St. Paul Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Published results put my average 100 at 1:39

Swim felt pretty good. I could have pushed myself harder, but didn't want to use any energy that I would need on the run. I didn't do quite as well as I could have with navigating. I kept drifting off to one side or the other due to one-sided breathing. There were many more people to contend with - arms, legs, and bodies all over the place it seemed sometimes - so getting a little off line helped with that.

Not much, swimming more would have made me faster, but I'm not complaining.

Very good transition with the exception that I was a little tired and didn't run through the transition area as quickly as I could have otherwise done. Oh, I also sat down to deal with socks too. There were only 12 times faster in T1 than mine.

Train the swim more so I would have a little more energy going into T1

Results put my average speed at 23.2 and my computer (calibrated for my old tires, HA) put my average at 21.9.

Not an easy bike course, this. I didn't push as hard as I could have 'cause, again, I wanted to have a little energy for the run. I kept up a faster speed than I thought, though. A few people who were obviously in the oly passed me the first lap, after that I was passing people very regularly. That may be due in part to the fact that on the second lap there were MANY more people out on the road from the short course.

I climbed pretty well, and descended quite well, I think. I'm quite happy with how I rode.

Nothing

Another very fast transition. Only one person faster in my AG, and five faster overall. Yes, I am very proud of my transitions.

There were several people right at the entrance to T2 that kept me from getting off the bike as fast as I would have liked. They stopped in the narrow lane in front of the entrance. Oh well.

Nothing.

The run sucked, and I knew it would. My initial goal was to run the whole way. Then my goal became to run all of the first lap and not walk too much of the second lap. I probably walked 1/5 of the second lap, running for a while then walking for a few moments before trudging along again. It was demoralizing seeing lots of people blowing by. I just didn't have any gas left for the second lap. It was also pretty hot and sunny on the east side of the lake.

The last 1/4 mile or so, I caught up to a woman who was running quite slowly. I was about to walk again when I caught her. She was hurting too. I then told her that if she would run the rest of the way that I would run the rest of the way. She was slower than I was, but we kept each other running. She was definitely struggling quite a bit towards the end as I encouraged her to keep going. If it wasn't for her though, I don't think I would have finished quite as fast as I did. Got a big hug from her at the finish line. That felt good.

Ummm... train?

stagger about for a while. Attempted to stretch a little bit. Didn't feel very good, so slowly gathered my things and we took off.

After we got home, my wife looked up the results and told me that I came in third in my age group. I didn't believe her at all until I saw it since my run was so horrible. I still can't believe it. I'll take it though.


My lack of training lately absolutely killed me on the run. Excuses/reasons exist for my not training, but it's a simple fact.


I don't particularly care for out and back bike courses, but overall this was a very nice race that I would be happy to do again. Volunteers and police were great.