First Olympic Triathlon: Post 5 Faltering

I don't remember much from the second transition. I've been trying to remember it for about a week. That's probably a not a good sign regarding my health at the time. I remember that I had a little problem racking the bike but nothing else from entering transition until I exited. Maybe nothing worth remembering happened.

I came out of the transition area at the same time as a guy in a white shirt who I was catching up to on the bike (but was just way to far ahead to really get near him). I wondered what he was doing during transition that took him so long. (In retrospect, I think he was putting on shoes.)

Mr. Whiteshirt ran just a little bit faster than me. I was fine with that. Within the first block, he stopped to stretch. That made me feel good. Not only might I catch him (I didn't, he started running before I got to him) but I wasn't feeling any cramping.

In fact, I was feeling relatively good. My legs didn't feel as funny as they had after the bike in the other tri. To be sure, I was tired but not in pain. After about a quarter mile, I thought to myself "I can do this all day" (that's a direct quote from my thoughts). Of course, that was assuming that I stayed at that level of discomfort.

Pretty soon I was at the first water station. It came way to soon, around the half mile mark. That confused me somewhat. I am so used to aid stations being at the mile mark that even though I had studied (and even driven) the race course before hand, I asked if this was the 1 mile mark. The sad thing was, they couldn't tell me. They didn't know.

I took Gatorade at this station. The cup was less than half full and I drank it down in two quick gulps. I should have stopped for more but I had just been drinking on my bike. I figured that I was okay and maybe Gatorade just goes down quickly.

Around the actual one mile mark (which wasn't actually marked) there was a little loop (about a half mile or so). I was still feeling alright at this point. When I finished the loop, I saw some others just start it. This made me feel good that I wasn't the last person on the course.

The next aid station wasn't until around the 2 mile mark (I think, again the miles weren't marked). This turned out to be too long between water stations. I was starting to feel thirsty (which is not a good sign) and the aftertaste of the Gatorade was starting to bug me (I'm sure that if I drank Gatorade more often that this wouldn't be an issue).

I took water at this station to wash the Gatorade flavor out of my mouth. Again the cup was less than half full (which is mostly empty in my book). It wasn't even enough to get all of the sweet taste washed out. At this point I really should have stopped and asked for more but I was just following my hydration plan (drink at every station). I wasn't really thinking about it and just kinda hoped that it was enough.

Not to long after this station, I started feeling pain.

mwz