Black Bear Olympic Race Report
Yesterday I had the pleasure of racing the Black Bear Olympic Triathlon course out in Lehighton, PA in the Pocono Mtns. I was super pumped for this race for several reasons, all related to the fact that it is now the start of my 2nd year of triathlon. After doing two sprints last year, I got the bug. So, after the end of my 2nd sprint Tri last August, I commited myself to improving my run and having a great second year.
I stumbled upon to EN last Sept or so, joined up in October in time for the October OS. While I do not race with power yet, I can honestly say that I have learned more than I imagined I could over these last few months, and after yesterday's race am confident that I have made tremendous strides with my training, and that I also have lots to learn, which I find to be an exciting proposition.
Onto the race report! 
Swim - lake swim, 1500m, and my 4th open water swim ever (the 2 sprints and a 0.6 mile OWS last month).
Me before the swim: (note the hard to notice EN tri top underneath, which got a shout out on the run!)
Goal: my goal was to swim right away, avoiding the initial shock and hyperventilation that I had experienced in the last, as well as maintain good form. Goal time was roughly 28-30 minutes.
Result: I lined up to the left/outside and once the race started, I was able to swim right away. so far so good. However, after a few mminutes I started worrying since the main pack was drifting away from me pretty quick. This caused me to got worked up, leading to me having to rest for a minute or so. Luckily after that I was able to swim my normal stroke the rest of the way. After that break I resumed swimming my normal swim for the most part. not the best form I can maintain, but decent. Finished in 32 minutes, for 273rd out of 360 people 
The swim is def my weakest of the three, so I take comfort in knowing that I can only improve 
Bike: up and down 24 mile course with a total of 2,000 feet of gain, spaced out over two main sections of climb - one near the front at miles 4-8, and one at the end at around miles 17-22.
Goal: My plan was to take it somewhat easy before the initial climb, pace the first climb steady, then push the rest of the way and finish strong.
Result: I held to my plan pretty well, and finished in 138th out of 360 
Given that this was my first Oly, I now feel comfortable that I could have hammered the straight portions a little harder and kept my hill pacing as is. Bonus points for the guy chanting "pedal pedal pedal, up the f*cken hill!" as about 20 of us battled up the final climb at mile 21 that was 0.7 miles total at 5% with a quarter mile in the middle at 10%. Man, that was brutal, and I can't wait to ride it again next year! 
Run - The course was a cross country type trail, with a mix of grass, dirt and gravel/rocky trails that had several short and steep decents and inclines.
Now, in both my triathlons last year, my run basically consisted of me barely jogging/walking (I would say that I ended up with me doing EP+60, but last year I had no idea what that meant, hehe). My main goal this year was to improve this and to finish the runs with respectable paces. My HMP at my 5K VDOT time is 7:39, and my initial goal was to maintain something close to that. However, by the time the run started, I could tell that starting out that hard was probably too much. I finished the first 5K at a 8:23 pace (my Z2 is 7:57 so higher than that, but considering I ran my first ever half marathon in October at an 8:42, I was generally pleased). When it came to the 2nd 5K, I wanted to push it up, and managed to clock in at an 8:11 pace, for a total time of 51:23 for the 10K. Not the best I could have envisioned, but certainly something I am proud of. My last half mile was at a 7:20 pace, and I know now after finishing that I could have pushed a little harder the next time out, so I take comfort in that.
Run finish was 160th/360, which was very close to my finish of 159th/360 people and 2:53:00. regarding transitions, they went well, nothing really to comment on there.
Conclusion: first off, if you are reading this still, thanks. It means a lot and I hope you found it interesting. Overall, I had a great freaking time at this race. It was well organized and run, I was pleased with my time, and most importantly, I came out of it knowing that I started this year off with a bang and feel very confident that the next 16 weeks building up to Pocono 70.3 will be a terrific experience!!
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