Race Report: Stamford KIC IT Triathlon (Olympic) June 26th, 2011

10:pm, Saturday, June 25^th. Went to bed in the guest room so I wouldn’t wake Karen in the morning. Everything all packed.

Note the bare feet on top of the shoes coming into T2

3:00am, Sunday morning. Awake and drink a fruit smoothie that I had set up in a bucket of ice. Delicious and glycogen-orific. Go back to bed.

4:30am, Out of bed, make an iced coffee in a to-go mug. Drive 10 minutes to Stamford.
The swim waves were scheduled to start at 6:30am, so I arrived in downtown Stamford at...

5:00am. This event has a strange two-transition area setup: T1 was down at Cummings beach, and T2 was up in the middle of town at Columbus Park. That was disconcerting because it added a set of logistics to the race that I hadn't had to deal with before,

Prepping for the First Olympic Triathlon

Preparing for the First Olympic Triathlon: 
The Stamford KIC IT on June 26^th, 2011

I don’t believe stepping up to an Olympic distance Triathlon is going to be incremental. The longest event I've done before now is a Sprint Tri with 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run. This would more than double that with a 0.9 mile swim, 24.8 miles on the bike, and 6.2 miles running.

But at least I had the good sense, or the good luck, to pick an event that takes place in Stamford, Connecticut, 10 minutes from home. That removed the travel/hotel part of the logistics. And I was able to prepare in ways that I wouldn't have been able to if the course had been three hours away.

Picked up the race packet Friday afternoon. Race number 392. I like it. Lot's of numeric integrity there. Two times nine is eighteen, which divided by three is six, making the sequence 2, 3, 6, 9. Okay, so I’m stretching things a little, but

Race Report: Escape the Cape Sprint Triathlon

So this race was my chance to redeem myself from the miserable swim that sunk my performance at the NE Season Opener.

Finish line

Escape the Cape Tri - Onset, MA - Sat June 4th

Gorgeous 73F dry, sunny, breezy New England Day in a truly quaint village at the top of buzzards bay. The swim was in the town's beautiful little harbor - a straight line swim from point to point, 1/3 mile with a light breeze and current against us. Then a 10 mile bike followed by the 5k (3.1 mile) run.

Pre-swam the course for about 250 yards to get used to the sightlines, water temps and visibility. Swam hard to warm up the breathing gear (this was one of my lessons learned from the last event...