Health First Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I made sure to start at the front of the pack, and quickly got out of the crowd and out into the open. Unfortunately, I went a little left and ended up slicing my hand on a rope from a boat that was anchored near the swim start. I didn't realize the rope was that far out, since I didn't go that close to the boat. Oh well, it ended up being like a deep paper cut, so nothing serious. The rest of the swim was uneventful, and I even ended up passing some of the previous wave's swimmers. The choppy water was definitely a negative factor, but overall it wasn't such a bad leg for me.

Not much.

When I came out of the water, I got stuck behind a few guys from the previous heat. They got out of the water, and just seemed like they were strolling toward transition. The sprinters were on their way down the pier to their start, so I had to dodge between people to run around the guys. There was a volunteer who told me "wipe your face" and I ended up with a hand full of river junk...bugs, dirt, etc. Thank you volunteer! That would've ruined the photos a bit! :-)

Try to swim around those guys to get out of the water before them.

Well...where do I start? I came out on to US1 feeling ok, and really didn't anticipate a bad bike leg. Then I turned onto Pineda Causeway and got smacked with a headwind...yikes! That, combined with the causeway hills (which I really should've known about but was too lazy to check the map in advance so I could train for hills) made for a difficult leg. On South Patrick, the wind wasn't so bad because there were buildings to block it, so it started getting easier. I decided it was time to take a drink, pulled out my water bottle, took 2 sips, went to put it back, and it ended up slipping from my hand and bouncing into the middle of the road. Oops...I guess I don't get water during the bike leg. I was more worried that a ref had seen it and I'd get a penalty for abandonment, but that didn't happen. 2nd trip over Pineda was relatively uneventful, but still tough. By the time I got to T2, I was spent. I probably pushed it too hard on the bike, because my quads and calves were pretty sore.

Save some legs for the run! Hold on to my water!

Pretty good T2. Didn't have any trouble.

Nothing

Ugh. That about sums it up. I started the run already exhausted from pushing too hard on the bike, and I could tell I wouldn't be able to go very fast. I was trudging along and just trying to make forward progress. At mile 3, I really had to pee so I kept asking the volunteers if they knew of any port-o-potties on the course. No such luck. We were running through a neighborhood, so it's not like I could just run into the woods to go. I ran along for about another mile until I saw a fence in front of someone's yard with enough foliage to keep me from getting arrested for public nudity. I'd like to apologize to anyone who had the unfortunate privilege of seeing my bare white arse framed by some palm trees. And I hope I don't get poison ivy!

The rest of the run was pretty brutal. At one point, a lady asked me if I was using the Galloway method and I said "no, I'm just tired!" I felt so bad for walking, but I was physically spent so I ended up doing a shuffle/walk thing for the last few miles.

Where do I start? Probably run the whole time, for one...

Walked around trying to catch my breath, dranks some water, ate and apple, ate some sunflower seeds, ate some luna snacks, crashed out on the floor inside the civic center for a few minutes trying to cool down, and went back to the water to soak my legs.


Wind, hills, probably a need to HTFU.


Great race full of enthusiastic volunteers. I only wish they had put some port-o-potties on the run course!