Giant Eagle Triathlon - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

I think I psyched myself out, and pretty badly at that. Within 10-15 yards, my goggles leaked and filled completely up, making it near impossible for me to see. By the time I got my bearings, I realized I was way past the first buoy (about 20 yards past the turn). As I was correcting, I had to fight off a panic attack -- I have never had any issues or fear in the water, ever, until that point for some reason. Focusing on getting my breathing under control and moving forward in the right direction, I continued to weave back and forth trying to get sight of the buoys or other swimmers. I kept thinking, if I could only find some feet to get on, I would be able to use them to navigate until I could catch a second to clear my goggles. The only, and I mean only, silver lining was that my first lap was 21 minutes, and my second was only 12.

I should have immediately stopped and fixed my goggles at the very beginning. I was thinking too much and let a little ego get in the way.

Using watch time on this.

Found out my rear brakes got bumped and were rubbing.

As I was leaving Alum Creek on the course, I felt my brakes rubbing against my rear tire. I know I checked this before I left transition setup, but my bike must have gotten bumped in the madness. This cost me about 45 seconds to stop, fix the setup, and get back on the bike. Luckily the course was fairly fast and as bad as the swim went, the bike nearly made up for it. Leading up to the race I really pounded intervals on the bike, and feel that the effort paid off. My A+ goal on the day would have been to have averaged 24+, but this is by far the fastest bike split I have had to date so I'll take it!

I had two gels while on the move. I waited pretty long into the course for the first one (10-12 miles) and probably should have gone sooner. I wanted to try and wait until after the rollers were behind me so I could settle in. There were a few minutes here or there where I noticed I let my pace slip into a relaxed cadence, and had to remind myself of my goals.

I came off the bike with all kinds of speed. My legs felt surprisingly fresh for as hard as I was pushing on the bike. Took me a few extra seconds to get into my gear bag and get into rhythm, but overall not bad.

Coming off of a minor bout of PF following the Wendy's in mid June, my run conditioning (and confidence!) was lacking in the days leading up to the race. With that, I decided to shoot for a pace around 7:30-7:40/mi and call it a day. I started out a little strong, even though I felt like I was crawling up the first hill, and decided to back off the pace some. I ended up letting up too much between the 5k and 5mile marks and decided to run the last 1.2mi on feel instead of by watch. It felt really good to just let my legs go and do their thing.

I know I can run faster than this and not sacrifice the race. Next time...

Stretching and eating recovery treats!


Swim navigation and, being my first attempt at the oly distance, confidence


Like I told my wife, this was more about meeting the beast and getting familiar with it rather than trying to conquer it. That's for next time.