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St. Louis Triathlon
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St. Louis Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic
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 Swim
Comments: So I generally breathe to my right side. However, the course was laid out so all the bouys were on my left. This led to some bad swim lines for me as I would occasionally drift a little. However, the lake was a sheet of glass and it was still a great place to swim. I didn't put in nearly the amount of training that I should have (basically, I haven't swam at all since New Orleans 70.3) and I think that showed as I struggled a bit during the first 200 and my overall swim time was not nearly what I am used to doing. However, it still wasn't bad and I was one of the first in my age group out of the water What would you do differently?: Stop being lazy and get in the pool!  Transition 1
Comments: It was a long run from the water to my bike and because of the conditions of the parking lot, I didn't run to my bike. It was also a long run out of transition to the bike mount line. I would hope this can change for next year What would you do differently?: I might have shaved a little time had I run to my bike, but the parking lot wasn't very kind to my feet. Otherwise, I have no complaints about my transition. I don't think I'll ever be one of those guys that can get his shoes on while riding...  Bike
Comments: The bottoms are very flat, but often windy, so it can sometimes be a painful place to ride. However, today the Triathlon Gods smiled on us and it was completely calm. Based on this, I wanted to really hammer the bike and see what I could do. The first loop was awesome! Since my swim wave was the third into the water, the bike course started out fairly empty with lots of road space for easy passing. However, as I finished the first loop, I ran into both late wave Oly's and the Sprinters coming out of the park. This caused a close call as 3 sprint tri folk were riding abreast and took the turn very wide. I yelled at the top of my lungs to warn them of my approach and then had to weave into the lane of traffic that was still open to cars to avoid a collision. There were some other spots during the second loop were it was somewhat difficult to pass because of the narrow road and people riding abreast of each other. I do think this is common at the shorter distance events, so I can't really complain. What would you do differently?: Despite a great day on the bike, I still am trying to work hard to get faster. Transition 2
Comments: Nothing really to say here. I ran into the transition (again a long chute from bike dismount into the transition) and did a quick shoe change. Dropped my helmet, put on my bib, grabbed a water bottle and off to the races. What would you do differently?: nothing  Run
Comments: The triathlon run has become quite a challenge for me lately and I wasn't sure what today would bring. My goal was to keep the legs moving and try to keep it under 9:00 miles (no walking). Running along the path it was great to see all the other runners and also enjoy the beautiful park. After the first mile, I found some discouragement because I saw so many runners headed back in. Then at 1.5, I realized that what I was seeing was the sprint folk who had hit their turn and headed back in. This provided encouragement and I kept pushing forward. I saw tons of club members and other people I knew on the course. This also provided a lot of motivation, because no way was I going to stop with all those people there.... After I made the turn, I saw my friend not too far behind me. He yelled, "I'm coming for ya!" Again, this provided all the motivation I needed not to slow down or give in to the little demons on my shoulders that kept saying to stop. Making the turn for the final half mile, it was a straight shot to the finish. There were so many people at the finish yelling and cheering and it really gave me that final surge of adrenaline to push as hard as possible for that finish line! Afterwards, my buddy came over and told me that he pushed as hard as he could to try and catch me and thanked me for his new PR! What a great day! What would you do differently?: Probably need to put some bricks back into my training routine, but otherwise I was very happy with my run today. Post race
Warm down: Banana, water, beer, burger! What limited your ability to perform faster: need to be more dedicated to my training Event comments: Let me say, I loved this race. The conditions lent themselves to the fastest course I've ever done. I will also say this has the potential to be highly variable as the bottoms are usually pretty windy. Also, because it's St. Louis in late May, it could have been hotter. However, I would definitely come back next year. There were some challenges, but it was a first time event so this is to be expected. Packet pickup was very disorganized and this led to long lines at check-in (swag was awesome though). And there were apparently traffic challenges that led to a 20 minutes delay in start time. This is more on the participants than the event though. It was held in a park that's only accessible by one road. If you waited until late to try and come down, that's your own fault. Finally, I didn't get my pint glass because the line for that and the free glass of beer was ridiculously long. I decided that I didn't need a glass that bad and just grabbed a beer at my tri club's tent. Last updated: 2016-05-12 12:00 AM
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 2016-05-23 8:58 AM |
New user  1 Greensboro, North Carolina |  Subject: St. Louis Triathlon |
| 2016-05-23 10:26 AM in reply to: #5183208 |
701  | Subject: RE: St. Louis Triathlon I thought it was great. You're right about the Tri Gods smiling. With no wind on that course, I've no doubt that people who are good cyclists really posted some seriously ridiculous times. Only one "hill" you do twice. And it's best described as a bump. Packet pickup....I was lucky. 20-25 minutes. There was a fire at the casino that did force the race folks to do some rearranging. However, there was some things they coulda/woulda/shoulda done. That being said, for the way they were setup....they were doing what they were doing pretty efficiently. It just wasn't the most efficient setup. I know the park pretty well. I figured the traffic getting in would be WAY worse. Not much they can really do, but I bet they look for ways. I wasn't super early, but I wasn't "later" in arriving. And it was spectacularly nice to be parked 75 feet from where your bike was in transition for a race that size. And speaking of transition, that setup is about as roomy as it gets I'm guessing. So nice, I will probably be grumpy next race where I have to use a rack. There's definitely some things (relatively minor in the grand scheme of things) they'll need to do to push the event towards the next level. But, I can't imagine they won't address them. There were a lot of nice details. It's one thing to have plywood down on railroad tracks. It's another that they thought to get fiber board instead, which presumably would be less slippery when wet. And it's another thing altogether that they beveled the edges so that the 'bump/right angle' was mitigated as much as possible. Also, I prefer Sharpie over tats, but that's just me. |
| 2016-05-23 10:29 AM in reply to: #5183208 |
| 701 | Subject: RE: St. Louis Triathlon I assume they'll post results on their site? Do you know if they're available anywhere else? I'm enough of a completer that I'm not standing in line to see results that day. I'll stand in line for a free beer, but not results. |
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United States
MSE Racing
81F / 27C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 138/435
Age Group = Clydesdale
Age Group Rank = 5/27
What a great day for a race!
My pre-race routine is fairly simple. I have a protein bar early and then head to the event. Set up transition and fill my aero bottle. Potty break and then into the wetsuit.
Again, I don't really have any super structured routines, I like to keep everything simple and loose.
Waded out into the water just to get a feel for the temperature. Let me say, that water was COLD! However, it wasn't too bad, and once I got everything into the water and did some moving around, my body quickly adjusted.