My fastest Olympic triathlon ever

[bpgreen]

First of all, a shout out to @mashani for help and advice he's given me the past couple of years.

I've done 4 sprint triathlons, but did my first olympic distance today.

So I had my fastest olympic distance triathlon, ever. Also, my slowest ever.

I was having trouble getting my wetsuit on and didn'k know why, when my neighbor8 (who finished about a half hour before I did) pointed out that it was inside out. He was nice enough to hold my goggles, fitness watch, and swim cap while I took it off, turned it rightside in, and started to put it on again. He then pointed out that I was putting it on backwards. Oops.

Prerace jitters, I guess.

I finished, which was my main goal. They haven't posted results, so I don't know how well I did in comparison with the whole group.

I was happy with my swim. If it was really 1500m, I'm really happy with it.

I was hoping to be faster on the bike, but it was super hot for a long time this summer, and then we had lots of smoke from wildfires in Oregon and California, so I haven't been biking much.

I've only run one 10k (maybe ever). That was two weeks ago and was my first exercise of the day, not following a 1500 m swim and 40 km bike ride. I ended up walking for short stretches of it today.

The headwind, rain, sleet, and hail that kicked in about halfway through the bike ride and continued off and on for the rest of the race didn't help my bike ride, but probably didn't hurt my "run" time.

Now I've got another goal for my next olympic tri (I want to beat this one).

If I ever get to the point where I can run 13.1 miles, I may attempt a 70.3 (aka half ironman), but I doubt if I'll do more than one of those.

[mashani]

Congrats for finishing it!

You may have gotten a great 1500 swim time. Wetsuit can make you faster then a pool swim in a suit.

Olympic is likely your sweet spot since your a good swimmer. Half is mine because I'm a slow swimmer, but a half swim is not much longer then Olympic, and I'm good at all the other things.

[bpgreen]

Congrats for finishing it!

You may have gotten a great 1500 swim time. Wetsuit can make you faster then a pool swim in a suit.

Olympic is likely your sweet spot since your a good swimmer. Half is mine because I'm a slow swimmer, but a half swim is not much longer then Olympic, and I'm good at all the other things.

My fastest 1650 yard (roughly 1500 m) swim in the pool without the wet suit post pandemic is 30:08 (average pace 1:50/100 yards according to my watch).

According to my watch, the swim portion yesterday was 1486.5 yards in 26:05 for a 1:45 pace. So even if my watch is right, it was a good pace for me.

If the clouds messed up the GPS and it was actually 1500 m, my pace was closer to 1:35/100 yards. That's about what my pace is when I'm swimming 100s and 50s.

I need to work on my running so that I can actually run the whole 10k. I also need to get my riding back where I was before. But I think you're right about the Olympic being the sweet spot for me. If I can ever get to the point where I can run 13.1 miles, I might do a half, but since the swim goes up so little compared with the others (especially the run), I think I'm better off in the Olympic distance. The only reason that might change is that I'm not getting any younger, and I may soon be in an age group where I wouldn't have much competition. But that probably holds true for the Olympic, as well.

[bpgreen]

The results were finally posted. I came in first in my age group.

It turns out that there are two ways to win your age group. You can be fast, or you can be old enough that there isn't much competition. I finished near the bottom overall (116 out of 130). But I beat the only other guy in my age group by slightly less than a minute and a half (for a three and a half hour race).

https://runsignup.com/Race/Results/1184 ... #U52532499