General Smallwood Triathlon-International - TriathlonOlympic

I've done very little swimming since the school year ended (may 10), so I was happy just to finish it without being too tired. I've lost a lot of speed since then, but I didn't care. It was my first race and I just wanted a baseline. Was not a PR but I felt better about it than the swim in my last (and only) olympic tri. I did 28:00 in that, but that was with a wetsuit unlike this one, and that tired me out much more. Anyway onto today...

Start went well, not as rough as I expected. Had some poor navigation after the first turn, which cost me some time but wasn't terrible. Started to get into a groove here, and felt good. Third leg (of the first lap), I was getting hit a considerable amount (shockingly more than at the start), and the algae was all over me. I could feel my timing chip come off my leg (I'm not sure if the algae or another swimmer took it). The water was foggy and I knew I had no chance of getting it back so I pushed on knowing that I was wearing my watch, so I could get times anyway (all of the times in this report come off my watch and not the official results since my chip disappeared).

Second lap was uneventful, but had better navigation all around. Finished strong, and felt relaxed when I left the water. Though I looked a little like a sea monster with all the algae on me..

Keep my chip on and navigate better the first time around. Other than that it was as good as it could be considering the lack of swimming I've done lately.

Long run into T1. I had a good transition by my standards (i'm usually terrible). Buying a race number belt helped a lot! I was 72/161 overall and 4/6 in my AG for T1. It's improvement, but still a lot of work to do.

Faster run to T1.

Run and jump onto bike, get into shoes on bike.

Set a significant PR. Very happy with this time. I only brought two water bottles, but definitely should have used 3. I had none for the last 15 mins or so. I stayed in my comfort zone the whole time wanting to save it for the run. Another leg that went as well as it could considering my training. I've just been slacking since I left school, so considering that I'm happy. This definitely is giving me motivation to train more, considering the gains I've had while being less than consistent.

Brought a 3rd bottle of water, but that's it. It went great!

I need to leave my shoes on my bike for T2. But overall it went pretty well. 63/161 overall and 5/6 AG.

Leave shoes on bike, and jump off while moving.

After bonking hard in my last 3 races (Lancaster Oly Tri - Sept 07, Phily Half Marathon - Nov 07, Lawyers Have Heart 10K - June 08), I made sure to take it out easy. I went too easy, but I made up for it on the last two miles. Went from about a 7:40 to a 6:40 for the last two miles. I definitely could have started out faster (730 ish) and picked it up at 5K mark, but overall I think it was very positive. I took water at every aid station, and poured a lot of it on myself to deal with the heat.

About 2 miles in a guy passed me going at about a 6:45 clip, and I wanted to go with him so badly. I had to fight it because I knew I would run the risk of doing another death march to the finish. For once, I resisted the impulse to go, and I'm happy I did.

It rained for a few minutes about half way through, which felt amazing and definitely helped me finish strong.

Start out a little faster.

Short jog.


Lack of training since I started my full-time job.


I broke 2:30, which had been my goal, so I'm very happy. Set an oly-tri PR for bike, run and overall, so I guess I have to call it a good day all in all. Can't wait for NYC Tri next month to see just how much further I can drop those times!