Burley Idaho Lions Spudman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The swim was much easier than expected! Very relaxing, and the current just kind of took me. It made me feel like the man :) I was flying!

There were a few times I had to poke my head up to sight my line and tread water, and I'm sure I could shave another minute off of my swim time if I actually learned how to sight properly. Also, I get startled when I bang into others. If I could deal with that better, I'd be quicker too.

I always struggle with T1... It's tough to get the suit off and get ready with everything for the bike. This time was even trickier because I'd forgotten my race belt for my number. I'd pinned it on to my top, and didn't want to swim with it, so I left my top at T1-- so I had to put it on after I was wet. It was a bit of a challenge. Also, I'd brought my sunglasses to the start by accident, so I had tied them to my tri short strings and swam with them in my wetsuit :) I had to untangle them to put them on in T1.

I would make sure that I left my sunglasses back at T1 prior to the race start, and also make sure that I could wear my top under my wetsuit. That would have saved nearly a minute.

This bike course was exactly what I was hoping for, and I went into it feeling confident and familiar with this territory. It seemed very similar to the MS Bike Tour I'd participated in a month ago, and so I treated it similarly. That confidence allowed me to warmup on the bike in the first three or four miles and find a comfortable pace at about 24 mph! I kept looking down at my watch in disbelief, but seeing such a high number just made me want to keep pushing even stronger. I think participating in the Bike Tour and my recent rides have helped me to overcome any mental blocks I have had with this Oly distance ride in the past.

I'm not sure I would do anything different. I was trained and ready and I believe physically gave everything in my current ability on this ride. I gave it the perfect balance of good ride and rest for the run. I won't ever do triathlon again without aerobars. I know that made a huge difference!

This is where I REALLY screwed up on this race. I was so frustrated when I got into T2 and couldn't remember where I left my stuff!! Errgh! Should have paid attention to the row number before I started! Guess that's important when you have 1500+ participants. I spent nearly 4 minutes wandering around in transition before I ended up spotting my stuff.

I would make sure I know where my spot is in transition!! That's a rookie mistake! Why am I still making these stupid mistakes? This dumb mistake cost me several places in the race... Oh well.

I'm not gonna lie. This was tough for me, but I was determined to come in at better than 8:30/mi pace for this stretch. The run is always a struggle for me after the bike, but I think the flats helped me to deal with this better. I felt pretty good for the first four miles, but it really started to get tough for the last two. I popped some candy at about 3.5 miles hoping it would give me just enough juice to endure the remainder of the run. Struggling at mile 5, I started to walk and just as I did, a guy behind me got me going again, and pushed me with the goal to finish 10 feet behind him. It hurt, but I pushed through the pain to finish strong without stopping, although not quite 10 feet behind him-- at least he was still in my sights.

I had to suffer through some pain in my achilles-- my shoes must have been too tight, and my socks didn't come up high enough. They rubbed the back of my ankles raw-- Ouch! But I didn't let that slow me up.

I would train more, and train harder. I want to get to where I can hold 7:30s for a 10k after a bike and swim. It just takes alot of work. Plus I could stand to stop drinking carbonated drinks... This may help :)

Stretch stretch stretch... After doing a 10k race thursday and then participating in this race, my calves were TIGHT! Ouch.


It's always more mental than anything, especially in the run.. I need to learn how to overcome that block.


I thought this venue was excellent, and the event was very well organized for how large it was. There were plenty of volunteers to help make sure we all did the right thing. I'll definitely put this on my list of races to do!