Pat Griskus Triathlon Series - Olympic Distance
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Pat Griskus Triathlon Series - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic
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Swim
Comments: I spent a lot of this segment berating myself for messing up the start time and and I just didn't want to be swimming. My head wasn't in it at all. What would you do differently?: It would have been nice to have had a few minutes before the race to relax and get in race mode, but I just didn't have the time. This was my mistake. I ended up adding about two minutes to my best Olympic swim in this race, and if I had been better able to focus, I would have benefitted from paying attention to my stroke, to the buoys, to the other swimmers, and to my surroundings in general. Transition 1
Comments: Where did Brian put my stuff??? I ran into transition looking around like an idiot, and finally saw Brian near the exit waving and yelling at me. I didn't know where anything was. It's not that he didn't do a good job, I was just freaking out and still upset. I'm not sure what I was even talking about, but I got in my shoes, stuck my number on my helmet after another spectator told me what it was for, and then headed out at a run. What would you do differently?: Actually, given the circumstances, this was an outstanding transition for me. I can't even believe it was as good as it was. Bike
Comments: I was not up to giving what this bike course required from me. I thought several times about quitting part way through, but I just couldn't bring myself to accept that kind of shame. I lost a ton of time on this course...I was just so tired from climbing basically the whole time. There were no flat portions where I could spin and make up any time at all. I also had a few mechanical difficulties that ruined my mood...I had been struggling to get my bike computer working, and it was fine the night before. I would have tested it the morning of the race if I had had time, but I didn't and it wouldn't work. I stupidly reached down to fumble with it during the race, and I almost snapped the entire unit off of my fork because it caught in my wheel spokes. It dangled the rest of the race, and I think it bent my spoke. It also threw my brakes off so that my front right brake pad rubbed against my wheel the whole race. As though I needed anything making those hills any more difficult... What would you do differently?: I'm not even sure what I could have done. This was just a terrible performance on the bike. I wish I even had an idea of what could make me a better cyclist at this point. Transition 2
Comments: I was pretty surprised about how good this transition was, too. I should have eaten something but I was too stressed out. I wanted to stop the race after the bike ride because I couldn't imagine a six mile run after that bike nonsense. I almost waltzed through this transition as far as changing shoes went, and I just leaned my bike up against whatever I could find because I wasn't even sure where I had gotten it originally. I didn't know where to go to get out of transition, so a couple of people yelled at me. Brian couldn't find my race belt, so he just laid out my number and opened a few safety pins, so I ran out of the transition area and walked a few feet to pin it on. What would you do differently?: Again, I'm not sure what else I could have done that would have made a difference given the circumstances. I regretted not eating anything, though. Run
Comments: I mean, we all knew I'm a bad runner. The hill pissed me off, but it wasn't so bad. I walked some of it, but I thought this was actually a pretty good performance for me. I kept my heart rate down, and I kept my pace going without needing to walk too much. It was almost comfortable. What would you do differently?: I already knew I needed to work on this. Post race
Warm down: I actually started crying when I saw the turnaround cone and made that left to head to the finish line. I ran across the mat, asked the volunteer if he could take off my timing chip so I didn't need to lean down, and then I ran into Brian's arms still crying. I stretched out, ate a hot dog, and then we went home. What limited your ability to perform faster: My starting time mistake threw off my whole mood. I had been hoping to do really well compared to my last Olympic race because I had trained this race, but my heart wasn't in it and the course was harder than I was prepared for. Last updated: 2010-06-07 12:00 AM
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2010-06-20 10:56 AM |
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2010-06-20 12:34 PM in reply to: #2932557 |
2010-06-20 12:36 PM in reply to: #2932557 |
2010-06-21 9:10 PM in reply to: #2932557 |
2010-06-22 11:25 AM in reply to: #2932557 |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
Pat Griskus Triathlon Series
80F / 27C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 370/397
Age Group = Athena
Age Group Rank = 6/10
Strawberry and banana smoothie on the way to the race.
I would have loved to have been able to warmup...or even relax. I somehow managed to mess up the starting time, so we arrived at about 6:55 for a race that started at 7:00, not 8:00. After a lot of stress and near tears, I decided to do whatever I had to to run it. Brian took all of my stuff, including my bike, to set up my transition for me, a race volunteer ran to get my packet and a marker, and I booked it to the beach in time to hear the tail end of the pre-race announcements. I was still shaking from stress by the time we were ready to wade into the water.