Finger Lakes Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

As the first wave was starting a got a rumbly in my tumbly and started thinking about Keuka Lake again. I made a dash for the porta-potty all the way back at transition, did my "business" and ran back just as my wave was getting in the corral. Whew!!!

I started off the swim in the front row next to Shawn Toffolo and thinking this will be a great swim if Shawn would just take off and lead. :-) I hadn't gotten wet before the start and it wasn't until the start signal went off and I dove in I realized that HOLY CRAP THIS WATER IS COLD!!!! We started off swimming side by side with a guy in front of us. The guy started at a decent pace and had a good draft but after the first 200 yds or so really slowed down. Shawn and I were looking at each other with almost every stroke, he had a grin on his face and I figured that he had the same idea as me at the start. I finally passed the guy in front of us and it wasn't long before I didn't see Shawn beside me but felt a familiar tap on my toes. A six beat kick is an easy draft to follow. Next thing I knew we were passing a lot of people from the waves in front of us. On the way back I felt the familiar tap on the toes and thought about "fixing my goggles" to let Shawn go by but then thought that I am at a comfortable pace and I'll just bust on him later. Of course at the end of the swim he swam around me and got out of the water first. :-)

Nothing, overall it was a great swim for not being in the water much.

Absolutely terrible transition. My mind was somewhere else when I set up this morning. I realized this when I went to put my helmet and looked down and saw that my shoes were on my towel. Why are my shoes not on my bike? What was I thinking? Oh well, worked out okay but next year will be a year for transitions!!

Same thing as I always put here, PRACTICE TRANSITIONS!!!!!

Coming out of transition I felt pretty good and thought that I may be able to put in a decent bike. I like going a few waves back, it's motivating to have people in front to catch. I was passing a lot of people in the first few miles and feeling strong in the legs but I started coughing up a bunch of gunk from my lungs. YUK!! When I hit the top of the hill a nice gob of brown gunk came up and I thought it best to back off a bit, I didn't want to see the lung butter turn red. The rest of the ride was a lot of fun. There were a lot of ADK Tri Clubbers on the course and I tried to say hello to each one I saw. The orange and black jerseys really stand out! I slowed down to talk to a couple guys that I haven't seen in a while then sped back up to speed. I tried to leave the volunteers each with a different song. (Copa Cabana, My Little Buttercup, Rhinestone Cowboy were just a few of them.) There is a looong steady climb somewhere around mile 14 or 15 that seemed to last forever at some pretty low speeds. My legs felt this one but I just spun up it and tried to keep my breathing under control. On the descent back to the lake my max speed hit 48.5 mph before hitting the brakes for the right turn at the bottom. I let out a wheeeeeeeeeee at the bottom of the hill, the volunteers got a kick out of that. :) Overall the bike was pretty uneventful. I loved the new course and hope I'm healthier next year!

Push harder if I was feeling healthier.

This was pathetic. Another example of just not being into a race mode. I never looked at my transition area from the bike in entrance and could not find my transition spot. It must have taken a good minute before another athlete pointed me to it. (How she knew is beyond me)Once I got my bike racked I threw my socks and shoes on and was out on the run.

Walk to my spot from the bike in and look for landmarks.

After that transition I was actually looking forward to running. When I came over the bridge in the first 1/2 mile I saw Mike (mtimofeeff) and Matt on the side of the road taking pictures. He took a boatload of pics of BTers, ADKers, ITCers, friends and strangers. I never miss a photo op so I hammed it up a bit for the camera. The first mile was a 6:45 and I was comfortable so I picked it up a bit. In the next few minutes my shin on my left leg was cramping up. I don't get shin splints and did not know how to deal with this pain. It was getting worse so I backed off the pace and just jogged for a couple miles. I got passed by a friend on the pier and he said "Nice crack Bob" as he went by. Immediately after that another friend passed and said "Nice crack!! You need some new shorts Bob". Great!! Oh well, what am I going to do now? I just kept running. By this time my legs were feeling better and I had picked the pace up again. Kevin and Paul were looking real good and having a great race. I high fived them as they went by, Paul almost spun me around when he slapped my hand. I came back over the bridge where Mike had the camera and told him "You might as well take a pic of my back side, I've been hearing about it all race!!" One of the best things about this course is that you see everyone in the race on the run. I saw jackjack, dexter, marmadaddy, ridgelake, kenj and a bunch of friends that aren't BTers. I was looking for kam32 but she must have chosen a boring outfit that didn't stand out. :-) The last mile and a half I ran with someone I didn't know but was having a good conversation with. As we got closer to the finish I asked him if we were going to have a sprint to the finish. We did and I out strided him in the last 50 yds.

Figure out what caused the shins to cramp and run faster!!

Just walked around and chatted with people. I had to get Matt ready for his race.


Being sick didn't help any.


The food this year wasn't as good as usual and the weather was kinda blah but overall this race is one of my favorites and will keep coming back for more. Marmadaddy and jamjam put on a great pre race dinner!! One of the highlights of the weekend.