Boathouse International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

My first OWS was quite memorable, and despite my many mistakes I actually enjoyed much of the experience. We swam in the Oklahoma River, which was very brown and dirty from recent rains. The swim included swimming under two bridges, which made for more things to look out for, and I almost ran into one the bridge supports. We started swimming with the sun at our backs, but then had the longest stretch of the swim coming back into the sun.

Everything started well and my initial sighting and direction was good, but then at some point I must have started to sight the wrong bouy (2nd of the first two), and didn't realize it until I was in the middle of the course. I then had to swim at a 45 degree angle to work my way around the correct bouy and continue on. Once we started into the sun, I couldn't see anything. This swim really demonstrated the weakness of my Wal-Mart swim goggles, as they leaked, fogged, and didn't help with the sun at all (I bought a new pair as soon as I got home!). Since I couldn't see anything I tried to use the river bank as my guide, but I still kept drifting too much off of the course.

In fact, I'm not sure I ever swam straight in the correct direction going into the sun, and I constantly found myself either on the wrong side of the bouys in the middle, or too close to the river bank. One time, I actually started to feel something brush my hands and wondered what the heck it was, only to then realize I actually was running aground on the river bank! I was shocked as I look up and saw everyone else about 50 yards away.

Eventually, I finally worked my way around and completed the course. It felt great to get the swim finished. I think the swim time includes a long run to T1 and also the wetsuit stripping, but by far the biggest damage to my time was done by all the mistakes in swimming the wrong direction, stopping to empty water out of my goggles, and stopping to try to figure out where the heck I was.

Use better goggles, sight more often during the race rather than simply believing I am going in the right direction, practice more OWS before the race.

Getting out of the water, I wasn't sure how functional my legs would be (had some cramping during the swim), but they seemed to work so I jogged up the ramp. The wetsuit strippers were at the top of ramp at the water exit, and did a pretty good job. I then jogged to transition. My tri jersey that I ordered for this race didn't come in (backorder) so I decided to swim without a shirt under my wetsuit, and put one of my C9 training shirts on in transition. This was OK, but definitely cost some time as the shirt stuck on my upper back and I had some trouble getting it pulled down. After that, I grabbed my helmet, and I was off.

This time I did try starting with my shoes already clipped in since I had seen the pros all doing it that way. However, I still haven't practiced this enough so I lost some time initially on the bike as I stuggled to get my feet in properly. In this case, I probably would have been much faster to put the shoes on and then jump on my bike like normal.

I like the idea of having the shoes pre-clipped on the bike, so I just need to practice that some more. Next time I will also wear my jersey during the swim so I won't have to worry about it. Overall, I was pleased with T1 and it was a dramatic improvement over my last tri.

Not much to say about the bike. My legs felt a little tired at times, and I also had some slight cramping in my calves at times, but overall the bike felt good. I forced myself to hold back just to not stress the hamstring any more than necessary, and worked on just maintaining a high cadence. Given the fact I didn't push as hard as I am capable of, I am happy with my bike average of nearly 19mph. It certainly was a nice improvement over my first tri, and over twice as long of a distance.

The course was a little rough in spots, and I hit one bump so hard my chain jumped from the big chain to the small chain ring. I was just glad it didn't come all the way off.

Ride more in aero and race healthy.

After my rough bike start getting into my shoes, I decided to just do my normal dismount by unclipping with my feet still in the shoes. I jogged over, mounted my bike, clipped my race number belt, grabbed my hat, and then got my shoes on without too much struggle.

Overall I was pleased with T2. Like T1, it was a big improvement over my last tri, and probably could have only been a better time if I had taken my feet out of the shoes while still on the bike. I could also probably put on my race number belt while running instead of at my station.

To be honest, I really felt great while running after the bike. I still had plenty of energy and the legs got loose after just a couple minutes. At the start, my hamstrings felt good and I thought perhaps there was a chance I could do the run after all. Unfortunately, at around 3/4 a mile my IT band kicked in and I knew I was in trouble. I tried rubbing it and stretching, and started running again 3 times, but each time I could only go a few steps before the terrible pain returned. I then had no choice but to head back and call it quits.

Let me be clear that I HATE quitting, and had I not still had over 5 miles to walk, I might have kept going, but the race was just not that important to me and I needed to start icing as soon as possible. I really hoped I could make it, but with the goal I have been focused on less than a month away (the KS HIM), I certainly didn't want to make things any worse.

The only thing that sucked was my IT band usually only hurts while running, and unless it is really bad my walk looks basically normal. As such, I think many of the runners thought I had just bombed and quit, rather than actually being injured. Oh well, I have never really been one to worry about what other people think anyway. Besides, I know I have the endurance, strength, and will to run and finish the race, and am only temporarily limited by my stupid IT band. It just adds more fuel to my motivational fire.

Run healthy.

My warm-down was basically walking the 3/4 mile back to the medical tent to ice my knee.


Continued IT band and hamstring problems, as well as overall inexperience.


On the Race:
This was the first year for this tri, but I can't see much they could improve on, at least at this venue. They attracted some big name pros, as well as a nice group of mostly Latin American elites, which was entertaining. The race was extremely well organized and I couldn't believe how many volunteers they had. It was just a fantastic race and I would love to do it again, only with a reasonably healthy body. There weren't many people from Kansas at the race, but I think once word gets out about how nice a race it was, there will be many more people next year. On top of everything, we got awesome technical shirts! Oh yeah!

On my Race:
Of course, I am disappointed I couldn't get through the run, but overall I got out of this race what I needed to. I got to learn by watching the pros, and I got to experience an OWS with wetsuit, and I also have much more confidence in my transitions.