Auburn International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Hmmm. Where do I start? Pretty much zigzagged the whole way. Since no one was near me because I was sooo far behind, I could backstroke without worrying about bothering anyone. This may have been part of the problem, because it was easy to just flip over whenever I started to get nervous. Could not sight without doing that Tarzan thing and that just tired me out. All the sighting drills I practiced in the pool went way out the window as soon as I got in that lake. I became quite friendly with the support boats! It's a shame, because the water temperature was perfect, it was calm and not crowded. It just seemed like the longest swim ever, when zigzagging. I probably swam an extra 500 yds with all that! When I finally came to the last buoy, I could see the dock and I was so happy, I knew I was not going to DNF, and I started swimming freestyle all the way in and sighting, too! WTF? I was feeling pretty upset with myself, but decided to get over it and think positively for the rest of the race.

Practice open water swims. Duh. Regularly, with other swimmers, not by myself! I worked so hard to get my swimming endurance up to par that I was in total denial that my difficulties with ows could possibly be due in part to my uncomfortable feeling in ows, and my inability to swim in a straight line was because I never properly learned to sight in ows! Arrgh!

The times were not broken down, so I think the estimate would be about 4 minutes because I think my bike was about 1:42...anyhow it was okay, I took some extra time to slather more sunscreen over arms and legs because it was already hot. Jammed the gus and endurolyte tabs in my back pockets.
Walked bike up the small hill to mount and go!

Take the stupid toe warmers off my beautifully ventilated bike shoes! Didn't realize they were even on there til my feet started to feel like chicken wings on the grill!

I was so happy to be on my bike after that miserable swim, that I took it for granted that nothing could possibly go wrong. WRONG. Less than 3 minutes into my ride, I hit a sandy patch on a right turn and lost control of the bike. As I careened across the road (no traffic, thankfully, and no other bikers since I was so far behind everyone!), my mind quickly went into damage control mode...so I somehow managed to bounce my left leg off the brush on the side of that road, while simultaneously clipping out of the right foot, and didn't even fall over! Other than my chain falling off and my left handbrake being skewed, my bike and I were okay. So it took a few minutes to get the chain back on and then my Garmin just seemed stuck. I didn't worry about that too much, but it kind of sucked not knowing the mileage traveled, however the speed was still being displayed. Anyhow, after this little mishap, the bike actually went really well. Course was very hilly as advertised and unfortunately it was hotter than he&& because Auburn was in the middle of a heatwave. It was about 94 when I finished the run, so bike must have been in the high 80's. I felt strong on the bike and passed some folks. Drank my Cytomax every 15 minutes or so. By the end, I had gone through 1 1/2 bottles and 2 gus.

The only thing would be not crash at the beginning? Oh and figured out at about mile 14, that the Garmin was working again, so that might have been nice to know, but not all that important. I hit 40 mph going down Lemond Walked hill, and actually did really well coming back up after the turnaround, so that was very positive. Oh, and pray for weather in the 70's as advertised? I know, the weather is hit or miss, but dang, that was tough for a san francisco girl with TOE WARMERS ON!!!

Once again this was combined with the run total time, my estimate is about 3-4 minutes because I was trying to tie my shoelaces, I really could've used those yanks laces but oh well. I took some time to stretch and drink some cyto with another gu. Saw Kathy and someone she met there cheering for me coming into transition so that was a nice lift. Stretched briefly then took off.

not much, at this point time was not really going to make or break me, I was way past hoping for a good time, so it was fine. Oh, I would've left the Garmin on the bike not fiddled with it at the beg of the run.

Started out down a rocky trail and they handed us an ice cold bottle of water. NICE. So took some sips and poured some on my head and back. Felt kind of odd, because usually after this much fluid intake on my bricks I have an urge to pee at the beg of the run. So, as I sort of ran and sort of tried to get my Garmin into the run mode, I started to worry that I was really feeling the heat. I dug around in my jersey pocket for that endurolyte and resolved to take it at the first aid station. The other one had bounced out of my pocket somewhere along the way so I held tight to this little pill. Started to cramp a little and walked a bit, but saw an aid stn up ahead. Took the pill with water and moments later, I felt great! I took a cold sponge and stuck it in my sports bra! Wow, that felt good too! I pretty much ran at a good pace after that up and down several hills. Only stopped to walk when coming through aid stations and to take water and a new sponge. I passed lots of folks at this point, because a lot were walking. Got passed by some guys doing the first lap of the HIM and knew at that point, if it was a long day for me, it was going to be a long day for the rest of the pack doing the HIM run part in 90+ heat. Anyhow, I felt really good on the run after that one little magic pill. Thanks to my mate at T1!

Carry endurolytes for the bike and run in weather like that! I should've taken one at the beginning of the run and left the dang Garmin behind!
Train cross country in 90 degree heat! I could've done it down the peninsula middays during the spring, but I love running in the cool fog here in the city. Overall, a really good run for me given the blistering conditions. Wonder if the bike took a bit out of me, too.

Saw Kathy at the finish, and she took a great photo of me, with two sponges popping out of my sports bra! LOL Anyhow, ate some oranges, strawberries, a hot dog and drank water and yes, another cytomax. It was actually a pretty good spread. Looked for my bag in the great big pile of bags, that was not too orderly, my own tri bag would've probably been better. Should've stretched but I was dying to get out of the heat, so we took off.


Overall, my swimming in OWS just plain sucked. I have a huge mental block about OWS and I just need to start going regularly with a group to get over it. I wouldn't complain much about the heat, because it is what it is, but it did limit my speed. Running was a little tentative because I'm recovering from plantar fasciatis, but it turned out to be my strongest event.


I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it after coming out of the water second to DFL! And then nearly crashing my bike. Mentally, it was a challenge, knowing I was behind pretty much everyone, but I put together a decent bike and run on a really tough course on a very hot day, so for a first time Olympic distance, finishing was a definite win for me. I needed one day of rest and reoovery to say that yes, I would like to try this race again in the future.