I hate swim starts that are mixed gender---guys always think they are better swimmers than they are and I end up behind some breast-stroker who wants to be first in the water. I got out of the scrum pretty quick though and into a great drafting position before the first buoy, but then the last waves' breast and backstrokers were clumped up and I had a hard time getting a clear path away from them. It was quite crowded. My legs were feeling heavy from the start but now it was worse. Should have eaten more substantially at 5 am. But finally got a pretty clear path.

What can you do when other folks are in the way? Look for a way out if possible but it's the nature of the thing. My swim was pretty slow, in part because I had to stop a couple of times to look for a way clear, but the heavy legs too.
I did not run out of the water--too much energy expanded--until we were out of the muddy area. Then jogged a bit.

Was it really below average? I truly suck at transitions. Took a bit to get the suit off. I am putzy and I don't run in and out and I don't have my shoes clipped onto the bike, and I don't jump on. Long-ish transition here too and up a hill that was covered in astroturf.

Practice transitions. I spent nearly 6.5 minutes in it over all which is silly. I should set a goal of shaving off 1.5 minutes and figuring out how to do that.

No bike training for 2 weeks. Not a good plan but necessary. Oh well. Still 18.7 is nothing to sneeze at. ALso got spooked by some idiot guy in a Maple Grove tri shirt with gray hair. He decided to pass me on the right, and he had to ride in the narrow strip gravel before the embankment to do it because I was all the way to the right and someone was also passing me on the left at the same time. I heard a guy behind me say the old guy had been riding wrecklessly earlier. Sometimes the clumps of riders at different points mean you need to slow down for safety. I slowed down a few times and it is frustrating but less than a crash would be.

Train on hills.

Again, sucky.

I hadn't run 3 miles straight for about 7-8 weeks because of my hip flexor. I kept it slow so I wouldn't have to walk and I'm pretty pleased that I managed it with minor tightness.

Nothing/

As usual, nothing much. I took some pix and then put my bike in the car and waited for the Oly folks to come in. Missed a lot of people bc the car was parked far away. But we got together at the end for the awards and food.


No training for 14 days, save walking the streets of Italy.


I like this race; it has a good vibe. It's community-sponsored and there are no commercial ads on the shirts which is cool. Good prizes for winners and a really nice awards ceremony that included a live band playing before and after.

But they made some changes that were not good. About 1600 between the two distances and this is too many for the venue--not new since it is like that every year. New method of packet pick-up meant waiting in 2 lines instead of 1--that was annoying and no faster in the end. There were not enough volunteers to manage the lines that snaked around and intersected making it confusing as to what the lines were even for. Most races do lines in alphabetical order. Use small intervals in alphabet so you can better spread out the volunteers. Why not use volunteers to pre-pack the packets the week before with everything but the shirt? Because of the location, many people drive in that morning for the race, so early packet pick-up isn't an option for many.

It's nice to do the pulled pork sandwiches, which are different from other races and pretty substantial and good. But that was it--nothing for vegetarians (not to mention Jews and Muslims) except a pickle and chips and a soda. There should be something for non-pork eaters. That kind of a meal also made for more really long lines and waits for food--also a new vendor this year who didn't realize the volume. It would be great to have a table of pick-up and go food that would have a minimal line--like cookies, chips, yogurts, drinks etc. near the finish.

Worse, they ran out of medals for the later finishers--not cool. I wish I had thought to give my medal to someone coming in toward the end of the Oly--they should have had one for sure. Also ran out of small T-shirts really early on in packet pick-up. Why? We all put our size down on the application form. They should say that later registerers may not get a shirt if they don't want to over order. Less swag than last year--no water bottles, no cool mesh bags at the end. Not sure why since they probably had more participants this year than last. Kind of a bummer when you expect it.
I am grateful for every volunteer and they have lots of them. But many aren't very well prepared. Last year and this year, I heard lots of them saying, i don't know where this or that is. They knew their own job but the race director should take them through the pre-race and the layout so they can answer questions from racers about where to go next etc, whether through an email or meeting. I know how hard it is to get adequate numbers of volunteers and how you need to balance how much you can ask of them, but it seems like the race director could work on this.