Marin County Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

As with the clinic I attended at McNear's beach, sharp rocks were a huge problem. People were cutting there feet all over. This really marred the start and made it very difficult to get out to the start. If allowed by the park, it would have been good if they could have cleared a path out and dropped down some carpet.

This was a pretty technical swim. There was a 4 knot current. The pros went out and completely missed the turn buoy and had to fight hard against the current for some time. This went on for 3 waves until the race director asked for everyone's attention and insisted that we shoot about 45 degrees right of the buoy. I hit the first buoy perfectly. I hit the second buoy right on, but a little close. Someone was trying to breast stroke against the current in front of me, preventing me and 3 others from rounding the buoy. I got shoved back and spent about 2 minutes in a washing machine fighting the current. The rest of the swim was great, though I could have pushed slightly harder.

As with the first buoy, there was a trick to rounding the last buoy. You had to shoot way short of the buoy and let the current take you around it. I hit it perfectly.




I would have given myself a wee bit more room on buoy 2 to compensate for potential issues like a stalled breast stroker. This was a really good swim for me, so there is little else I would change.

I had not practiced transitions at all. I'm sure I would have done better had I done so, but few people had a better time. I started pulling my zipper as I left the water, and left my suit on. I left my goggles and cap on until I got to my bike. The suit came off easily. My socks were a tiny bit sticky, but I had little trouble getting my socks and non-tri cycling shoes on. I forgot my gel flask.

Probably buy some tri cycling shoes. I would also remember my gel flask.

The ride went pretty well. I found myself a bit winded after the swim so I had a slow start. The start begins at the biggest incline of the race. I'm not terribly technical on the bike so I was on my brakes a lot in the first 3 miles while riding downhill. I got passed a few times there, which was a bit disconcerting, but I passed a lot of people later on.

Tri shorts seem to give me this issue where my muscles get fried where my legs connect to my hips. It gets pretty painful on the ride and really affected my run. 8 hours later, I'm still in a lot of pain. This is never a problem during training.

I would be a little more brave coming downhill into corner. I need to learn to corner better. I would also practice nutrition on the bike. I have a really hard time drinking on the bike so I drank about 10% of the fluids I had onboard.

No problems here. I didn't get enough fluid on the bike so I took about 15 seconds to chug some heed.

Get my nutrition on the bike so I don't have to burn time in transition.

The run absolutely killed me. I had felt so good passing so many people on the bike, then, on the run, those people and all their friends and neighbors passed me. Though I had started 10 minutes behind the 25-29 group, I kept seeing tons of people in those groups passing me on the run, telling me that I had killed on the bike but was choking on the run.

I started very, very slow. I had no legs and was suffering from bike seat issues. I started picking it up at mile 2 and had a decent pace going by mile 3, but it all hurt very badly. I felt like I was crawling. I only remember passing 2 people and must have been passed by at least 75.

Even though I felt terribly slow, my time was my PR for this run. I had been practicing here after work and my prior best was 1:00 longer, and that was without the extra curricular activities thrown in.

Train much, much more on the run. I really need to keep my position after T2 and not piss it all away on the run.

Put my hands on my knees and sucked wind. Someone handed me a stainless water bottle full of cold water. Bless that person and their family.


I've only been training since July. I don't have a training plan or a coach. If I'm going to continue with this sport, I'll need both.


I would like to say that this race was spectacular. As someone new to the sport, I really appreciate that help was everywhere. The number of volunteers, including local and state police was staggering. They backed up traffic for miles just for this race. I was completely impossible to get lost or become confused about anything.

The executive race director put this race on for charity, and did it in incredible style. This man certainly put his heart and soul into this race and it showed. I'm grateful that the Marin County Triathlon was my first race and hope to be back next year.