St. Anthony's Olympic Tri - TriathlonOlympic

Knew this was my strongest of the 3, so I got up front on the starting line. Stayed to the right because the current was pulling everything right to left figuring that would help me. Ran like a banshee down into the water until I was about thigh deep, then did 2 dolphin type pushoffs to get to slightly deeper water. Disaster struck immediately - goggles both instantly filled with salt water. I handled it well I think. Cleared them in half a sec, got them on and dolphined again. SOB's filled up again. Cleared them and decided the hell with the dolphin, broke into a freestyle swim. Massive breathing issues the first 300y. Felt very tight and closed in feeling. The waves were tossing me around, drinking mouthfuls of salt water. This never really happened in the practice runs. This feeling went away mysteriously when I started trying to calm myself down and get into a groove. I went from breathing every 2 strokes to my more natural breathing every 3. I'd sight every 12 strokes. My sighting stroke was generally after I breathed right, I'd swivel my head around for a quick peek. Most of the race I was swimming pretty straight, so if I didn't get a good look I'd go another 12 before sighting again. I'd do it more frequently. Swam into a couple of people, which freaked me out at first and I'd stop for half a sec to see what was going on. The exit to the swim course was a set of steep metal steps going up about 25 feet from the water. This was not very fun to navigate especially with that funny swimmer's buzz you get coming out of the water.
My age group was split into 2 waves of 150 people each approx. Wife tells me I was about 5th out of the water

Practice dolphin style swim - figure out if need to position head differently, or just tighten goggles.
Relax in the first portion so as to not get all freaked out and panic.
Continue to learn how to sight and steer on an open water course.

I had to run across the entire TA to get to my rack - it was 2nd one from the other end. Got the top of the wetsuit off during my run, then removed cap and goggles too. Got 1 leg completely out of suit easily. 2nd leg stuck very briefly around the arch of my foot. Considering the length I had to run to get to my bike, I was really happy with this time.

See bike portion.

My bike start was a complete disaster! I tucked two gels that I was going to do on the bike into my aerobottle, and my sunglasses were hooked onto my brake cables...I'm thinking I'd save time in T1 by putting this stuff on during my ride. I get to the mount line, and I look down and see my gels are gone. I straddle my bike and immediately almost fall on the freaking brick road because my cleats are so damn slippery. Finally, I click one foot in and get going. I make the first turn on the damn brick road and I'm being shook up so much I suddenly hear a clatter behind me...there go my damn sunglasses - at mile 0.1 LOL! At this point, I decide to enlighten a few of the little children who were bystanders with a few new vocabulary words. Finally I get off the brick road and try to compose myself mentally. Decided that I had to finish the complete aerobottle of Gatorade in order to get the calories I needed anyway. The wind wasn't too bad and it was really early, so I figured I could do without the sunglasses. I was more pissed because of what they freaking cost more than anything. I kept on cranking away and finally notice my last f-up. When I almost fell mounting the bike, the wheel and handlebars went from being true and straight to being crooked. To get the wheel to 12 o'clock, I had to point the aerobars to 11 o'clock. LOL! I remember thinking about whether I should stop or not and how much time it would cost me. I remember saying - fuck it....I'm not stopping.

The course was fast! I had very few people out in front of me because of my starting wave and good swim. Don't think I passed anyone. I went back and forth with one guy once, then he dusted me. Hamstring cramp at the 17 mile mark. Finished gatorade in aerobottle at mile 23. Despite the bull shit, it was a great bike for me. I don't do well with hills, so this course is about the best its going to be. I kept cranking it the whole way. The chain never left the big front chainring, and never found the low gear on the back chain ring. The crooked wheel was a huge distraction on the turns and cornering, but overall, I was really happy with how well I did. Still have a long way to go. A good biker would have avg'd in the 22-25 mph range on this forgiving course. I still have work to do. Dismount went well. No problems unclipping.

Tape gels to bike frame
Put on sunglasses in T1
Stay steady at mountline or learn to do the preclipped in shoe thing.

Uneventful T2. Grabbed 2 gels for the run and stuck them in tri top pocket. Had to run the whole length of the transition area in my cleats, but it was grass, so no slipping issues.

Nothing...good T2

Spent first mile trying to find my legs. Spent the next 5 wishing they didn't hurt so much. For my 1st sprint of 2005, I didn't have any of this soreness, cramping, muscular issues. Fought through the hammy, quad issues the whole time. This may have been brought on by keeping it going in the bike, or some of the bike problems I had. My first mile was on a 7:38 pace, then the deep cramps started. Never walked, never stopped. Just slowed down the pace a bit here and there. Got a drink at each water stop every mile. Got sprayed down by hoses whenever one of the neighborhood kids had one. Got passed alot!!! There was lots of encouragement though among everyone. When I was on my way back in, I got to see Karl on his way out. He looked great! We high-fived one another. This lifted my spirits tremendously and I think my next mile after this went from an 8:30 pace down to an 8:00 pace.

Cut off my legs....seriously...improve leg fitness and endurance after a hard bike. More brick work

Someone threw me an ice cold towel after crossing the finish line. That came pretty close to sex as an all time good feeling. Gave back my timing chip and got my medal. Found something cold to drink and hobbled around to meet wifey. Post race massage was also exceptional. After that, we sat in our BT meeting place drinking beer and waiting for the others to come in.


Fitness in the upper legs. Quads, Hams, lower gluts all abandoned me in the run.


Unforgettables:
1) Chris' stem issues, prerace wetsuit rip, his pretty pink shirt, and his rule breaking draft penalty.
2) Seagulls following Wendi in the swim
3) Karl's high five on the run
4) "I like the way you think"
5) "hey...that race number has 10 digits Renee" bodymarking
6) "You really should shave up there"
7) Sue's monster BT sign wrapped keg
8) Sharon's 1 min swim
9) Chris - did you ever get any dolphin pictures?????
10) Lisa the "stream of consciousness" talker
11) Eyeballs popping out of dead people on airplanes.
12) "oh, and Jeff really works for Trojan" (rubber pipe insulation, yeah, riiiiiight)

I can't wait to do this race again. Even more than that I can't wait to run into some of these people that I met. Its one thing to read what they write on the site. Its another to meet them in person. Very cool experience. It would be very cool if in the future when BT members swell that there's some sort of race where we can all get together and race with one another.

This course rocked. For my first Olympic tri, I don't think I could have picked a more forgiving race. It was extremely flat throughout the whole bike and run. The swim was a bit rough with the chop and all, but doable. This was so much more of a memorable experience because of the other BT'ers down here though. Doing it alone would be fun. Doing it as a group was downright hilarious. I don't think I've laughed so much in my life.