By in a blur.........

My first Olympic Triathlon went by like a blur, in a good way!

I kept telling myself, “clean slate”, I wasn’t here to race, but just take in the experience and set baselines for the future ones. I have no times I’m shooting for, no goals ( times ) that I’m hunting, no expectation. Just go out and let it do what it do!

The swim was comfort and ease, I enjoyed the 2 loop course, being able to swim by the groups cheering from the pier and the beach. I kept telling myself, ’steady and easy, don’t push, not racing the swim. Fast swim will leave you dead on the bike.’ It felt pretty good coming out of the water. I made the mistake of standing up too soon, had to get around two guys in front, that made a slower than wanted exit from the water. When I stood up in the water it was at my waist, I could of had to more strokes and gotten closer. Other than that pretty cool.

T1 - Pretty uneventful - I wanted to take my time, even put on socks for the bike, and made sure I had everything I needed. Headed out with a pretty good feeling.

My plan was easy laps 1 and 3 and hard laps 2 and 4. Not sure why buy that’s what I thought would be best. The course was great, hilly with a few blind turns. The only blind turn that could hurt you speed lose wise was the first one. I remembered from last year and took it easy enough on the first lap, but realized that was a great place to grab back time against the people out of the water before me.

Didn’t I say I wasn’t going to race this one???

I kept the same plan as the last race; spot a group, pace myself up, pass and look for the next group. I didn’t worry about the guy biking next to me, I was after the guy 2 blocks up and the next group after that. I worked the down hills well enough to pass a lot of people on the up hills, short bursts of energy and speed, tuck in the aerobars and sail to the top of the next hill. More or less???

I’d round the front of the course and I’d see Penny and hear AK cheering me on and giving me such a boost of energy. It was great! A friend from Speedy Reedy was cheering on a friend of his, but joined in the yelling “ Go Bill “ It was cool.....

T2 - I got to chat with the supporting crew - Lynn and Jamie rolled in as I was getting off the bike. All I remember saying was ‘ my shoes eating my sock ‘ and off I went. My dismount of the bike was pretty ungraceful!!! I’m glad no one saw. All crane fly action.

The run felt heavy at first, legs slow, but my stomach was in good shape, did take in too much fluids on the bike. After the first 2-3 minutes they came round and I start with an easy pace around 7:30 minute miles. At the 1 mile mark I felt really good and started to push the pace up to 6:45-50ish, but not a full out effort. The course was hilly and I knew the last hill, about 1 mile from the finish was going to be hard to keep steady. By this time the sprint runners were on the course and it made it easier to spot and find a carrot. Again I’d target the back of one person, see a marker ahead of them and set a pace to close the gap. Entering the park there wasn’t anyone in front of me with less than a .25 mile to go, but I saw Lynn, then Jamie, then AK and Penny. I didn’t have a big kick to the finish, but I finished strong and steady to the line. I don’t think or it didn’t feel like I dropped pace the last half mile.

I felt great after the finish line and was glad Lynn and Jamie made it out to enjoy the morning supporting me and my crazy idea of enjoying a morning. Also, for AK supporting me through all the training and believing that I always had a swim partner, of course I did : )