Pinehurst Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I had no illusions about the swim. I started slow to the right of the field which as a whole was getting past me at a good clip. About a hundred yards into the swim I was already swerving away from the buoys and had to correct. Sighting to left and right proved useless, so I'd have to pop my head up at regular intervals to stay on course. This would be the first of four or five off-course zig-zags.

I never got comfortable and into any sort of a rhythm during the swim. It was as if I was pushing water around with my body at 45-degree angle. The 700-yard (or so) straightway towards the finish seemed to take forever. About 100 yards from the finish my left foot finally cramped up, which I was very much anticipating. Just like in the pool, just swimming through it seemed to help.

Boy was I glad to be out of that water. On the bright side, I didn't have to breast stroke and was able to do bilateral breathing the whole way.

The bottom line is: I need to swim more and I need to do open water swims before the event. I also need to improve my kicking. Bad kicking form may be the reason why my foot cramps. Hopefully these things are the key to getting more relaxed. Practice, practice, practice!

Good thing I always bring a cycling jersey just in case. Getting to T1 I realized that without a jersey with rear pockets there was no way for me to carry all the jells and bars that I planned to carry on the bike. On went the jersey.

Have the jells and bars already inside the jersey pockets.

Started off fairly easy but picked up the pace about half way through because getting passed was frustrating. Most of the people would pass you and keep on going, but some would pass you and slow down forcing you to overtake them. So I picked up the pace a little bit to get through pockets of riders.

Nutrition went pretty much as planned: three gels (10 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes into the ride) and 40 oz of water-diluted Gatorade. I started feeling full and didn't touch the tropical bars.

I pushed harder than I wanted to, but in retrospect that was almost the right amount of effort. Enough to finish the run, but not too easy to leave time on the course.

Nothing.

I was afraid that lack of running and bike-run bricks would do me in on the run. Not so. Then there was the issue of the right hamstring and knee. The hamstring was tight, but pretty soon the rest of the leg muscle groups tightened up, so that became par for the course. The knee never hurt during the run.

The first three miles were pretty fast at 7:55-8:00 pace. The second three miles had us go up two or three especially steep hills, and I seriously thought about walking up two of them.

Mile 6 I passed a guy saying, "This better be the last hill". He replied, "There'd better be a f%@&ing escalator up there!" Laughing helped a bit. Then at 44 minute left hamstring locked up in a cramp, so I had to stop and stretch it out for 20 seconds or so.

I drank at every mile except for one. I may have drank too much because my stomach was starting to feel heavy, but I knew cramps were coming on, and that was the only way I know how to deal with them, so I drank.

Maybe drink less, but really, nothing.

Stretched. Went for a five-minute jog and swam in the lake a bit.


Lack of open water swimming.


Overall I am very happy I did the race. It was hard, but highlighted just how abysmal my swimming is.

Three guys from work that did the relay are listed as DNF. Apparently the bike rider and the runner put the timing chip on their wrists and so their time was never logged. :( Bummer! All three of them said they would do another triathlon!