Caesar Creek International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The previous weekend I did a 1500 meter OWS in 38:45 and took home a few valuable lessons. I needed to fix my goggle fog problem and I needed to do more swimming and less stopping and sighting. I purchased some new goggles and decided to take jeepfleep's advice about using other people to sight.

As we hit the water I stayed to the left as much as I could to stay in between the buoys and other swimmers. As I ended up last in my age group you can imagine that this would be difficult, but as new waves would catch up to me I was able to sight using other swimmers the majority of the race. This allowed me to keep moving forward.

The first lap was pretty uneventful, with the exception of getting pounded in the head pretty good at the 3rd buoy turn. Everything felt fine and I was just focused on swimming. I made sure to note where the exit buoy was as I completed my first lap and I headed out on my second.

The whole race I tried to draft as people went by, but I was too slow to really stick with anyone. Still, I did manage to pass a few folks here and there and I think improving from 38:45 to 33:16 (and that time includes T1) in a week was really really good. I took the lessons I learned and put them to use.

As I rounded the corner for the home stretch I started to mentally go over T1 and what I needed to do to get on the bike. I hit the exit buoy and started wading to shore (it was hard to get going!). I also made sure to smile as I started up to beach for the cameras (my Mom was there snapping away!)

Not much. I'm very happy with the improvements I made over my swim the previous week. The new goggles were awesome (the girl at the Swim Shop made fun of me for having the same goggles for two years.... man there is so much to learn about triathlons) and using the other swimmers to sight worked out fairly well. I stayed calm and focused during the swim even after getting whacked in the head.

I still need to work on my swimming technique, but I feel pretty good that I could expand my swim base up to a HIM distance without much trouble. That's the next step.

The beach was a little ways from the transition area and I wanted to at least jog the distance (unlike the Sprint I did in 2006 were I walked back). Once I hit land I made a nice jog all the way to my bike (which was looking pretty lonely by the time I got there with all the sprint folks and most of the OLY folks gone). I had my helmet and sunglasses on the bike ready to go and my shoes (untied this time!) and socks went on nice and easy. The shirt was a little hard to get on due to me being wet, but it wasn't too bad. I grabbed the bike and headed out.

There was a chip problem so we didn't get a T1 time.

I should get a shirt to wear during the swim so I can save some time.

I jumped on the bike and immediately landed on the wrong spot. Ouch. Oh well, got up to speed and me and my toe cages were off to the races. Once I hit the 2 mile mark I had a gel and washed it down with some water. I noticed around mile 5 I had been hitting the water bottle pretty hard so I decided to ease off it a bit.

I was getting passed here and there and I think a lot of it had to do with the toe cages. It was odd, but the same people I would catch on the uphills and downhills were blowing by me on the flats. I passed and was passed by one gentleman in particular 7 or 8 times. I'd always blow by him going uphill but then we'd hit a stretch of flat and he'd shoot right on past me.

I hit the monster hill around Mile 10 and man.... some of the hills I train on in TN are bad but this was a beast. I was in the easiest gear going about 6mph up it. My quads were burning like crazy! I passed a lot of folks going up this hill.

I had another gel pack around mile 13. At the 15 mile mark or so I was about to pass someone on an uphill when I got a really bad cramp in my left leg so I pulled in behind him. A woman passing me yelled at me to drink more water as I explained my cramping situation. I figured she probably knew what she was talking about so I started hitting the water again.

The next 10 or so miles were pretty flat and uneventful. I saw a guy changing his flat and felt bad for him. I was disappointed there weren't any aid stations out there but I guess that's normal for this distance. It was fun rolling down the big hill back to transition, though a guy trying to get out of his shoes swerved and almost took me out. At the dismount I swung my right leg over and hit the ground running just like I saw in a BT video. The race official laughed as I yelled "I can do this!"

I think some clipless pedals would work wonders. Probably more time in the saddle too. I swam over 1800 meters a few times and ran up to 14 miles in training but I never biked over 24 and I only hit 24 miles once.

As I biked in my running shoes this was pretty simple. Bike on rack, helmet off, start running. No T2 time due to the chip problem.

Well, when I hit the Mile 1 marker and my watch said 7:20 I thought I was in trouble. (Once I made the first lap I realized the Mile 1 marker was from the duathlon start and not the transition exit.) Thinking that I ran the first mile in 7:20 I pulled in behind another runner and just paced off of them for the next 2 miles.

I saw David around the 3 mile mark and found out he accidentally did an extra 5 miles on the bike. I cheered him on and felt pretty good as I hit the 5K mark. It was starting to get hot as I headed out for the 2nd lap (it was so cruel seeing the turn for the finish but having to go back out). That 2nd lap hurt and around mile 5 I felt like I was ready for the race to be over, but I kept pushing. I passed a decent amount of people on this lap, most of whom were walking.

I actually managed to push it at the finish line and I finished strong. My first Olympic Triathlon was complete!

Well, I dunno. Maybe I could have gone faster, but I think I went about as well as I could have gone after doing the swim and bike.

They had the chip person a foot past the line which sucked as I had to stop almost immediately while they got the chip off. I grabbed some water and then walked as fast as possible to the restroom. Afterwards I had a banana and took some celebratory pictures with David and my wife.


I think I need to do several things:

1.)Swim lessons
2.)Clipless Pedals
3.)More time in the saddle




I was kinda disappointed that we didn't get our T1 and T2 times. Also, I wish they had an aid station somewhere on the bike course. Other than that, I had a good time at this race. The t-shirt was very nice.