Young Life (Formerly Castaway Club) Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Wow, first Oly and man did that third buoy look F A R from perspective of the shore. So was a little psyched out by that at first, but the conditions were so great, it probably wouldn't have mattered if it was 2 miles!

Had a good swim, didn't feel too fatigued at all ... really digging the sleeveless wetsuit as it feels so much more free in the shoulders. Biggest problem was sighting the third buoy after rounding the second ... all I could see was sun glare. Just tried to follow all the other swim caps ... Don't know how the leaders did it?

Get new goggles, since my trusty old pair fog up on me constantly.
Be more confident on the swim so I can start to push it a little more.

Caught sight and sound of my wife cheering for me coming out of the water (always feels good to hear family/friends at that point)

decently fast transition.
Suit came off easy...took a little time to fold suit up and place it in a spot where it wouldn't get trampled on - which is what I think happened to my last suit (found a bunch of punctures/tears after the Bismarck event).

Out of transition was a little congested due to riding through parking lot, so had to take it easy through the three left hand turns.

not much - I guess I don't run very fast during transitions, so could maybe gain a few there.

Good pace, pushed it a little, but eventually got burned out by the hills.

Passed in-laws, wife, kids, and aunts/uncles as they cheered me on ... thanks guys!

Started to fade after the second loop through the hill region. Was holding 21.6 mph up to that point, and then finished with a 21.0. Wasn't terribly fatigued, just didn't have the power left.

Didn't have a consistent 40k TT base yet, only 1 year (July 07 to Aug 08) of cycling under my belt.

Last minute decision on whether to wear socks or not, went without, but thought about it for a second before putting shoes on.
Grabbed hat. Grabbed the Garmin off the bike and onto wrist. Had some probs with watch coming out of transition ... powered down for some reason?

better plan coming in to transition, but this was first Oly, so wasn't fully sure how I'd feel and what I'd want on the run.

A bit of sloshing in the stomach, which made me nervous as my stomach is not historically strong after the bike. Had grabbed some antacid during T2 just to fend off any unsettling. Seemed to work allright as stomach went away.
Was not confident enought to push and stay under 9min/miles after the first mile. Really started to wonder if I was going to make it after mile 1! Could not get my stride stretched out and felt like I was just crawling ... especially seeing all the top 15-20 come striding out down the Dutton Locks trail.
Finish line finally came, as I plodded through at about 9:30 miles. Was able to pick it up to 8:45 miles the last 1/4 mile or so, but HR went peak and I was just running on adrenalin ... spotted the family and my six year old daughter came out to run me in. I told her I was going to beat her to the finish, so we raced down the stretched (and dad really did run as fast as he could at that point!) ... we tied :)

Be more confident in run, but again, being my first Oly I really didn't know what to expect and it is just a 'known' that the run is my nemesis.

Plan to focus on running this winter (speed work), with swimming once per week. If I could get my 5k down to consistent 7:15-7:30avg and 10k down to 8 avg, I will be content going into next year. No more top 1/3 swimming and cycling and bottom 1/3 running!!!

Didn't do a great job warming down. Stretched a little next to a tree and then talked to family members for 10 minutes.

Cleaned up transition area and found the food. Didn't see a lot of familiar faces at the food/awards, so found a comfy spot to lay and enjoy the great day.


illness and travel the previous couple weeks limited the peak training days, but honestly it was mostly the confidence in swim and run.


I hate to give this local race an 'avg' rating and say that I thought it was a bit unorganized, but honestly that is how I felt.

1 - no water available pre event. This is big, IMO. You can't expect everyone to bring their own water. The water in the public bath house was even turned off. I asked one of the gals at the check-in and she said the trailer was locked, they don't have anyway to get into it, but that the water would be available for post race (which it was) ... unacceptable at an endurance event.

2 - No traffic monitor at the final left hand turn on end of the 'loop'. VERY dangerous blind corner ... luckily motorists were going slow in that region, as that left turn was fast and could have resulted in seriuos problems.

3 - Maybe it was just me, but I saw only two people monitoring Olympic course swimmers (one in a boat and another in a kayak). They were only on the 2nd to 3rd buoy line - didn't notice anyone on the turn to 'home'

4 - Need a marker on the beach (another buoy, for example). It was hard to find a line back to the beach, on the last stretch. I think a lot of us used the sail boat that was in the way, as a sight line.

Awards lunch was good. Giveaways are always great and appreciated. Suggest they might want to do giveaways after awards or split half before and half after awards, to get poeople to stick around?