Man if I could swim in a straight line I would have smoked this thing. Only two months ago I could not swim a 50 meters without changing stroke and catching my breath. So I am happy with my time just disappointed with how this went down. From the start everyone was trying to jockey for position. I should have just layed back and let them go but I really wanted to try to draft. I got nailed in the ribs that were already sore to say the least and I could hardly breath. I had to stop to right myself and slow my heart rate and catch my breath. I was able to get going and never really caught more than a few guys from my wave. After the first turn which was about 5 to 600 meters out I found a bit of a rythm. That is when I started catching the slower swimmers from previous waves. The water was so dark you couldn't see anyone in front of you until you were right up on them. So I took a few kicks to the face one of which left me with a nice cut near my left eye that started bleeding into my google making me think it was leaking. I realized as it glazed over in my goggle and pretty much got rid of any vision in that eye. I swim to the right every time I put swim more than five or six strokes between sighting. I know that I swam an extra hundred or so meters. I think I swam up to every freaking life guard in a kyack on the right side of the course before turning back and trying to swim a straight line to the next bouey, which never happened.

More open water swims. I felt like I sighted well but when I wasn't I drifted way of course repeatedly. And try to draft.

Not quite sure why it took so long but I was out of gas after a long run from the water and a swim that kicked my but.

Get faster.

There was so much drafting going on. A lot more than I saw in the penatly list but I am not complaining. There was a guy that drafted off me for a couple miles. I gave him a glare at a turnaround but he just stayed right on my wheel. I was just kinda flattered that someone would draft off me in my first real race and even more so that he was riding a Cervelo P2C. I know it is not the bike it is the engine but I can tell you that I smiled every time I passed a nice bike. I passed a lot more people than the nine people that passed me. Yes I counted how many people passed me. My computer said I averaged right at 21 mph although my overall bike split is a bit slower but I think that is from pushing my bike out of T1 and to the bike mount and back into T2 after the ride.I know the overall time doesn't look great but for me to hold over 20mph for this long is good. I have not been comfortable running since I got hurt and knew that I was in for a painful run anyway so I pushed a little more on the bike than I would have if I was trying to put together a complete race.

More training.

I practiced a little with riding with my feet on top of my shoes however the last little bit of the ride was fairly technical and I was glad to be able to do this and not eat a guard rail. I took some extra time to put some socks on for the run. It paid off on the run and it didn't take much time because I stood while doing so and I had my socks rolled up. Just slid on my shoes and put on my race belt and then I was off for 10K of misery.

Nothing.

I really needed to run more before this race. I am not sure quite what happened but I either completely forgot or just didn't feel like doing any bricks leading up to this race. My lack of run prep really caught up to me on this. It was so hard not to run with every person that passed me. I am so competitive and typically a decent runner. This after all was my first discipline and what made me think that I could do a tri. I never walked until the aid station at around mile 4. I really needed some water on board and I was burping up everything from the last aid station. After that I ran/lighly jogged all the way to the finish. I was able to run through the finish line. I was happy that I picked my own pace and stuck with it and did not get drawn into running at a pace I could not sustain.

Again more training.

I grabbed a water and sat down in the tent with mister fans. It felt so good but I knew I would tighten up so I got up and stretched and tried to eat. I was so out of gas that I did not feel like staying around for the awards. That plus the guy that won my AG is the one that hit me on the swim start and I felt like returning the favor so I didn't want to look at him again.


I was way under prepared for and Olympic distance race. My first and only race was a super sprint and I skipped doing a sprint to jump to this race. I think my lack of experience, aerobic base, and being injured all played a pretty equal role in my poor performance. Overall 3:20ish was my goal knowing these three things and I was able to achieve that so I am happy.


I am sure it was typical but I really would have like more to drink that a choice of warm water or warm red poweraid. I am not a big fan of poweraid in the first place and there were no other nutriiton options. Ok here is where I rant. First of all, you have to park a million miles away from where bike dropoff is and it was a mandatory bike drop off the day before. So I parked and rode my bike to dropoff. Riding on roads sharing traffic so I wore my helmet. I realized later I could ride a bus back but not knowing that I left my helmet with my bike. I did put a plastic bag over my cockpit covering my helmet. It is only a 50 or so dollar helmet but still. I arrived race day to find my plastic bag removed, my helmet gone, my spare tube missing from my seatpost, and the thing that pisses me off the most, my freaking aero bar pads. Thankfully they left my computer but man was I pissed about my pads. I was able to go all the way back to my car for my old helmet which just happened to be in my car. But I had to lean on hard ass velcro for the first few miles in aero. I finally got the idea to try to peel that off and then I got to lean on aluminum which was sticky as hell. It was like being glued into aero position. I am kind of anal about my bike. With that in mind I always make my lever vertical and parrallel with my front fork. I noticed it was off and found that my front skewer was so loose that my wheel could be pulled off without much effort. Whoever thought that I was a threat to them in the standings was sadly mistaken. I asked around my area before the race and everyone said there bikes were untouched. I don't know if it because I dropped mine of early or what but I was stressed enough before this race. I did not need to deal with all of this. I don't think I will do this race again just because of the course but this overall negative experience with equipment. And for whoever out there is using my brand new forearm pads I bought two days prior and my helmet, I hope they serve you well and may you never crash or need the helmet. You obviously needed it more than I do and I forgive you, even though it is not very easy.