Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

About 3 weeks ago the water temp was hovering just over 53°F. Race day was almost 65°F. Wow! I definitely did not need my full-sleeve. I was in the 2nd wave and started in the front inside corner. I thought that I stood a good chance of getting totally plowed over, but it never happened. The bummer is that it was hard to find someone to draft off of. I passed plenty of people from wave 1, and a few from wave 3 shot past me towards the end. Average pace swim for me, but I'm happy with it. Easy pace and I wasn't out of breath coming out of the water.

Draft better.

Fastest T1 time in my division. I'm sort of a transition nazi. Free speed, you know? I did have one screw up though. Since this is a point-to-point race, you have to pack all of your items into a plastic bag and tie it up before you can run your bike out. I shoved all of my things into the bag and double knotted it...then looked down to see my bright red beach towel sitting under my helmet and bike shoes. Doh!

Obviously, pack everything into the bag before tying it all up.

Overall, the bike course was super fun! Great terrain, however, the road surface pretty much sucks. Rough chip seal type stuff. With big-ass holes in random places. I almost hit one at 30 mph. One of those 6-inch diameter ones that look like they go to the center of the earth. They should mark those...

Anyway, I came out of the water fairly early so I didn't have many people to chase down. I got passed by mostly dudes and only a few women. Towards the end I started passing people though. My max speed on the downhill was 39.9 mph. FUN!!!! I came up on a fellow-Cervelo rider who was trying to rock Zipps and a sperm helmet. He was hugging the yellow line with no one around him and would not move to the right for me. I kept screaming at him, "hey coming up behind you, move over please, on your left, coming up on your left, DUDE MOVE THE F*&K OVER!!!!" He finally gave me a few inches of room, passed me on the next uphill, and then got a flat about a mile later. Karma's a biatch, ain't it.

I slipped my feet out of my bike shoes right before the last hill coming into transition.

Better hydration. I ended up with my aero-bottle gone, but my GU2O bottle totally full. Whoops. Not good when temps were approaching 100 degrees.

I really wanted a faster bike split, but I did what I could. More riding this winter and I'll crush it next year.

2nd fast transition in my division. I would have been faster, but there was an aid station before the chip mat and I stopped to drink like 4 cups of water and douse my body with a wet towel.

I also almost had a collision with a chic who was running out of transition the wrong direction. With her head down. Directly towards me and my bike as I was running in. She wasn't exactly running in a straight line so I couldn't avoid her. I kept yelling at her to watch it, but she didn't stop until I basically stiff-armed her. I gave her a "damn girl, watch where you're going next time" and then laughed as she tried to exit through the entrance. I think the heat was making people do silly things.

Now that I have the "feet out of shoes" bit worked out, I need to figure out how to hop off while moving.

Big sucky suckfest. I had to walk about 100 yards after leaving transition. My heart rate was sky high, I was sweating so much that drops were coming off my finger tips, and my breathing was way out of control. Every time there was a bit of shade I would walk to maximize my time in it, then I would jog through the sunny parts. I also walked the aid stations and would drink 2 cups and dump 1 on my head. No ice or sponges, which was a major bummer. However, Sunriver residents came out of their homes to give us water, shoot us with super soakers, and set up sprinklers on the course. That was awesome!

My friend Kevin from the gym caught up to me at mile 3. At the time, I was STANDING under a sprinkler staring off into space. Not even moving forward. I'm glad he caught me because he stuck with me to the end and kept me going.

People were on the side of the course for the last quarter mile to the finish line, which was motivating. Lots of music and energy to get you in there. Unfortunately I forgot to hop into the cool showers, because I was focused on finding my dude. Who was waiting for me with a sno-cone. Fantastic!

Train in the heat more. If we ever had heat in Portland. Between now and my half ironman I'm going to switch my runs from 5am to 5pm when I can.

Sno-cone and waited for friends to cross the finish line. Then we found some shade and watched them give out awards. I assumed that I was in the bottom half of my division due to the crappy run, so when they called my name I was beyond shocked. That was a nice end to the day!


No doubt, the heat. And hydration, or rather, lack of it.


This venue really is awesome. The volunteers are great. The run course is stocked with tons of water stations. The expo has lots of vendors. And obviously the weather conditions can't be helped, but they dealt with it quite well. The med tent was packed full at the end of the day, but it appeared that everyone was being attended to.

As a last note, there was a death on the swim that morning. Details are still sketchy, but it is reported that the man swam to a jet ski and said that he was in trouble. He then passed out and was brought to shore where CPR was started. Some friends of mine witnessed the incident as they were finishing up the swim, which had to have been awful. Efforts to revive him were not successful and he was pronounced dead at the scene. My thoughts and prayers for his friends and family, who were also there that morning. Very sad.

The rest of the photos from the weekend are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/SarahDBryant/200806PacCrest