Memphis in May - TriathlonOlympic

The swim was harder than I thought it would be. I got off to a bad start. I made the mistake of kind of diving in, which knocked my goggles loose and let a bunch of water in. I tried to swim on, but couldn't see a thing. So I stopped and treaded water for a minute while I fixed them. In the mean time people are bumping into me, since I'm just sitting there. I get going again, but the whole thing has freaked me out a little. I'm breathing too fast and the wetsuit I was wearing is really tight, and I was having a hard time getting enough air. But when I tried to take bigger gulps of air, I swallowed some water -- that didn't help. On top of this I was swimming crooked and kept getting off track. Finally I switched to breaststroke and slowed down to regroup. I did think briefly about quitting, but I knew if worst came to worst, I could breaststroke the whole thing. All of this happened in the first leg of the four leg (1 mile) swim. After I got my breathe I was able to settle down and the rest of the swim was uneventful (if slow).


HOLD GOGGLES WHILE DIVING IN! Also, more practice on sighting and more practice swimming with wetsuit.

Transition was OK. I wasn't planning to run thru the transitions anyway, but I didn't waste a lot of time other than walking instead of running.

Maybe run if I'm in better shape by next time.

The bike went better. The course only had a few minor hills, so that wasn't bad. I was cruising along fairly easily at 20-22 mph. A little too easily. When I'm going 22 easily, it usually means I'm either going downhill, or I have a tailwind. In this case it was the latter. Unfortunately on a loop bike course, a tailwind will sooner or later become a headwind. Sure enough, we turned a corner and BLAM (or maybe WHOOSH) headwind of 10-15 mph. This made the bike not as much fun. Still, I thought it went fairly well.


More time on bike (had been running more for several months and kind of neglected the bike)

None

Run

The run was bad. My legs were pretty tired from the bike, and the run course was quite hilly. I ended up walking more than I had planned on. I would run for a little while, but it felt like someone had removed several important muscle groups from my legs. I was so happy to see the turnaround point -- 5K down, 5K to go! I continued walking/running back. When I got to the last 1/4 mile or so, I could just see the finish, and one of the race volunteers kept saying, "You can see the finish -- go for it" -- so i did. I thought i was going to have to stop about 100 yds
from the finish, but I slowed up a bit, and could tell I could make it. Finished!

Keep working on my running

Sat down for a few minutes and drank some Gatorade endurance. Then BBQ.


Nutrition/hydration about right. Had light bkfst about 2 hr before race, GU 20 min before swim, drank about 50 oz Gatorade on bike ride (camelbak) and had one GU on bike, then water or gatorade at the aid stations on the run.