Swim start was in the water. I jumped in from the pier and was behind a few people. I was supposed to hang on to a rope but there were to many people in front of me for me to grab onto anything so I waded for a min while trying to adj my goggles and before I knew it the horn rang and we started to swim. I got stuck on the rope for a sec and tried to kick out of it and accidentally kicked my friend, I felt really bad about it.. I was surprised about the time, even with the help of the current due to all the congestion and my not so good sighting. I got stuck behind a row of people again (it seems to happen to me all the time at races). For the first 300-400 yds i kept on getting kicked in the face by the same few people. I decided to swim over one of them. I felt bad but he kick me so many times! My friend who was in the same wave as me has been doing all distance tri's and swim events for 9 yrs and only beat me by 15 sec. I use him as a gauge on my performance (for swimming only) so I was pretty happy. He kicked my a$$ on everything else.

Relax more and get a better swim position. Do more speed drills during longer sets.

Got out of the water. The swimmer in front of me kicked-up some silt. My face was covered and found out after the race that it was in my nose! Ran 100 yds and both my legs cramped. Quads and calves. Not sure why, this never happened to me. My first thought was that I'm toast for the run and bike. I was most concerned about the run because I didn't run for over wk due to a pulled muscle bellow my rt calf. I ran another 50 yds but they completely cramped again so I tried taking the wetsuit off before I got to the the transition area. It took forever to get off. I walked the remaining 250 yds or so. I had trouble getting on my bike shoes due to the cramping. I tried stretching but didn't help to much. I decided not to take my sunglasses and took off for the bike leg. There was a line of racers to mount your bike because it was so crowded.

Not cramp after the swim?? I'm still confused about that.. Though few people in my mentor group mentioned that it may be due to not using my legs during the swim or over hydrating before the race. That makes sense as I think I did both.

Course was just as advertised. Some long climbs and declines. The course was surprisingly crowded considering it was on the highway. A few crashes and a few flat tires. My legs felt crampy throughout the ride. The good thing is I was able to easily stretch on the bike. I made sure I drank all my liquids because I was hoping that the drinking will help with the cramps. I was surprised I was able to push up the hills fairly well. Anytime I felt a cramp coming on I would switch to a lower gear and spin out. It seemed to work. There were a few down hills were I reached 40 mph and the road was a little bumpy. I never went that fast before and held on to the aerobars extremely tight. There were a few times I thought my front tire wasn't touching the pavement, it made me a little nervous. I thought about breaking but saw other people doing great so I tried to relax and enjoy the speed. The course was a little dangerous with all the people. There seemed to be 3 levels of bikers. The beginners/slower group, the avg biker and the fast. There were times when several people were passing on the left at the same time causing lots of congestion. There were times I was passing someone and another person was passing me and another person passing that person etc all at the same time. I was happy with my time considering the cramping. My bike computer said I avg 19.5 mph but the official race results said 18.7 mph.

Stay in aero more, work on hills and not cramp.

Both legs cramped again. I had to lean on the fence and stretch. I walked out of transition and pretty much the first 2 miles.

Cramps and more cramps.. The first half of the run I walked and ran but mainly walked. The second half I did a little more running but still walked a bit. During the initial stretch of the run down 72nd st there were a ton of people cheering you on. It sort of reminded me of the Tour de France. People were pretty close to you. I was embarrassed because I was passed by so many people since I mainly walked this part. At one point a little old lady WALKED up behind me and said "see I'm walking faster than you, now get your butt in gear Mr!" I said thanks and shuffled my feet forward. In the first half of the race I could barely bend my legs. One racer stopped by me and asked if I was cramping and suggested I walk a few yds backwards. I thanked him and tried it and it worked great. It seemed to loosened me up a little. I ran until I cramped again and then walked. I did this throughout until I saw my wife and son, My wife was screaming like crazy cheering me on and I just got a great boost of energy from it. I ran the last 1.5 miles or so at a more normal run pace and somehow my legs allowed me. For a good quarter to half mile before the finish there were a ton of people cheering you on. There were many finishers cheering as well. It was great to see and know that you're about to finish. Based on the official results I ran a full 2.5 - 3 min/mile slower than I typically run the same course (even after bricks).

Not sure, it's a combination of figuring out what happened with my legs during the swim and my nutrition before the race. If my legs felt more "race" normal I would have done better.

The cold towel that they give you at the end felt amazing. They had some showers for you to stand under as well. I drank 2 low fat chocolate muscle milks that they gave out for free and a banana. Physically I felt good since I walked so much during the run, I wish I was able to push myself more but my legs just wouldn't bend at times. The family and several of our friends went to Shake Shack for burgers and shakes afterwards. Overall I was happy with my first Olympic race and third overall. Considering last Oct during my first sprint it took me 22min to swim 880yds and avg 16.4 mph on my bike on a flat course (12miles), I'm happy with my progress.


Cramps


I would have rated it higher if there was a way to make this race safer, especially on the bike. The volunteers were amazing and did a great job.