Griskus Olympic Race Report

After coming off a recovery week, I was really looking forward to my first triathlon of the season. I felt pretty well rested even though I had done a few hard workouts earlier in the week.

It was a beautiful morning and the water was in the low to mid 70's....quite nice. I was in the first of 3 waves. There were only 4 buoys. After the first buoy, the next two were so far away that they were a little hard to spot. I simply followed the pack of people for the first couple of buoys then they took off and I was what seemed like I was all by myself. On the way to the first buoy, I knew I was swimming slowly when a guy next to me was alternating between side stroking and breast stroking and I couldn't drop him....not a good sign. That was a good motivator early in the race to kick in another gear. Fortunately I didn't see him again. The swim felt like it was taking a long time and when I came out in 33 minutes, I hoped that it was long because I didn't feel terribly slow.....come to find out, it was measured at 1 mile.

After a longish run to transition, I had trouble getting my wetsuit off as the zipper got stuck in my jersey, but got it off without ripping anything. Onto the bike felt good. Legs felt good as the first 5 miles are flat so its nice to get the legs warmed up before the hills came. I knew it was a hilly course but I really didn't know much else about the course. Since I sold my race wheels and have yet to buy new ones, I was on my training wheels. I took the climbs steady and felt comfortable climbing but once again I took the downhills cautiously because I am still not comfortable descending. I love cycling on flat roads but unfortunately this course doesn't have much of them. I ended up cycling 1:18 which turned out to be just okay compared to everyone else. I felt stronger out there but hills are not my best friend even though I have been getting better and better at climbing them.

Coming into T2, I felt great. I knew this run course as its a double loop with a big hill right in the middle of each loop that you have to run down, then run up. My plan was to take it easy to the hill, steady down, then pick it up until the uphill, then steady up the hill, evaluate how I was feeling, then pick it up until the downhill again, steady down, pick it up until the uphill, steady up the hill, then all I have until the finish line. I played a little game on the second loop as a few people I knew were behind me that I knew were stronger runners so my goal was to finish strong and not let them pass me which I was able to do. Ran 43--something which I am happy with as its a tough run course and the conditions were pretty humid.

Ended up third clydesdale and won myself a new timex watch......not too shabby.

Heading out to Idaho on Wednesday for Sue's race. Tentatively planning on swimming 3.6 miles (water temp. permitting...its like 52 degrees right now), biking 168 miles, and running 27 miles in 4 days.