Cleveland Triathlon Race Report

So this is take II of my Cleveland Tri Report.  You ever write a blog and you go to post it and you realize you just sort of sound like you are just complaining, making excuses and overall it is just whine, whine, whine?

Well it seemed a lot like that...so here is the long and the short of it trying to focusing on the positives.  Disclaimer:  There is still a lot of whining and excuses and if you think this is bad, you should have read the other report!

I felt almost as awful as the pic looks!!!

- Arrived to find out the water was 79 degrees and would not be wetsuit legal for USAT rankings and awards.  (So not what Daisy was hoping for!!!)  So I did not wear a wetsuit.  Considering how little I have been swimming post crash, my swim was not too bad, considering the chop in the water (due to the strong wind out of the west).  My main issue once I got past the yellow buoys was I could not see the last red buoy as my blue tinted goggles seemed to shade the red buoy to a navy shade which was totally not visible against the water.  So major sighting issues and I got quite a bit off course.  Oh well!  In the end, I swam fine but I exited the water with a major headache likely due to missing many breaths when I got smacked in the face with a wave.

- My transitions both seemed slow but no major issues.

I am sooo much happier on the bike than the swim!

 - The bike was fine, although my head was throbbing. 6 hairpin turns. I passed lots of people.  I had decided to put First Endurance EFS in my aerobottle (even though I usually just use water in it) because I wanted to make sure I took in some calories and electrolytes during the bike.  That worked well.  The bonus of the bike was knowing where you were at related to everyone else.  I knew going in that KS, defending champ and also a training partner would likely be the leader and that she was.  She had gained about 7 minutes on me in the swim and her lead appeared to stay pretty consistent throughout the bike.

- As I headed out on the run, it was very warm and humid.  I had tucked my inhaler for my asthma in my sports bra before the swim and I took a couple puffs on that...perfect location for that thing.  I might have to tuck it in there for some long runs and see if it bugs me as perhaps for REV3 CP, I will put it there as I feel safer having it with me and that is a convenient spot to have it.

- I had decided that I was not going to bother wasting time with my garmin and for some reason the only split times on the results page are for my swim and finishing time so I have no idea how my pacing was.  This was also due to the fact that there were not clearly marked mile markers at every mile.  I thought I saw a knocked over 2 and maybe a 3 but it was nothing that I could clearly track on my watch.  As I neared the first turnaround I passed S (who finished third female and I got to talk to her after as I did not know her going in) and then it was just KS waaaay out in front of me.  I think I just fell into I nice steady pace.  I guess I figured this would be my finishing position and instead of racing hard for myself, I just ran an easy tempo.

- I was very happy to finish 2nd overall female about the 7 minutes behind KS that I had lost on the swim.  All good, I was happy for her and knew that would be the outcome as she is a solid well-rounded triathlete who works hard. While everyone wants to win, I had no illusion that given my current swimming that it would be quite a stretch in an oly.  It was a good training day.  More than that, it was sort of a triumph to come back to a race after a bad crash and come in with a podium finish.

-  I suppose afterwards, I have been a little hard on myself as I just don't feel like I pushed as hard as I could have on the bike and run.  While it would not have mattered in my place, I should have raced against the clock for myself.

-  I will say this again as I say every year it seems, I really really need to focus more on the swim.  I am not concerned so much now as I know the shoulder is not fully healed and it is sort of a little too late for this season but in the off-season, I will make some big changes to my swim training...FOR SURE.