Escape From Fort Desoto - TriathlonSprint

Way to slow

Bring a bucket of water.

Did not push it. I was already tired from a poor swim and high heart rate.

ate GU too late on the bike segment.

Need to cut at least 15 seconds off of this. Need to practice running in bike shoes during a long transition run.

Had bad cramps and chest pain. Also had a rock under ball of my foot. Could not get it out. Had to walk several times.

Training and getting flustered at beginning. See overall comments for details.


1. Got sick last Sunday with flu/cold/sore throat. Missed two days of work and only started to feel better on Friday.

Tent camped at Fort Desoto from Friday morning. Spent alot of time in the sun on the beach and walking trails. Sleeping in a tent with my 3yr old daughter that has a history of not wanting to sleep and moving alot and this was her 1st campout. On a positive note, she was so cute. She was so excited to be sleeping with me in the tent and from about 2pm kept asking if it was time to go to bed. My 2 oldest (7yrs and 5yrs) were in a tent by themselves and my wife and 2yr old son were in our conversion van on the fold out bed. So sleep and restful sleep were not the fair of the night to say the least. The racoons helps to be sure of that too.

2. Picked up my packet on Sat morning about 6:40am and my start was 7:48.

3. Took my stuff to transition and realized that the transition area was very, very rough concrete and I was at the end of transition with the other clydes about 40yrds from transition opening.

4. Set everything up and then realized I left my wetsuit in the car. That is ok, since I was planning to go back to the car anyway and say buy to my family.

5. I had to go #2 very badly... so bad it was impacting my thinking but portolets in transition had a long line and the other bathrooms were far away and leaving transition and coming back was not desired until I had everything set. I expected this (I always have to go before an event like this that makes me nervous) but the impact on my thinking was not planned for.

6. Got to the bathroom and now I could think. I then realized I did not set out my sunglasses in transition. I searched my car but did not find them. Got my wetsuit and said goodbye to my family. When I went back to transition to check for them I found them but this was one extra trip to transition.

7. Left transition barefoot. I may have wimpy feet but it was painful to walk on the concrete.

8. Get out about 50yrds from transition and realize I don't have my googles. Transition is supposed to be closed now. They let me in and now I have to walk on the concrete again. I knew I had my goggles. I remembered putting them in my backpack. Get there to my transition and could not find them in my backpack. Then I remembered that I put them in my shoes so they would not get crushed. My feet were really hurting by now.

9. I still have plenty of time but it is now a 1 mile walk from transition to the swim start on a crushed shell beach and concrete walkways. I got my bibjohns on and decided to put my top on once I got to the start. Wow, my feet are on fire by now. I see that the smart ones have put flip flops or sandles on the beach near the water exit to run from there into and through transition. I thought about this on my own but figured mine would just get stolen or thrown away. Next time I will bring some cheapos to have just in case of a similar situation. Walking in the water along the beach now thinking that it might sooth my feet a bit but it does not since there are so many shells. There is not much sand on this part of the beach. It is crushed shell. I might add here that I spend time on the beach on Friday too and that probably had some impact on my feet already being a little sensitive.

10. I get there after they started the 1st group but have at least 15 minutes before my group. I find a friend and seem to settle down some.

11. I waited too long to get my top on. Once I had it on, I realized I did not put the overall portion of my bibjohns over my shoulders. I thought I still had plenty of time. I took it off, put on my bibjohns completely, then started putting on my top. It was a real struggle and I could not get it lined up right. The frustration, heart rate, shaking, nervousness, fear, etc is really getting high now.

My group is moving toward the water. I tried to get it over my head and realized I had it on backwards (zipper toward the front). Now I have to remove it and try again. I am nervous just recalling all of this. I utter a loud grunt of frustration and a few look at me. I am visibly shaking. Trying to hold my goggles between my legs is difficult. I must be down to less than 1 minute to get my top turned right side out, get it on, get my cap and goggles on. As the horn goes off, I am getting my goggles on. As I am walking out into the water, I am still adjusting my wetsuit and trying my best to calm down.

The swim could have been worse but I never got settled down and between the waves, bumping into people, the events leading up to this, etc, I ended up doing the backstroke for a good portion of it and taking alot of rests. There is no reason I should not have been able to do the swim while just taking a few breaks to rest a bit.

My swim time was 20:48. 22th out of 27 for the clydes.

12. There was about 1/2 mile distance from the end of the swim to the transition. This was on crushed shell beach, soft sand beach, concrete and pepple walkway. You can guess what I am telling you. My feet were in bad shape. (As I sit here typing this more than 24hrs later, my toes and balls of my feet still feel raw and seem to stick to the floor in a way they are not supposed too.) I jogged out the water and saw my family cheering me on. My 4 kids and wife. They were great and had waited a long time. I jogged and walked but had to walk while in transition on the concrete. Can you guess what my feet felt like? It was a long walk from the entrance to my bike. There were 1000 entrants and I was 890, so that should give an idea that I was at the very end.

13. I did have some water in a bottle to help get the sand and shell fragments off but then I dumped that over. I did the best I could with my towel and got out of transition not feeling to bad but know that I have spent alot of physical and mental energy already. I saw that some people brought buckets of water. That would have been helpful for a wimp like me.

My T1 time was 6:51. At the very high end of the transition times.

14. I hoped the bike would be my stronger leg and it was but not as much as I hoped. I took at least a mile just to settle in a bit and there was a strong headwind for the 1st 2-3 miles but this should help on the last section since it is a out and back. I have not been using my aero bars on this bike yet. I need to try them. They would have been helpful in this wind for sure.

There are at least a few pieces of shell under my toes. Nothing real but definately annoying.

I had tested myself a week ago to see if I could really push hard on the bike and still have enough left for the run and I set a PR bike during that test (a 15 mile ride) and still had plenty for the run considering my pace. On this race, I never pushed myself. I was too tired already and still needed to complete the run. I got better during the bike leg but fell short by at least 1mph or maybe 2 of what I should have been able to do from a average perspective.

Bike leg was 33:23 or 20th out of 27

15. T2 - Uneventful at 2:04 but still slow.

16. 3.5 miles. 50% concrete, up and down 60 steps (Fort Desoto), and the remaining on sand that is somewhat compacted but no so much so after about 950 other partipants have run the same path.

I had chest pain and side cramps during most of the run. I have not had cramps since the 1st month of training back in July 07. The cramps were painful but would not have stopped me. The chest pain though was significant enough to make me walk several times. I had not experienced this before. I was also already quite tired and knew my pace was slower than I hoped. I have done many bricks and that transition was not a problem. I think the cramps were from too much water and a GU in the last 5 minutes of the bike. The GU was in my plan and I had practiced it many times but I had to take it over a too short of a period of time and took on too much water getting it down. Right after I finished it, I knew it might be a problem.

Right from the beginning I had a piece of shell or pebble or something under the ball of my left foot. I just figured I would push though but at about mile 2, I tried to get it out. It was very painful by this time and every foot strike was a painful reminded. I could not get it out and never did find it. It was bad enough to bruise my foot and I was limping for a few hours after the tri.

The 3.5 miles felt like a very long run and at 42:16 or about 12 minutes a mile, it was long. I hoped to do at least 11 min miles and thought 10:30 would be possible. I did a 9:59 per mile 10k last month.

My family was there at the finish line to cheer me on and my son (7yrs old) ran with me across the finish line. I had not planned that or even mentioned it to him. Maybe he saw some others do it. They have been so supportive.

We got some food and went back to the campsite to pack up and then back to the beach to with my kids. We had alot of fun together.

Conclusion:
There is alot to learn from this. Some is that I just need to train more. Some I just need to not repeat the same mistakes. Some I need to just not worry about it since circumstances such as being sick and spending a day in the sun the day before cannot be measured and may have had more impact than I want to admit. Much of this just feels like I am making excuses.

I think I am starting to talk like a athlete rather than someone who started training for a duathlon as a goal to lose weight. I have lost about 35lbs since July 07. I need to keep that in perspective and to keep that as a goal. I still want to loose at least anther 10lbs and maybe more.

I am still competive though and want to perform to the best that I can. I can give myself a little slack since this was my 1st but I am still disappointed. As you know, so much leads up to this in time, training, mental effort, money, etc, everyone would want to do well.