Many years ago, a colleague invited me to be a substitute competitor in the NYC Triathlon. Her team was a relay team with one swimmer, one cyclist, and one runner. Good for me because I can barely swim and I can't run. They don't normally allow subs but one competitor had a family who was deathly ill so they allowed it. I had 5 days to prepare but actually none, as I was busy. The day before the event, I bought a lot of carby food. The night before, I stuffed myself with bean soup and bread and whatever. I brought a lot of those sugary energy bars etc. The venue provided them, too, and one of my water bottles had sugary energy drink. Well I never heard of this, but I couldn't take any more at a certain point. The stuff that normally tastes OK to me tasted terrible. I ran out of water and desperately wanted to drink more but I couldn't get the sugary stuff down because it tasted so bad.

I guess the fueling plan worked out OK because I didn't get that out of fuel feeling. I had no idea how to pace myself so I tried to keep my speed constant. I had no time to train. I had a heavy bike, and in my age group, I was in the center of the pack, so I was satisfied. Nice crowd there.