Memphis in May - TriathlonOlympic

Having practiced OWS for the better part of last year and completing in one other OWS event (wave style), I was confident that I could complete the swim. Soon after the start I came to realize that finishing this leg would be harder than I expected. Once in the water I never caught my grove, my stroke, or my sanity. Being a below average swimmer I expected to be passed, however with the time trial start I was constantly being swam over, hit, and consequentially passed. I did not realize that with a wave start the faster swimmers would pass then you would be left to get in the grove. Time trail style is a constant wave of people passing or being passed. Which leads to a lot of contact. On top of these issues was constantly drifting to the right. Most likely due to the fact that I was so cold that I could not breath every three strokes. I fell into a mode of breathing only out of my left side.

Due to my new found swim tech I could not slight as easily. I did not practice sighting because it has not been an issue in the past with my previous swim form.

WETSUIT! I don't consider myself a cheap person but I could not force myself to shell out 300+ on a wetsuit for this race. I do not regret this decision since it was the right choice for my finances, but I believe my day would have been much easier with a wetsuit.

I was very tight and exhausted from the cold water. My legs actually felt worst coming through T1 as they did in T2. Not having a wetsuit, T1 was good. I did take some extra time to put on my Heart rate monitor strap and wrist watch. Other than taking those extra few moments, everything went fine.

I would buy a tri-shirt that I can wear during the swim, bike, and run. It did not take a ton of time to slip a shirt on in transition, but it would be better not to have to deal with it.

Figure out a way to put my heart rate strap and monitor on either before the swim or while on the bike.

Clip cycling shoes to bike before race. I am worried about this step requiring a lot of practice since I don’t have tri-friendly cycling shoes. Not sure if this is a smart move because if done incorrectly it could cost much more time that I it would have taken to put them on in the transition area.

I was very proud of my ride. I have not been a strong cyclist in the past and I am still not, however I felt confident and kept a good pace. Aside from a couple of amazing cyclist blowing by I was generally passing people. Which has never happened before. My cadence was slower than normal but that was because I was in a heavy gear. The course style did not vary, which did not permit for many gear changes or coasting. While I dealt well with the constant pushing but could have trained for it a little better.

The course did not have a water station which I should have known. I was lucky that I packed enough liquids to get through, but it was luck. I should research the course better next time.

I should also practice more sharp turns while training. I did a good job on the corners but did not feel comfortable either in the aero bars or on the hoods.

The dismount was down hill and I had a short run to the bike stand. During the dismount I unclipped my left shoe, braked, and attempted to unclip my right shoe. This did not work well because I was leaning forward on the bike while breaking which caused me to do a slight indo (front wheel stand). It was very slight but enough to cause me to have trouble with unclipping my right shoe. The actual transition was smooth. My only major issue was taking off my sunglasses with my helmet. For some reason I automatically took them off and set them in my helmet. I remembered the sunglasses at the end of my row and was able to quickly run back and grab them.

Practice a running dismount or a shoeless dismount. Once again I am not sure about this because if I screw it up then I would lose more time than I would gain. Perhaps some day I will attempt it during a race but until then I prefer to fall on my face in my front yard practicing.

After the bike my legs felt good but not awesome. I started off running a much faster pace than I thought I could hold. So I forced myself to slow. Soon enough my body was pacing myself correctly (perhaps a little slow). I alternated water stations with Gatorade and water taking time to dump some water on my head for good measure. Throughout the entire run I was worried about blowing up. Knock on wood, this has never happened to me in my short tri career. Having not experienced it I was psyching myself out that is was going to happen this time. Thus I ran a little slow. This slow pace was rubbed in my face by relay runners that just demoralized me through out the race. Overall I was please with the run and glad that I paced myself to ensure good practice for my upcoming HIM

After the run I noticed that my fuel belt had cut into my waist. Time I hope that either a tri-shirt or some body-glide can be used to combat this.

Perhaps I should take some sodium tabs or eat some salty foods on the bike. I noticed that to the end of the run leg I got a slight slide stitch. I felt like I was not able to breakdown some of the gels/liquids I consumed.

Finally I would not wear a BLACK shirt on the run. Pretty dumb, I know. I was not anticipating how hot it would get. I am guessing that being from STL that I was not accustomed to low 80s/high 70s yet

Walked a little, stretched, and ate some BBQ. My soreness the next day was due to sitting in a car for the 5 hour drive home.


Bad swim technique, lack of wetsuit (aka cold water), not pushing myself hard enough on the run.


I only rated the post race activities as below average because some of the tents were breaking down early which did not allow you to check anything out post race. I really enjoyed this race and the experience that I gained from it. It was well organized and run. Props to those who helped! This is an AWESOME race for experienced Triathletes, but for new comers I believe it would be easy to become over-whelmed. There are a lot of fast athletes in this race and the timing of it early in the season does not lend itself to a lot of OWS practice. I will do this race again if I have the opportunity. P.S. I got to see Sister Madonna. I wish I would have brought a camera!