Big Rock Olympic Distance Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Wow!! What an eye opener for me. I really had no idea how different swimming in open water would be than the pool. I knew it would be and I was a little bit worried at first but truthfully I didn't know what to expect. And to be honest, I wasn't even that worried about it until I was in the water wading waist deep getting ready to start. The guy with the megaphone was there telling us that the race was about to start in one minute....30 seconds....10 seconds.....GO GO GO!!! Started swimming.....couldn't breathe....started freaking out. Oh man...what have I gotten myself into?? This was the first time that I had even been in a wet suit much less been in open water swimming. The suit was putting pressure on my chest and I was having a lot of trouble breathing. I think some of it was probably the adrenaline running through my body becase of the race and the rest was the actual suit. I tried my best to just stick it out and keep moving. The thoughts that were going through my head were...man this sucks...maybe I'll get used to it by the time I get around the back side up there....maybe by the next lap I'll have this thing under control....man I wish I could stay on track...why the hell am I swimming in circles here?? Geez!!! The entire tme I didn't really feel tired at all...I felt like my fitness level was good and my muscles felt fine and strong...but if you can't breathe properly and you can't swim in a straight line, that doesn't do you too much good huh?? Then...as I was coming out of the water I found myself in a slight coma as I tried to run out of the water and then quickly found it more comfortable for me to start walking. I walked for a minute or so until the old people started running past me....that was my cue to go ahead and start jogging a bit...lol. Pushed it out and ran the rest of the way up to transition.

Spend a lot more time practicing my open water swims....getting used to swimming in a wet suit and in an environment that involves waves and water being forced down my throat. ;P need to practice sighting and learning the basics of how to swim in groups and in the open water.

This transition actually went pretty well...despite the time length. I think that most of that time came from my walk up the beach...that was at least 2 to 3 minutes of it right there...but I had to get my head together and get my bearings. I walked for a couple of minutes and then started to run up to transition where my bike and gear were. Got to transition and stripped off the wet suit fairly quickly and got all of my cycling stuff together and started jogging out with my bike. By the time I got to my bike, my head was clear and I was ready for the biking portion. Jogged out to the point were we could get on our bikes...hopped on and hammered down.

Next time I hope that my experience in the open water will allow me to finish the swim better, where I will be able to actually run to transition instead of walk...and hopefully I'll be able to get in and out very quickly. I hope to have clipless pedals next time...so I can just strip the wet suit and grab my bike and go.

Yes there were a couple of tough uphills but man...the downhills were killer. I think I got up to a top speed of 35 mph on the big hills...awesome!! I tried to treat this ride as one of my commutes...but just a bit faster. I didn't want to kill my legs because I knew I had a 10K to run right after...so I went as fast as I could without killing myself. Most of the course was either flat or a nice downhill...but towards the very end there was a pretty long set of hills that got really tough at one point. I had to jack it down to my easiest gear and stand up on my bike to inch it along to the top of the tough hill. But, it was such a relaxing and fun ride that none of that really bothered me at all. I just tried to chase any fast person that passed me for as long as I could before they were way past me. Kept a nice steady pace and tried like hell to burn down the downhills. :D Came into transition pretty smoothly and dismounted, ready o kick some major a$$ on the run. :D

Ummm...well...a bike that wieghs less than 40 pounds would be nice...might make the uphills a bit easier. lol. Well, to be honest I think that I need to train a lot harder on the bike to get more strength and endurance. I know that I can improve a lot in this area and hope to get on that right away. More focused training and some tough long rides are in my near future. :D

You know, this transition was good...I came in off the bike and jogged to my spot...already had my running shoes on because I don't have clipless yet....stretched my legs a tiny bit and then headed out. I feel like it went very smoothly and I was happy with it.

I think next time I will stretch more before the race so my legs don't cramp up and get tight on the bike. Next time I should have clipless pedals and shoes so I'm sure that will be a whole new dynamic to get used to in transition.

The run actually went a lot better than I was expecting it to. I thought sure that by the time I got off the bike, my legs would be wasted and my run would totally suck. But, I got off the bike and felt great. Stretched for a sec and then headed straight out on the run. I totally needed to go to the bathroom but didn't want to stop and sacrifice time for something that I could hold till the end. It got a lot tougher to hold in toward the end but I never got to the point where I would have to piss myself...thank God!! LOL. I mainly just tried to set a nice swift pace for the entire run. I took it a bit east at first and then told mysel that I would turn up the heat on the way back and try to make up some of that time. I did put forth extra effort but didn't end up getting that much faster, according to my Garmin, until the very last half mile or so....at which point I started to go as fast as I could puch myself. It was really nice to run into everyone out on the run course. I hadn't seen any of them the entire rest of the race until that point and thought that maybe I wasn't going to gt to. Then I ran past Tim on his way back on the dam at about mile 2 and a hal or so for me...about four to four and a half for him. Then I saw Mixie on my way back on the dam....then I saw Faeron...then finally I saw Yanti. That lifted my spirits a bit and encouraged my to push just a bit harder. Toward the end people started getting faster and passing me...so naturally I had to turn on the afterburners and kick it into gear...those two people that passed me really helped me to pace the rest of the race and to push harder thna I might have if they weren't there. Good thing!

I know my run training is only going to get better from here. Basically I just need to get faster at my 10K running. I need to sign up for and run a few local 10K's as practice runs so that I can work on my running, while enjoying myself in a race environment. So, I am signed up for a 10K that is happening in Brentwood in 2 weeks if anyone wants to join me. :D

Fig Newtons....water...and sun block! Just as I was finishing the race the sun began to come out and burn the back of my neck....time for the sun block to get busted out. lol. Chilled out with Tim at the finish line waiting for everyone else to finish so we could cheer them on. He had finished almost a good 30 minutes ahead of me so he had a bit to chill out before I got there. He is super fast. :D Just chilled out with him and gradually people finished and joined our little pow wow circle. We got a burger and a hot dog from the BBQ tent and relaxed until we were ready to get all of our crap out of transition.


Need more training...and more experience. Lots of fun overall and I can't wait to do it again soon. :D


This was a fantastic race for me and I loved the layout of the course. Flat and fun...with some sweet style downhills. What more could you ask for?? And it was small which was nice...hopefully I will get to do it again next year.