been a ladder, but I couldn't find it. Some guy grabbed my arm and helped me out. Ran outside, and let out a loud "Holy Shit"! Felt kind of bad. I don't like swearing loud in public, but it was freakin' cold! Ran on the loose gravel to my transition area. Uneventful run to T1. Nothing exciting like the Prairieman Half! Thank goodness. Tried to dry off with a towel, but it wasn't working very well. Put my socks on over still moist feet. Tried to put on an underarmor shirt, but my skin was still too wet. Wasted alot of time trying to put on that shirt. Just put on a light-weight long sleeved cycling jersey. Considered leg warmers, but decided against. Helmet, shoes, sunglasses, and I'm off.

Last Year: 3:27
Improvement: -0:40

Shouldn't have even tried the underarmor shirt. I know it's hard to get on wet. Wasted probably 15 seconds.

This is usually the part in the race report that I start screaming about how much I love my bike, how much I hate swimming, and all that nonsense. But today, all I could think about was how much I wish I was back in that warm pool! My feet were so cold, and my toes had to be frozen from the wet socks. I spin really easy to start. Realize that I forgot to put water in my bottle. Crap, I have no water.

Last year's course only had chipseal the first mile maybe until you got to Loop 7. Well, they've chipsealed a couple miles on the loop too now. So this year's course is the same as last year, but with a different surface. Much slower times as a result. I didn't think much of the hills at all. They seemed so much worse when I was a newbie last year. But coming into the race last year, I only had a month of experience on the bike. Didn't even bother dropping into aero on the chipseal. It was just too painful for some reason.

Finally see where the chipseal ended, and got so excited. Hit smooth road, and it was just amazing how much faster I was riding. Didn't carry the Garmin with me, because I don't want to see my HR and speed during a sprint. Just want to have fun with it. Smooth u-turn. Passing people left and right. I'm guessing I passed 50 people on this ride, while never getting passed.

Sadly, we had to return to the chipseal. But I was finally feeling warm at this point. Still found it hard to attack, and in my head I kept thinking to hold a little back to save for the run. Finished pretty strong, but I really wish I would've pushed a bit harder, because if I would've shaved 10 seconds off this time I would've had a top 10 overall finish.

Last Year: 44:23, 12/20 AG, 133/437 Overall
This Year: 40:49, 3/27 AG, 12/336 Overall
Improvement: -3:34, 9 AG spots, 121 overall spots

Push a little harder. When I know I'm not needing to save my legs, I'll really attack hills by standing in the saddle at a really high gear and mashing. It wears me out, but I get up the hill fast. Could probably do this in a sprint and get away with it. Instead, I spun at high cadence. But it was obvious the weather and chipseal slowed everybody down significantly. And hey, I had a near top 10 bike split!

Come into transition and I didn't even bother with the flying dismount. I haven't done it since my last sprint, which was River Cities. Wow, was that a disaster! Helmet off, shoes off, running shoes on, headband on. Kept thinking I was forgetting something, but I guess I didn't. Felt like this should've gone faster.

Last Year: 1:07
Improvement: -0:15

Speed up. This is a race, you know.

Start off running, and my legs are a bit dead. My bricks haven't quite had fast transitions during my IM training. They're always 5 minutes or more, because that's what I'm expecting at Arizona. Took about 1/2 mile for them to get going. But this isn't the hard part. I'll make this rated PG, I guess. I think anyways. I was having male problems. I heard Chauncey, who won the race, was too. So it's not like I'm weird or something. Never in my life has my male part been frozen numb like it was, and it hurt like hell. So the better part of the first mile was spent with me wondering if I was capable of reproduction.

Still passing people, and I finally get passed for the first time in the race by an older gentleman in his 50's. Ah, who cares? Keep my pace. Finally, finally, get some water. It's only been an hour now and it's been cold (cold is an understatement), but that water was needed. See Aaron around mile 1. Do the math, and realize he's probably about 3 minutes ahead of me based on his swim number. Pretty happy with my performance at this point.

Maintain a solid pace and stride to the u-turn. Once we reach a down hill where I can see the right turn back to the finish I really feel myself moving. Nice long strides running downhill. Turn into a mushy grass to finish. Almost fell down, but I finished hard.

Last year: 23:49, 8/20 AG, 64/437 Overall
This Year: 22:33, 7/27, 46/336
Improvement: -1:16, 1 AG spot, 18 overall spots

Not walk at the water stops. It was so cold that I didn't want to spill it on me!

Walked a bit with Gina. Found some BT'ers and ET Triathletes to see how the race went. Very cool to have so many people at this race that I know. Our local club fared very well, with Chauncey taking the overall, William, Bonny, Kami, Tammy and myself all taking home trophies. I think there might have been a few others too.

I didn't realize I was going to win anything, so I took off after our group picture. Turns out Brent Poulsen is an elite, so he doesn't qualify for AG awards. That slipped me into 3rd!

Last Year: 1:19:59, 12/20 AG, 135/437 Overall
Improvement: -7:21, 9 AG spots, 117 overall spots

Very happy with my progress over the first year of triathlon. It's been quite the year! Thanks to all those BT'ers who've provided the best support over the past year. There's simply too many of you to name. But I will name my fiance Gina. She understands me better than anyone, and I'm so lucky to have found her. Who knew I would've found my fiance on BT!?!

Now I need to get out of this sprint mentality and get ready for my ultimate goal of becoming an Ironman!


Ironman training. The fact is all my training is done in zones 1 and 2, with a tempo run or mile repeats maybe once or twice a month. I haven't been training to go fast, but to go long. Ironman long!

Oh yeah. It was cold as balls out there! I think that made everybody a bit slower!

And more chipseal than normal.


This is the part where I commend Jack and Ironhead Race Productions. I hear people complain about Jack, but he is concerned about safety first. And he may be irritable, but he always puts on a great, well-run race. However, if they continue the chipseal on Loop 7 any further, they'll need to find another bike course.