Boulder Peak Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Started on the far right of the group and after about 300m was on the far left of the group, had a hard time sighting for swimming directly into the sun. took a little time to get out of the group, and the FOP swimmers in my wave were passing wave 11 before the 1st turn. Got kicked in the face once by a guy doing breast-stroke, but no major collisions other than the normal bumper car/demolition derby variety.
Sighting got better once I wasn't looking up into the sun, stayed on the inside and kept progressing through the rainbow of caps ahead. After the 2nd turn I wound up too far to the inside again and had to do another course correction, but nothing too bad.
Forgot to take a gu out of transition with me, but just as well b/c I thought I might chum the water for the 1st half of the swim.

The collective wisdom about the course was to save yourself for after the hill on Old Stage, so I just swam, didn't really push it at all. By the time I got to my bike I wasn't winded at all, and after seeing my time was a little disappointed; but with bike and run waiting it was the right decision I think.

As the saying goes, "don't do in a race what you haven't practiced". But my bike computer died earlier in the week, and I tried going with the Garmin watch => Mistake #1. I probably wasted a full minute dicking around with putting it on, pressing the buttons, etc.; won't be doing that again.
Despite practicing the wetsuit strip-off, it still proved difficult to pull it over the ankle chip, so that was slow. everything else pretty well organized, pretty smooth.
Running on pavement in bike shoes sucks.

skip the watch.

Felt good getting on the bike, although I could see immediately the affect a bike-less 12 day vacation at sea level, which was compounded by the rate of reel-in by all the aero boys I'd gone to the trouble of passing in the water. settled into a not too hard pace or gear, dreading The Hill. Still lots of bikes visible in front of me and me making progress on some, so motivation. Then, The Hill presented itself.
I'd already resolved to go compound granny and if the legs died, the legs died and I'd be walkin'. But seeing that column of non-hill-riders so early on the steep incline, my only thought was "Not Me". A couple of times will power didn't seem it'd be enough - then someone on the hill shouted 'nice pace 1736' and another 'your 2/3r'ds up it!' and I managed to get it done. The rest of the ride was a fun one, as advertised

um...well...practice riding steep hills alot more. That'd probably help alot.

slipped out of the shoes after the gatehouse, glad I practiced this week.

Like T1, don't jack around with the Garmin, though I recall punting pretty quick the 2nd time around. Don't think I could've moved any quicker at this point.

I chose the lesser of two evils and did the run with the new orthotics, since the arch discomfort is much less a distraction compared to the heel pain they relieve. My feet were unhappy at the outset, but gradually, very gradually felt a bit better.
Still, I had that dread feeling as soon as the course was in plain view, and all those people were sooo far away across the water. Run a while, walk a bit. Repeat. glad to have put out and put on the Nathan belt for T2, having a 24oz bottle at hand was key. And gu blocks. Also wearing the headsweat hat to put ice into was huge, I still had ice on my head when I crossed the finish.

Have happier feet going into a running event. Working on that, the folks at Runners Roost may regret I'm working down the street now.

wrapped the icy finish towel around my shoulders, hugged my kids when the met me outside the chute, walked around, nothign really specific.


Need more saddle time, and more on hills, and to solve the feet thing.


Can't wait to do it again next year!