Pinehurst Triathlon - Triathlon

I really had a nice swim. Went out hard and took a good line. To me it looked like I was near the front for the first bit and then the faster guys went by. I had some dude suddenly veer left into me. 10 strokes later he was 10 yards to the right. Uhm, maybe he should spend some time on straight-swimming. He was swimming WAY further than everyone else! CAlf started to cramp a little on the home stretch but not fully. I was a little dizzy at the end when I stood up, but didn't keel over! Run up to T1 was kinda steep!

Nothing really. Felt nice. Really like to OWS!

Average T1 for me. Nothing fancy. Just methodic. I did have to sit down to get socks on, but that felt nice! I was a little dizzy.

Not sure really. Nothing terrible about this transition.

I ran out of Accelerade with a few miles to go. Not a big deal but it would have been nice to have a little more. I didn't go nuts in terms of effort but pushed a fair bit. The hills were constant but not that long. This is a tough bike course- almost constant ups and downs. The last several hills were hard but I passed two of the elite women towards the end on an uphill. That was fun. Didn't get passed a lot, esp. in my age group (I think the fast guys were already long gone!).

Judging from my terrible run, maybe take it easier? I dunno. The actual ride was nice and I think I just need to get stronger on the bike/run. Ride good; run baaaad.

Nothing fancy again. I didn't know where the run start was though so had to look around for about 10 seconds. Looks like 45 seconds or so was the fastest T2 so I'm in the ballpark with these.

Check out where run start is BEFORE the race :-)

I felt worse on this run than in 92 degree heat after biking 56 miles at White Lake! Did I really overdo the bike? Maybe. I dunno. I was toast after a mile and started walking the aid stations. After a mile. Seriously! I have NEVER done that, but then again, I have never felt this bad on a run. Funny thing is I was not getting passed a lot. Waiting for the final results but last year my overall place was 179; this year 86 from prelim results. I think everyone was suffering big time on this run. One guy cruised by me looking very strong. I gave him a "looking strong" and then 50 yards later at the top of the hill he stops and stands there with his hands on his knees. I guess he was only "looking" strong. He and I passed each other a lot after that. And I started walking the hills as well. WTF. I just didn't have a good reason to kill myself. I know it was a race but I made the choice to take what my body was giving me today rather than berating myself for not pushing harder/running all the time. I was secretly horrified at my time- 5 mins slower than last years run (which I sucked at). Last week I did a hilly 10K in 46 mins and felt fine. This one was in 56 or so. For a 10K! Thats sad. It was so humid though, and those hills! Andrew Wooster finished just behind me and even after his 5:04 at the Duke half (i.e., he is in great condition right now) his first comment was "that was hard". I didn't see many people smiling across the finish line and everyone I talked to was shocked at how hard it felt. Made me feel better!
Mile splits:
7:50
8:27
9:02
10:06
9:39
8:54

Run more...I don't think a long run (sporadically) of 7.5 miles with no hills is cutting it. Focus more in the last bit of training. Try to peak. I was mentally weary before this race and I think it showed. That, plus the bike crash, lots of trips, etc. didn't help my prep. I missed a lot of longer sessions due to travel etc and was not very motivated for the last month heading into this. I did the time but not the quality. I think a long ride of 40 miles is not enough to prep for this course.

Uhm, I stood there for a little. Then I moved a little. Then Becky got me a water. Ah, lovely water. T hen I had a Diet Coke. Ah, lovely Diet Coke. Chatted to Andrew, Chris, #550 and the guy who gave me encouragement near the end (I thanked him for that). I bought some socks from White Lake. I loved the freebie socks and they were selling them here. So I got 14 pairs for $20. Awesome. They are really nice wicking socks that normally cost $6 or so a pair. Yeehaw.


My suckiness on the run! Seriously though, fitness, heat, humidity, Friggin hills. Uhm, is there anything else? I can't believe I finished with a worse time than last year, but over 100 places better! I guess we all suffered together? My ranking in the AG was 15/84 (last year was 39/79) so a much better ranking so even though my times were slower. I think that is more due to the conditions than anything else (except the run...wish I could have run better! I could probably have pushed more and gone faster but I didn't really see the point of dying out there).


Curious what the swim times look like. Just checked and leaders were about 3 mins slower than last year. My time was 3 mins slower too. Pity OWS courses are so unreliable in terms of distance. I had a nice swim. I think the course was way long. I didn't like the new bike course with the extra 5 miles. An OLY should be an OLY, not an OLY+. Not sure I will do this race again- too hilly for my liking. I don't have a special need to conquor the rollers. Frankly I would race try to get fast at sprints. I don't really like this distance- the HIM I did was fantastic, and I like sprints. But an OLY seems like a nothing distance. Not long enough that is a real special accomplishment (for me at least), but too long to go flat out. I guess that is the trick to this- learning to do the distance. Mentally it is a tricky distance for me. I can't switch to long-distance mode and I can't be in sprint mode. I am shocked I took 56 mins to run a 10K! I ran a 5K a week ago in 19:30! Guess I should figure out the interplay between bike and run and those hills at some point! :-)
Becky and the boys were there to cheer me on. That was really nice. They had loads of fun playing in the beach sand, swimming, playing on the playground. Glad they had a good time. Ryan wanted to know why I didn't get a medal. According to him "if you get 2 medals you can bang them together and they sound like a bell". He reminded me that my medal from the Philly distance run (3 years ago!) had broken! How does he remember this stuff? He was 2 at the time! Anyway, this race was really interesting. I'm pleased with mentally not being too upset with walking on the run. Normally I would be crushed. But...I...had...nothing...left. Now we wait for the official results.