St. Paul Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The swim start was running from ankle deep water. We probably had to run about 25 yards to get to a depth where it made sense to swim. I positioned myself on the swim between two guys. The first was a guy I know from the pool. He's naturally a pretty fast swimmer, but doesn't train enough to be really good. However, I thought there was a chance he'd go out fast and I could draft off him. The second guy just looked like a swimmer, positioning himself at the front of the pack, wearing swedish goggles, etc. When the horn sounded, we all ran for a while then dove in. After about the first 50 yards of swimming, I was in about third place. I was able to track down the leader (pretty sure it was the guy I see at the pool) and draft off his feet. The other guy who was swimming with us for some reason was simply swimming off on his own, a couple yards to my right. I would see him when I would breathe, and wondered why he didn't try to draft. About halfway to the first buoy, I noticed that the guy I was following was having a really tough time swimming straight. I was really debating whether it made more sense to swim straight by myself, or follow the guy on the zigzags. I opted to leave the draft and just swim by myself. By the first buoy we had started to encounter people from the wave ahead (4 minutes), and the traffic began. I saw one of the guys from my wave getting away from me after the first buoy, and tried to pick it up to get on his feet. Unfortunately, the traffic got so dense that it was really impossible to follow anyone. The traffic got a lot worse on the second lap, as we caught at least two more of the later waves. I felt pretty good about my navigating through all the people.

The run up the beach was fun, as there were spectators forming a tunnel and everyone was cheering. At the end of the day, they guy I was chasing after the first buoy beat me by 35 seconds and had the fastest swim split on the day. The second fastest swim split was by a woman who I swam with in college, so I guess that's OK.

A sleeveless wetsuit or something like that might've been nice just to keep the body temp down given the warm water. Other than that, not much.

Found my bike quickly, got my wetsuit off, dried my feet a bit, and put on socks and bike shoes. As I stood up, I knocked my helmet and sunglasses off my bike and had to pick them up. Ran out of transition and mounted my bike. My transition time was faster than most, partially due to the totally unfair setup of the transition area I'm sure.

Other than not knocking my bike helmet off, I can't think of anything.

My heart rate was really pounding and I was breathing hard as I got on my bike. I think it must've been from the run to transition, since I didn't push the swim that hard. I started out taking it easy for a while, making sure to get my heart rate back down. I was immediately getting passed by a bunch of folks, many of them really hammering by. While I wanted to push it harder, my legs didn't feel really strong and I pretty much just kept my own pace. I was hoping that I'd find out later that I was going into the wind or something. After the first turn-around, my legs were feeling better and I was keeping a solid pace. There weren't quite as many people going past me as before. The highlight of each lap was about a quarter mile stretch of road where a bunch of spectators had walked out from the race site to line the road and they were cheering on each side of the road. At the completion of the first loop, I was surprised to see how many of the people were pulling into transition, obviously competing in the sprint race. I think mentally I had assumed that most of the folks on the $5000 bikes with Zipp wheels were likely in the Olympic race, but that wasn't the case. The second loop was a ton different. I was passing a lot of people who were obviously much more relaxed about the race, taking it easy. I think most of the really fast bikers in the Olympic race had already passed me, which meant I was riding among some people starting their first loop after a really slow swim. My mood improved as I was passing more people instead of just getting passed constantly, but I don't think it changed my pace all that much. I backed it down a couple mph over the last mile or so, trying to make sure my legs were OK for the run. Overall, I was pretty happy with how I felt at the end of the bike, I had pushed a solid effort, but not buried myself.

Had 2 gels on the bike and a few endurolytes given the heat.

I need to remember to ride my own race, particularly when I'm in a race where some folks are doing a ahorter distance and consequently have totally different pacing goals. My training is still the biggest limiter, and I need to figure out a better way to log more time in the saddle.

I hopped off my bike and ran with it back to the rack, but then I couldn't find my spot with my running shoes and other stuff. I knew I was in the right row, but didn't see my things. Ended up walking 10 yards back and forth along the rack a few times before finally just racking my bike wherever and then finally found my stuff. Got my shoes and visor on and ran out of the exit. My extended search probably cost my :30 which was disappointing simply because it was so preventable. I probably would've had one of the fastest transitions in the race without that nonsense.

Obviously take better notes of exactly where my bike is.

I actually felt good coming out of transition. I took two cups of water right away to keep hydrated. My legs didn't feel stiff or dead from the bike, so I set off at a comfortable pace, I'd guess 9 minute miles or so, but didn't have any way to measure it. About a mile into the run, both achilles started to hurt a bit. I've been having some achilles pain in training, so it wasn't a total surprise, but the pain wasn't too bad and I just kept going. The second half of the loop was more sun, and I started to notice the heat even more, it was in the mid-80s at this point. At the completion of the first loop, it was really tough to see so many of the people heading to the finish chute (some of the really fast Olympic finishers, but lots of people doing the sprint) while I had another lap to go. As I got to the water station again, I took a couple more drinks and noticed that I was getting goose bumps. I slowed to a walk at that point, figuring my body was over-heating. After a few minutes, the goosebumps were gone and I was feeling better, so I started running again. At this point, my achilles were really killing me. I think the rolling hills of the course were taking their toll on my injury. For most of the second loop, I was reduced to run/walk, in roughly equal amounts. I tried to run the sunny parts and walk the shady parts, in an effort to keep as cool as possible. It was frustrating, since my legs still felt generally fine, but my achilles were screaming and I was overheating. The last water stop (around 4.5 miles) was out of cups, so I had to do the last half of the run without water. This really fouled my mood, as I had been using the water stop as a goal for the first half of the second loop. I finished strong the last quarter mile or so, but I had long ago given up on having a result I was excited about.

First, I obviously need to figure out this achilles issue and get that taken care of. I've since purchased new running shoes and think that might be part of the problem. I also will likely try to tweak my bike cleats again and see if that helps.

Second, I need to be better prepared for racing in the heat. I do most of my training in the early morning before work, and consequently I'm not used to training in high heat and humidity. Even on the weekends, I tend to ride or run in the mornings. I need to get my body used to working out when it's nasty hot. Along the same lines, I think before races where I think heat will be an issue, I will try to get a haircut before the race. I have thick hair and I notice a big difference in my heat tolerance when it's getting long.

Stretched out and walked around, nothing major.


Achilles issues, lack of heat acclimatization, my training.


This race wasn't as well organized as the others I've done. I somewhat expected that, and so it didn't come as a huge surprise. However, the most annoying thing about it is that both the run and bike distances were noticeably shorter than advertised. Consequently, even if my race had gone flawlessly, I wouldn't have had any ability to compare it to my other races to really evaluate whether I'm improving. Since that's the main reason I race - to see where I'm at - this race isn't for me. I have no idea why they don't get the distances right, how hard can that be? I left the race pretty annoyed that they couldn't at least get the distances correct.