Los Angeles Triathlon (Kaiser Permanente) - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

Fairly decent swim, the swell made it difficult to sight and I got pushed around more than I wanted to, surprised that I did as well on the swim considering. Caught a drafit for about 300m off a swimmer on the long stretch but dropped her when she started swimming out to sea. All in all this swim was an additional 150m for me considering all the correction I had to make.

Rounded the final bouy and tried to catch waves, caught one but didn't get much out of it. Being my second ocean swim (in a tri) I kept my heart rate much lower than Pendleton.

try and sight better

Shoved everything into T1 bag. It was a point to point race so had to have everything ready to go so the bags could be moved. "Shove, zip and run" that was my mantra. Nearly ran ove a sprint competitior who has hanging out near my rack. Sorry dude.

Not a whole lot. Got the heck out of Dodge.

Pay attention I had not idea transition was coming up so fast

Spaced and wasn't paying attention, didn't get shoes off in time so I hopped off and ran with bike, right into ... walkers ... walking and unable to find their rack. Ran past and found my rack. Bike shoes off, helmet and running shoes on. Grabbed visor and race belt and ... crap my race belt had come undone so I spent the first 100 feet of running trying to figure out how to get it threaded back the way it was supposed to be. No problem off I went

Check race belt before I dropped on T2 bag on Saturday.

Started out strong but had to slow myself down. I have a history of taking off out of transition and running out of steam. My family was on the run course so I was super jazzed to see them. I knew the hill was coming up and I needed my legs as fresh as possible before I got there. Ran the first loop, walked 20 feet of the hill (it totally sucked, end of story) turned around and a kid handed me gatorade, it was mixed too sweet and I gagged and spit it out, it was only going to be water for the rest of the race.

Came back down hill and ran back for the second loop, met a guy doing the sprint. Morgan looked like he was having a tough time and asked if he could run with me. I said sure and we ran a section on Grand together. I tried to talk him into running the hill with me but he opted to walk, I wished him luck and he did the same and we parted ways.

Ran the whole 2nd loop except for 20 ft of the hill. This worked well and I had enough energy to finish the race strong and not blow out my legs.

Came back into downtown and was so happy I didn't have to go to the right again (to make the turn around for the second loop). Headed down the finishers chute and crossed the finish line. Loots of people cheering (It was very cool).

Nothing, I felt like I pushed it as much as possible but made good decisions over all. Wouldn't have changed my decision to walk part of the hill.

After crossing the finish line volunteers took my chip, handed me an icy towel (I had been looking forward to this towel for at least an hour, maybe 2) and I got my finishers medal. Got in line and ate some grapes and part of a bagel, grabbed a bottle of water, chugged it, it was warm, tossed up and found a bin with ice and cold water, shoved ice down my tri suit and drank the cold water. Visited with the family and decided to go get real food. Headed over to the beer garden for my free beer, drank a third but it wasn't going down well so it was off to the car to clean up, loosen up and head to lunch


Need more bike training. This is my weakest leg. Need to work on mashing the large gears without blowing out the legs. My goal for the fall and winter is to put on the biking miles (and time in the saddle).


I enjoyed doing this race. Probably wont do it again next year. Not a huge fan of the point to point aspect of the race. Very well organized.

I had three plans for the race (A, B and C)

Plan A was my "I'm having a great day and everything is going right" My goal was to finish in 3:00 to 3:05
Plan B was my "It's an okay day, wheels haven't fallen off but I'm hurting a little" goal to finish in 3:10
Plan B was "I pinch flatted on a pot hole and lost my nutrition" the goal was to finish in 3:20.

I really didn't expect to break 3 hours. Only by 2 seconds, had no idea I came that close. I'm very excited that I broke 3 hours on my first attempt out for an olympic. It gave me some confidence as I start to build up base for HIM training.