This was my first A race of the season. My first Olympic Tri (and only second ever). I have been training for this for 39 weeks. I was ready to go. I did a race simulation last weekend and did the distance in 3:08, which I wasn’t too happy about. Figured I could take 10 minutes off that in the race to get below 3hrs. This last week of taper has not been fun – what do you fill your time up with other than anxiety. I tried not to overeat and get fat. That was tough. My stomach is used to the mega calories.

Started out looking pretty crappy for the day. I t was 62 and raining when I woke up at 5. Great. Had my morning oatmeal and cup of tea. Luckily I live close to the race so I could do all my morning activities at home. Last night I had a hamburger and a hot dog for dinner with a bunch of beans and chips. Great carbo loading. At least I drank a lot of water. Had a gel about 30 minutes before the swim started. We spent a huge amount of time waiting on the beach in 60 degree weather waiting for the swim to start. I don’t have a wetsuit so it was cold.

Swim: 35:54
First off, much better time than I expected. I did the same distance last weekend in the same lake and it took 40min. I’m pretty happy with the swim but still have a long way to go. It was pretty choppy, for a lake. It was a two lap affair so even though I purposely started at the back of the pack I ended up with people around me as I got lapped. I’ve been practicing a lot in OW to get used to sighting, pacing, and keeping my technique solid. Form wasn’t very good especially as I got tired. I got a little nervous having other people around me but much better than my first tri a month ago. It’s a good thing I still have stuff to work on. Got out of the water feeling pretty strong.

T1: Ran the 300 yards to the transition area on concrete. Pretty tough run. Got to transition and got my crap on. I practiced this Saturday so things went pretty smoothly. I found out after having problems at my last race getting my HR to register on my HRM that I had to reset the thing and it would work fine. Went flawlessly. Because of the reset I’ve had to calculate my times by clock time but my Polar keeps good records. Time: 4:54 (which included a little bit of bike, may 30s, as I forgot to push the button).

Bike: Rocked the bike! Was passing people right and left. Had a gel about 10 minutes out of T1, a cliff bar 30min later, and another Gu at the hour mark. My computer says my average was only 20mph but I felt strong the whole time. After my last race I looked up the rules on drafting and passing and tried to make sure I wasn’t doing anything illegal. It cost me some time as I waited to pass several people who were going a bit too slow but I wasn’t in a good position to pass. Not too much. I figure it’s better to follow the rules than just be like everyone else and ride side-by-side for 3 miles trying to pass. There’s one big hill at mile 9 that climbs 300ft in 2miles. For Ohio that is HUGE! Passed a guy on a really nice P2C who was walking his bike up the hill (it’s gotta hurt to watch a guy on a $500 Trek pass you while you push your $5000 bike). Time: 1:14:15. Avg speed: 20mph.

T2: There’s a really awesome downhill going into T2. Not terribly steep but a great place to rest your legs. There was a guy who apparently didn’t read the rules and was riding slowly next to another person and I had to yell at them to get out of my way. They both passed me just after T2, but it’s the principle of the thing. Another thing that pissed me off was the guy who had racked next to me with his expensive bike had put his bike right on top of my stuff. So I took his spot. Only after I had racked my bike did I realized I’d hit his cool aero helmet. Take that inconsiderate jerk. Got my shoes on and out of T2 pretty quickly. Time: 1:21

Run: Are these my legs? My toes on my right food were numb from the bike (along with some other parts). They must have marked this first mile wrong as my watch says I did it in 8:40. Not a chance. 9:40 maybe. The run is along some abandoned roads through the woods and out onto the levy – two laps. It’s a slight uphill on the way out. Was feeling great for the first half. Kept telling myself to hold back a little bit for the second half. Nah…I’ll be fine. First three miles were 8:40 and ~10:14, 10:14 (no markers). Had a gel at the half way mark. Had water at all the aid stations. Came back in to the turnaround feeling pretty good. Saw my family which gave me quite a boost. Back out to the levy and feeling strong. Tried to turn it up a notch. Had to keep telling myself to dig deep. With 20 minutes to the finish line I had to remind myself that I could take 20 minutes of suffering. Go legs go! Wait…I can’t feel them anymore but I can still make them work. Final 3 miles were 9:40, 9:41, and 9:28. 8:40 pace for final 0.2. Just about felt like barfing at the finish line. Not sure what food didn’t agree with my stomach. I like to think it was the herculean effort that did it.

I am very happy with my first Olympic. It’s a little disconcerting to know that I’d have to take off nearly an hour to be competitive in my AG. Well, the race is against me anyway and next year I get to move up an age bracket (excited about that 40-45 AG). Next stop, my first marathon in October.