General Smallwood Triathlon-International - TriathlonOlympic

Some guy decided he was going to round the buoy doing the breast stroke with 15 people right behind him. I tried to take him on the inside but tangled myself in the buoy rope and ended up kicking some guy in the chest, whoops. Stopped and said sorry.

Slow down. My chest got tight about 3/4th's of the way through which for me a strong indicator that I'm pushing too hard. I could see the boat launch so decided against throttling back.

My chest was still tight so I jogged easily up to the transition.

Practice with shoes on bike already so I can out faster.

For some reason I couldn't get comfortable in the saddle. I spent much of the time trying to keep my cadence up and not trying to mash so much, especially on the climbs. Body glide didn't help.

Train more, I felt uncomfortable in the final 5 miles and my calves began to cramp.

Transition was fine, should have probably had my race belt buckled beforehand because I ended up putting it on upside down. Lost about 10 secs there.

This is what I call "misery." Legs felt extremely sluggish coming off the bike, had to walk within the first mile. My butt was bothering me as well, which didn't help things. Thought the body glide would have helped alleviate any trouble with that, but I don't train in my tri-suit, only my padded bike shorts. Spent the entire run going from aid-station to aid-station hoping that more water would help. I was taking in all of the water that I could get my hands on, but nothing seemed to help. Sun was blistering and I could tell I was overheating extremely bad. Walk/run was all I could do just to get through it. All I could think about was crossing that finish line and getting in the air-conditioning. Luckily the final mile was in the shade on trail, so I was able to jog a little bit longer, but not by much. My skin was turning very pale and I could feel heat exhaustion kicking in. Crossed the finish line with arms raised, but felt close to collapsing. They had a sprinkler tent afterwords that I spent 5-10 minutes under just to try to cool myself down. I couldn't even stay for the food, I just wanted to get in the air-conditioning in my car. Car ride home I became nauseous and had extreme bouts of leg and calf cramps. When I got home I looked up heat exhaustion and I exhibited every symptom. Spent the rest of the day on the couch eating salty foods and drinking lots of gatorade / G2 / vitamin water and sleeping.

Try to acclimate myself better to the extreme heat and humidity. I may not do another summer triathlon because I'm not sure my body can handle it.

Heat and lack of fluids.


Setup Events did a very good job with this race, very well organized and run, kept everyone informed on where to go and what to do.