M.I.T. - Miami International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Plan was to take the swim slow and easy, and slow was the way it went. I was last in my age group by a mile. My navigation was terrible and when I concentrated on one part of my stroke the rest fell apart.. I didn't sight at all in the beginning and swam well left of the first buoy. Lifeguard had to come out and get me back on course. If I could have swam a straight line I could have easily shaved off 3 minutes. I got passed by a rainbow of swim cap colors as folks from 3 waves back caught me. Plus I get motion sick from the constant head movement so I had to stop for dry heaves a couple of times. The lifeguard was happy to know I was simply nauseous and not drowning.

Swim more, get some coaching. I could barely swim leading up to the event because I only have the time for ocean swims and had to deal with a combo of rough seas and shark migrations that hindered my opportunity to get in the water. Even so, my OW swims in the days before were much stronger than my race swim. Loads of room for improvement here.

23/33. Suit slowed me a bit, not too much. I did stop to wash & dry my feet (poorly) eat a gu and swig some gatorade. Put my shoes on at transition and ran in 'em. Bad bottleneck at the bike out.

Dry feet completely. This came back to haunt me later.

Fine ride. You hit the first bridge right out of the bike out and for me it was a slow climb at maybe 12mph. I hit 36+ on the downhill side but you can't really use the momentum because the course u-turns at the bottom of the bridge. The headwinds sucked, the tailwinds were awesome. Course was a little tight for the # of riders on the course, so passing was tough and people got bunched up in spots. Plenty of yelling for people to move and on occasion I'd get passed and that person would settle in front of me slower than I was already going and I had to pass them right back. About halfway thru I learned to pass harder and keep the effort up to create some distance. I was comfy in aero and the only think I could complain about was my front derailleur which couldn't find the middle ring unless I ran down to the small ring and then back up to the middle. PITA and I think I'm done with the shop that tuned the bike 2 weeks ago.

Not much. I was hoping for a sub 1:15 bike given what I've been doing on the road but the multiple bridges and inclines were new to me. Felt great and didn't want to blow myself out before the run.

4/33. Wanted a fast T2 and I got it, but at a price. Off the bike my feet were soaked still from going in wet from T1 as well as from being sweaty. I grabbed my hat, slipped in to my shoes and took a couple extra seconds to clean off my sunglasses.

Change in to dry socks. The wet feet ended up killing me on the run.

Humbling run. I started out tight, way tighter than I felt in bricks leading up to the race. I felt that I had consumed as much fluid as I felt comfortable with on the bike, but in retrospect it probably wasn't enough. Ate a gu @ the first 1/4 mile and took a little swig of water to wash it down. Legs were tight and stride was short to start out but I felt like it would open up once I had a mile plus behind me and it did, but I was still doing 10/mile at best. Problems started at the mid point when the blisters happened. By mile 4 I was hobbled and running on the outsides of my soles. I stopped to walk a bit at the 4.5 mile to evaluate and started back up again, but I was down to a shuffle. I was getting passed a lot anyway but now it got pathetic as men, women, old, men, old women, fat old women, people on their hands and knees and a dead guy passed me. It felt terrible. I felt like I had enough cardio to run faster but now my legs felt leaden and my feet were killing me. The last two miles my feet were really sore so I'd shuffle along on the outside of my feet and stopped to walk a couple times hoping the blisters wouldn't pop.

Dry, clean socks at T2! The hurting feet cost me 6 to 10 minutes at least. I didn't expect to run in the low 9s as if I was fresh but 10 min miles should have been do-able. Blisters may be something I gave to deal with with my flat feet & pronation but better it happens later than sooner. Maybe do some longer training runs too so I can condition my legs for extended efforts and avoid that heavy leg feeling. Also, being stronger on the bike should also help the run.

edit - I shoulda used some Body Glide too!

Walked out of the chute to my family and grabbed a seat and some water. Sat down and stretched a bit before I went over to massage tent for a much appreciated, but lame massage. I'd skip that next time. I had no appetite afterwards but I drank most of a bottle of water and 3 of these Venga recovery drinks they were giving out. They played absolute havoc with my guts a couple hours after the race. No appetite at all afterwards and didn't eat until 5PM.


No swim technique and limited practice. Could use some longer run training but need to be cautious of not re-injuring my PT tendon. Wet socks and the blisters they caused killed me. Clean dry socks next time. Overall it was still just my first Oli and 3rd Tri in 6 months so I was happy that I gave my best effort. Plenty of room for improvement.


Large and fast crowd. This is definitely a "big" event with people from many different states and countries, plus top pros.