Swim
Comments: This is a SWIM, people, not run in the water for 150 yards then swim. Had a very difficult time getting my bearings with too many folks insisting on running in the shallowness. Did a good job of sticking close to the buoys so no extra yardage. Until I turned the second buoy I creeped out a bit into the River. Redirected myself. Still couldn't get my breathing right due to the weird start. What would you do differently?: If I do this race again, I'll position myself at the front of the wave so I can start swimming immediately. SAVE the legs for bike/run. IMHO all that water running folks were doing is wasted energy. But what do I know, half of 'em prolly beat me on the swim ;) Transition 1
Comments: Took WAAAAAAAYYYY too long in T-1. Had to cram all my stuff into bag for removal to T-2. Was still a bit flustered from the poor swim What would you do differently?: Be better at shaking off small annoyances like poor swim so as to not interfere with mental outlook for rest of race. Bike
Comments: Felt good on the bike, though my Gu + water bottle concotion went flying away :(. Luckily I had another Gu stashed in T2 for a little boost for the run. Maybe coulda pushed the bike a bit more but felt comfortable with HR output. And whoo-hoo, my hope was to do 18mph being a flat course, but 3D / BT has be calculated out at 19.1! Prolly no big feat for the speedsters, but HUGE for me! I guess this training thing works ;) What would you do differently?: More fluids. Not enough water in the aero bottle, IMHO, even for a sprint. Transition 2
Comments: Forgot to unbuckle shoes on approach, but I was 2nd rack in so no worries running in shoes. Should have at least loosened them, however. Got cap on and run shoes on in good order, and sucked 1/2 a Gu for good measure. What would you do differently?: Prolly spent a millisecond too long worrying about crud in my feet. At least loosen shoes for easier extraction. Remove helmet on approach to rack. Run
Comments: I felt like I was running in slow motion but every time my Garmin dinged another mile, I was surprised at the pace. And boy was I ever surprised (in hindsight!) While 3D's site has me at 10:08 pace, BT has me at sub 10s. Either way I'm happy as a lark -- the speedsters prolly think I'm nuts -- but that is HUGE improvement for moi. YAY! Nearly twisted my ankle on uneven pavement (though it's a bit sore still) but I shook it off and continued. What would you do differently?: Nothing. Post race
Warm down: Walked around post race area, chatted with other BTers. Met fan club(a/k/a Hubby & BFF). What limited your ability to perform faster: Need more Bike! Estimated effort level: 90%. This based on AVG HR overall. Event comments: The debacle of toilets, body marking and chip pickup at the beginning was a bit stressful. They could have used more volunteers. My feeling as well on the run course. The gal in front of me 100 yards asked a spectator if she was going the right way. From about .25 until mile 1 I felt a bit sketchy about where I was headed. Map on website is pathetic, in this day and age of Gmaps, etc. Last updated: 2008-06-10 12:00 AM
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United States
3 Disciplines Racing
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 208/361
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 3/11
Routine? What routine :) Woke up too early because of nerves but still got a decent 7 hrs in. Double checked transition bags. Had coffee and prepared an english muffine with peanut butter for later. Left 5:20 a.m.
T-1 was a mile up to the beach so got to ride the bike and check gears. Also early sprinting to the ONE AND ONLY PortaPotty.
This event was poorly managed in this regard, IMHO. NOT A ONE Porta Potty in sight at T-2.
3D, to their detriment, relied on the permanent bathrooms being open, which weren't. If you had more serious "bidness" to attend to, you were, shall we say, in deep doo-doo. By T-1, one, yup, you read that right, ONE stall (per my brother's report) was open in the Men's bathroom by the beach. It took 40 minutes for him to make it through.
Body Marking Chip Marking, also a major clusterf*ck. They had folks lined WITHIN T-1, so not only are folks trying to rack their bikes, others are lined up in and through T-1 waiting.