Liberty Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

The half-Iron particicpants started in waves between 8:00 and 8:12. The first wave for the Olympic was at 8:30 and I started in the second at 8:33. I started on the front row. The shore drops off pretty quickly, so there wasn't much need to run or dolphin-dive. I pretty much just got started swimming as soon as possible and got into a rhythym. About 20 strokes into the swim, I noticed there was still a guy to my right. Then about 6 strokes later, he came crashing into me, giving me a pretty good shot to the face. I'm sure it wasn't intentional of course, and it wasn't a big deal. Soon after that I felt him touch my toes once, so I figured he must be trying to draft. I accelerated a bit to get rid of him, and didn't really think of it from then on.

From that point on, I was working on sighting, generally checking every 6-10 strokes. I hardly used my legs at all, with the buoyancy of the wetsuit, it was like swimming with a pull buoy. I started catching the wave in front of my about half way to the turn-around point, but never hit enough people together to make it an issue. On the way back, I was also swimming through a bunch of people doing the half, so the traffic was a bit busier. It was much more difficult to sight on the way back, as we were looking straight into the sun. At one point I found myself a bit out of line with a buoy and had to adjust, but given the sun issues and the amount of people I was weaving through, I can't complain too much. I kept a steady effort, and just kept pushing it with my arms while trying to save my legs.

The timing mat was at the entrance to transition, so the swim time must include the run up the hill to transition. I jogged it up, but didn't sprint, and got my wetsuit down to the waist before I got to transition.

Really not much. I felt like this was a good solid effort, but not so much to wear me out for the rest of the race. I do think I might have been able to knock another 30-45 seconds off my split without really doing any more damage than burning my arms worse, which isn't a big deal. I do wish I could start with the elites sometime, just to have someone to race with on the swim, as I've never really done any openwater racing, with drafting and all....

I was happy that by the time I got to my transition area, I didn't have any sand on my feet. The wetsuit came off pretty easily, and everything pretty much went as planned. While I knew it cost me a few seconds, I sat down and put socks on then my bike shoes.

I'm sure I could shave some seconds if I learned to bike/run without socks, if I pulled my socks and shoes on without sitting down, and so on. I'm probably a bit slower than average in the transitions, but not giving up a ton of time. I'll work on it a bit, but I think it's unlikely that I'll start running without socks soon, and that will always cost me time.

This was my first Olympic distance race and I felt like I've trained OK for it, but not enough to really do a terrific job. In hindsight, I started out a little bit harder than I should have, but probbaly only 10% too hard, it wasn't a major issue. I knew the ride was longer than most of my training rides, but also didn't want to just coast along. I'm pretty sure I saw Bikergerb manning one of the first turns, doing a fine job. On the loop west of Lake Independence, I got passed by some really fast folks. One guy came up on me so fast, with his disc wheel whirring, that I thought it was a car coming. Since I was riding a road bike, and don't have aerobars on it (yet), I tried to ride as much of the time as possible in the drops, particularly on portions where we were going into the wind.

Once we got to Hamel Road it seemed that there were less people passing me. This part of the course has the most rolling hills. I passed a few folks, but they were almost always half-IM contestants, just getting in a rhythym to go 56 miles. Around mile 10 we came across a dog that was chasing all the contestants. He would back off to the side of the road, and then charge at you as you went past, growling. I don't think he really wanted to catch anyone, as he didn't start the chase until you were a bit past him. On the Hamel Road part of the course, I really did a nice job on the descents, spinning up to speed and then getting into a good tuck. I was able to make up a TON of distance on people who were going much faster than I was in general, and I was able to do it while coasting a lot more than they were. By the time we got to Highway 6 (mile 16 or so) I was starting to lose some steam. The hills definitely seemed harder and longer, although I wasn't losing ground on the people who I'd been riding a ways behind for some time. It was also into the wind at this point, which obviously didn't help things. On one of the hills I was downshifting from my big ring into the small ring and dropped the chain. When I got going again, it slipped off a second time. This only probably cost me 30 seconds or so, but watching 6-8 people pass me, many of whom I'd worked really hard to pass a few miles back, was disappointing. At some point I really should bring my bike in for a tune-up...

The nastiest hill on the course came at around mile 23, and I was in my lowest gear by about half way up. Fortunately, I'd ridden the course the week before, so I knew it was coming and was mentally prepared. I did think that there should be guys running in devil costumes beside me, just like in the TDF. For about the last mile, it was mostly downhill and I took it really easy, trying to get my legs ready for the run. Entering the park, I got out of my shoes too early and had a problem getting my feet on top of them correctly. When I went around a sharp turn, I lost my shoe and a volunteer had to get it for me. This probably cost me another 30 seconds, so I figure I had at least a minute of pure rookie mistakes in my bike split. At least that will be easy to eliminate.

As a general comment, I was really glad that there were some half-IM contestants who started a half hour ahead of me, as I did have the opportunity to pass a few people, rather than just getting passed the entire day, as I was fearing. I took endurolytes any time I started feeling crampy, which turned out to be about 4 of them on the bike. I also had gels at around miles 10 and 20, and generally felt like my nutrition was pretty good. Obviously, my bike and run skills aren't quite as strong as my swim.

I really just need to be in better bike shape, I felt like I did about as well as I could given the level of my conditioning. I might start out a little bit easier, but not much. I also am hoping to get aerobars put on my bike before my next race, and am hoping that will make a noticeable difference. Obviously longer term I'd love to get a tri bike, but I can live with riding my current bike and knowing that it's not as fast as I would go with a better bike.

Finally, more butt butt'r.

Other than losing m shoe coming into transition as mentioned above, this was pretty uneventful. I had packed some endurolytes and a gel in a pouch on my racenumber belt, so it was just the basics of getting a helmet off, switching shoes, etc. I wore a bright yellow visor so that my kids could spot me easier. That actually turned out well, I liked the shade on my face and it wasn't as hot as a full hat.

I'm not sure. I think the easiest way to go faster in transition would be simply to run faster, which really wasn't in the cards.

Ok, so I'm not a great runner. I think I passed two people the entire run, each of whom were walking. Coming off the bike, I was really stiff, but not as bad as I had been in my last race. I think taking it a bit easier on the bike really paid off. After running up the steep hill of woodchips, I started to get my heartrate under control and get into a rhythym. I'm sure it wasn't pretty and it definitely didn't feel great, but I could keep it going. There were plenty of water stations along the route, and I took an endurolyte a couple times to ward off any cramping.

A few times I thought I should probably try to pick it up for the last couple miles and just deal with the pain, but I kept putting it off. I think getting back into training with a HRM would be a good idea, as it will then let me know in the race if I'm actually already pushing it hard, or whether I'm just being a wimp. At about mile 5, I started to feel a little bit of chills coming on and knew my body was probably starting to overheat a bit, so that killed any ideas I had of trying to obliterate myself for the last mile. At around a quarter mile to go, I heard footsteps behind me, and I tried to pick it up to hold him/her/it off. Running down the steep woodchip hill, I was going as fast as I could without blowing out my knees or twisting my ankle. Then, rounding the last turn for the finish line, I found a little bit of extra speed. Coming to the finish, the announcer was saying "This is Matt Johnson, from here in Medina..." and then "CLOSING IN FAST IS NUMBER 388, WILL HE HAVE ENOUGH COURSE LEFT..." I was able to hold him off and he finished 2 seconds behind me in the standings, but it was a good effort by the guy. If he was going to pass me, doing it at the line was the way to go, as I'm still too competitive to have let that happen other than getting surprised.

I've only recently gotten so that I can run under 9 minute miles in my training, so I was pretty pleased to run 8:47 or so at the end of the race, particularly considering that this is still a pretty long run for me. I think my pace was pretty consistent throughout.

Possibly wear a HRM to try to more accurately evaluate whether I should be pushing it harder. Other than that, training more and losing a little weight would probably both help.

Walked around a bit, found the food stands, etc. I really wish I would've made a point to stretch out a bit afterwards.


While there were a few minor things I wish I'd done differently, I really felt this was about as well as I could've realistically expected to perform given my training and conditioning. If I can say that after every race I do, I'll be happy.


Other than one section of woodchips on a steep hill during the run, i really can't think of anything I didn't like about this race. I hope to do it again, perhaps the half IM next time?