I Love the Tavern - Triathlon

This is my first successful OWS. Even though I pretty much sucked, I'm so happy with my performance. When I was calm, I was able to swim freestyle - no problem.

Unfortunately, there were a couple of things that did not make me calm - but let's start with the good stuff.

THINGS I THOUGHT WOULD BOTHER ME:
1) Deep water. Nope - I don't need to touch the bottom; I can swim.
2) Dirty water. No problem. In fact, when I was in the groove, it was actually pretty peaceful.

THINGS THAT DID BOTHER ME:
1) The man having the seizure. It was a deep water start, so I waited a bit before joining my wave because I didn't want to tread. When I got about half-way out to the start buoy, I realized everyone was signalling for help because a man in the waive prior needed medical attention. This of course got me very nervous and also made our start later, which meant more treading, which meant more nerves. I hope the man is OK - I never heard more about him. But - this is probably not something that will happen in my next race.
2) Inefficient sighting - when I sight, I get out of my groove and it stalls me a bit
3) Touching other swimmers - yeah...I know.

BUT - this was a success. I did not kayak/buoy hang. I did not panic. There were 3 occasions when I got a little off-kilter, but I flipped to my back, took a couple deep breaths, and flipped back over. All of these were in the first 200m - after that, and all the way to the end, I swam.

Well, I need to get better at sighting. I'm OK with that. I should probably get better at swimming in proximity with other folks. Then I wouldn't need to back off.

Yes - I need to practice this more, but I no longer think that OWS is a limiter in and of itself. :) Which is why I rank this swim as AWESOME.

This transition included a fairly long run from the river to the T zone. I brought my flipflops to avoid the little gravel...maybe a little faster without them? I also took a moment to compose myself and put my Shot Blox in my pocket (didn't want them to get sticky in the swim).

Maybe skip the flipflops?

I felt good about the bike. I would have liked to see an avg mph above 17, but I'll take it. This course seemed to be uphill out, downhill back - with one killer-beeyotch hill at the turnaround. After the swim, I didn't really feel settled until about mile 4. Some of this may be due to the slight up hill of the course...downhill felt wonderful. I ended up walking maybe 0.2 up the hill because I was afraid I was going too slow to stay upright. No biggie - got right back on and to the turnaround. Slow at the turnaround, because they had to mark your arm and because it was a tight turn (and the chic in front of me was babying it...grr...that's OK, because I passed her like a demon on the downhill - I hit 38mph - rock on!) Felt awesome from that point forward...it actually got fun.

16 oz nuun, 3 shot blox on the bike. Marg flavor for the salt. Yum!


Figure out how to get my self calm faster...once I was in the groove, I really enjoyed the bike, but it took me almost a quarter of the bike to get there.

No problem in T2. Changed shoes and hats, grabbed a GU and off I went.

Nothing. T2 is my best event. :)

I love me some running. :) Why can't a triathlon be 3 running events? (Or as Jen and I were talking...why isn't there a bike-run division? Oh, yeah - that would be a duathlon.)

I enjoyed the run. Saw Jen & Judi (apparently I had passed Judi on the bike and missed her.) Felt good. Felt fast. Felt strong.

Run faster?

Since I had passed Jen & Judi on the run, I knew I was the first Nibb in, so I grabbed some BBQ and went to the finish line to cheer for them and the other finishers. Hung out with them for a while, called Sugar Daddy to tell him I wasn't still in the river and that I would be signing up for the Oly. :) Went home and crashed.


I need to work on my swim...mostly comfort and sighting...but I know now that I can do it.

I need to work on my bike...mostly getting my groove on earlier (oh, and not walking up beeyotch hills)

I need to work on my run...because I love love love running.


I have basically decided to avoid any Richmond Multisport productions in the future. I hate RMS. Sorry. It's true. The race itself is usually well done. In fact, I thought the volunteers on this course were fantastic - thanks to the Powhatan police guys and the little guys in the woods pointing directions on the run - you guys were great. However, the pre-race and the post-race blow chunks.

Here are my gripes:
1) It took over 24 hours to post results for a teeny-tiny race.
2) They never have enough beverages for the later finishers...I took the last diet Coke. Judi & Jen could only get water.
3) They are very much in love with themselves - the door prizes are based on tri-trivia about RMS or the Richmond Tri-Club or Tri-Girls training. They don't seem to be interested in racers that aren't members of these organizations.
4) The pre-race meeting was kind of silly and too much time was spent on inside jokes.
5) They didn't do a good job of responding to the calls from my wave of swimmers about the guy who needed aid.
6) They have never had a working megaphone.
7) Packet pickup is usually a screw-up.
8) The shirts this year are butt-ugly.

OK, I'm done venting. Sorry.