Thank you guys for sending along such fantastic race recaps! This is what it is all about so thank you for taking the time to send along your feedback.
Let’s start with Pam! First off, awesome work out there. Not only did you finish, you finish in time. It’s just unfortunate that you couldn’t get a medal. I sure hope that they make more and get one to you since you are so deserving!
Good lessons learned. It’s not often that you hear of someone almost swimming past the swim exit. Great idea of asking how far apart the buoys are set up. However I still wouldn’t trust it. As everyone found out at Williamsburg, they move. They are often not set up in accurate distances. It’s very hard to do so when you are working with water (not land). And I doubt that they are ever set up every 100 meters because most don’t have that many buoys to do so. I would guess 200 or 300 meters. I have seen some courses with only 2-3 buoys total. Thus I don’t think there is any standard protocol here. Check with the race director for your next race if you want to ensure a more accurate count. Otherwise, nice work with the walk:run and sticking to your plan. This is what it is all about…along with keeping yourself positive, like you did. You brought it home and finished! Awesome work!
As for Melaine, nice work! Sounds like you had some swim sighting issues too (this is a common theme across many participants!). You can never have enough open water swim practice to help here. As for the negative Nancy’s entering your head, they will happen! So be prepared for them. Since music or ipods are never legal for triathlon, it’s good practice without them. In addition, this is where having a mantra good and ready is important. When those negative thoughts come into play, you need to pull out that mantra and override the negative thinking. Overall, great work out there. You had a very strong performance against your age group. You are a natural!
For Nick’s recap, good feedback. For the long run for T1, assess this out beforehand in your next race. If it’s a long run, place a pair of old shoes or flip flops at the exit so you can slip them on for the run to T1. Just be aware that some people steal them in jealousy that they didn’t plan ahead.
Why did you go into your race with a brand new bike? Were you fit for it? I always recommend that athletes have a few weeks to acclimate to a new fit skipping longer rides during this time. It takes time to acclimate to a new fit, let alone a new bike. I would be surprised that your bike fitter would even recommend this. But it’s a good lesson learned and hopefully everyone else learns it too! This is why I encourage getting a new bike and a bike fit early in the season so this is not an issue leading up to a race or, worst yet, during a race.
Nice work assessing your run! It is a work in progress. It’s easy to burn matches during a race and then end up depleted by the later part. This is why your first mile off of the bike needs to be your slowest (along with the need to get your gluts activated and firing again). Again, good lessons learned and this is nothing but opportunity for your next race 🙂
The fact that you were not sore and ready to go again on Monday, it a true testament to your conditioning. Nice work being consistent with your training to allow this to happen. This was a hard race to podium at since there were so many fast racers and an abundance of racers. However it’s always fun to have good competition and lots of club members racing with you. Nice work enjoying the experience and drawing some important lessons from your effort. It’s a process to execute the perfect race. However now you are that must smarter and able to execute even better next time. Great work out there!
Nice work everyone! And thank you for sharing your experiences. There are so many gems in there if everyone takes a few minutes to read through the recaps. You can never have enough practice or insight! How’s racing next?
