St. George Triathlon "SGTRI" - Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Water was VERY choppy. So choppy, in fact, they canceled the sprint swim but let the Oly length do it. I was slower than I normally would have been, but still top 15% overall out of the water.

The swim was a little spooky due to the rough conditions. The worst I have ever competed in. I was never really scared or panicked, but there were several times I would come up for air and just get hammered with a wave and suck down some water. It startled me some and I realized that if I didn't get some clean air on the NEXT breath attempt, I may have to stop for a second to gather myself. Fortunatly, that never happend. I did see many people have to stop, or breast stroke, side stroke or back stroke to get some air to breath....

I felt bad that the sprinters didn't get to swim, but in all reality, I am VERY comfortable in the water and I even got surprised. I think it was the best call to not let the sprinters do it (where there are quite a few first timers and beginners). If you didn't have some experience in those kind of conditions, it could have been problematic.

THIS is the area that they screwed up my timing (See below). I have adjusted my swim to accordingly and notified the race director. They had me at 23:49 on record (2nd in my div. behind another timing error, and 4th overall, again, with one of them with an incorrect time) I really came in 3rd in my AG (really second if the other person fixes their time) and 67th overall.

Maybe find a person to draft. But EVERYONE was all over the place and slow with the bad conditions.

Had trouble getting the wetsuit off my right heel AGAIN. Still top 20% overall and MOP of my division. Ran by my bike by 15' and needed to back track.

Need to add body glide to my calves/heels to help with removal.

Bike went well. Handled the winds and the sand that was blowing and building up on the roads. I kept a nice, comfortable, but hard pace. I realized one thing, if there is a hill or tough wind, it really kills me. But get me on some flat stretches of road? I can push 23-25 mph pretty easy. Just get into my tuck and haul ass. The hills seemed easier this year than compared to last year. Also, the big hill just before T2 was CAKE!!! I pass SO many people going up that beast. I just dropped it into my low gear and spun right up it. Must have passed 15 people.....

ALSO, maxed out at 50 mph on the massive downhill section they have.

Need to work on hills. But really, there is not much more I can do. It's more of a weight thing. If I can drop 10-20 more lbs, it would help a LOT. I feel like I have the power (it shows on the flats), but trying to haul my weight up a hill is rough.

Ran by my spot by 15' AGAIN. I kept making that mistake all morning and it happened during both transitions.

Locate my spot better.

THIS IS WHERE I WAS HAPPIEST!!!!

My run was GREAT! I felt strong after the bike and was only 3:30 off my open 10k PR!!!! I would expect about 1 minute per mile difference over my open 10k PR, but I reduced that down to about 35 seconds. Trust me, I was tired and kept my HR in Z3 for most of the run, but still kept a good pace. The course was tough too. Mostly trail running with some nasty hills and lots of sand. Almost like running on the beach for portions of the course. I even joked to myself on the run, "If I wanted a day on the beach, I would have brought my surfboard and a pina colada".

I also really kicked it up to Z5 for the last 1/4 mile and was able to run down another Oly competitor that had about a 100 yard lead on me.

Race provided nutrition and snacks. Walked 1/2 mile back to the car.


First of all, there was a timing snaffu. They started my time with the wave AFTER the one I started in. The problem was they gave me the wrong cap color. They based it on my age on race day, NOT my age this race year. So I followed all the other blue caps and got a 10 min. head start on my true wave. I have made ALL the adjustments to my ranking and times in this report AND notified the RD to make the changes to be fair. The race has my finish time at 2:47:12. It should be at 2:56:53.

As it now stands, I'm 60th (out of 505) but I will drop to 93rd after the correction. I am second in my division (out of 19), but that will drop to 4th after the correction. But to be honest, even after the corrections, I can tell I have significantly moved up in rankings for both overall and my division since the same course last year. Plus I felt much stronger during and after the event.

I will NOT say this race was easier, it was still hard, BUT it felt simpler on a psycological level. Training and competing in a HIM just before this made 1.5k/40k/10k feel SO much easier. I was able to do what I love. HAMMER!!!!!! Just go as hard as I felt I should and go go go. I didn't really do any nutrition on this shorter race. Just made sure I drank a lot during the ride. My new Aero bottle was AWESOME! It reminded me to sip during the whole bike since the straw was right in my face. Drank two whole bottles of water during the bike. I think THAT'S why my run felt so strong.

I REALLY love this distance. I just don't feel as trashed after the race and there is less discipline needed on pacing than needed for the longer races. I think that after I knock out an IM and another HIM or two, I may just focus on these shorter races....

Couple other things....

This was the FIRST time I went hard enough to actually PUKE! Got finished with my kick at the end and dry heaved/hurled a little. Guess I had a good hard kick!!! WooHoo!!!!

There looked to be a nasty crash that needed an ambulance. It was at the bottom of the big hill (where I hit 50mph) and you have to cross a cattle guard. It is VERY disconcerting. I wonder if the guy lost it and crashed doing a high speed. I hope not, and I hope he is going to be ok.....

Missed a PR by about 3 mintutes, but it a little hard to tell. The wind played havoc with the swim and bike and I think the swim course was a little short on my PR race last year.

My Garmin seems to act up during races. I don't know if I hit the wrong buttons or hit them too many times in my rush, but my "bike" leg was 1 minute, but my T2 was 1 hour 24 min! It seems to work fine during the couple times I used the multi sport funtion it in training, but gets all messed up during races.