Beaver Freezer Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Started in 1st position in my lane with only 3 of us in the lane total. One lap 3 (of 10) I got tapped just before the wall by the 3rd place starter in our lane, I guess he passed the 2nd position starter on the first length (um, I think he was a bit mis-seeded). But now I had someone to ride their bubbles and he exited the pool with me on his heels.

Actual swim time for me was 9:45 according to the clock which I was pleased with, the timing mats are just far enough away that it made my swim seem slower

This was my first pool triathlon and the fact that it was SO COLD, it was a new phenomenom in GET DRESSED, rather than undressed to get on the bike. So a long run to the bike and then getting dressed made for a slow transition...but at least my stuff was dry initially with the garbage bags placed over the top!

Not much I could have done differently given the conditions.

This is always my strongest event, but struggled for the first couple of miles to get going. First it was getting the gloves on that I'd wisely stashed in my coat pockets. Putting these on while in the aerobars and avoiding wet manhole covers on campus proved to be a bit slower than expected. I left my heat as the 4th bike, but got passed by a couple of bikes while struggling with the gloves.

I got passed a couple more times as we hit the only real hill on the course which wasn't much heading to turn around 1. Here's where we started catching the heat in front of us too, but heading back down the hill we hit the headwind and here's where those in front of me were struggling. I hit 28mph for most of the downhill so quickly passed all those who had passed me and several on the prior heat. Was VERY strong from mile 3-12.

Coming back into the transition area was a bit dicey as it was so wet and I couldn't feel my feet so I waited to get out of my shoes. Being that I was still clipped in (something I usually get out of coming into transition it felt awkward).



Given the conditions and the early season start...this was a base building training anyway so not much else!

I was first back to my heats bike rack and pleased with that.The rain stopped almost right as I finished the bike.

The BEST move I made all day was packing an extra pair of dry socks. My garbage bag had kept my shoes dry, but the dry socks were in my transition bag so I delayed a bit to dig in there for those socks, stripped mine off, and put the dry ones on. I couldn't really feel my toes, but it felt good having dry socks. Since the rain stopped, I took of my soaked and mud covered jacket too and just went with the long sleeve shirt underneath.

Just go faster...

Run is easy if not spectacular. It is somewhat comforting the 2nd & 3rd time around to know who is going to be there at a particular spot. One particular annoyance for our heat was a school bus of Asian students was preparing to load directly in front of the MU on my first lap so I literally had to dodge and weave them as they blocked the whole sidewalk. They were just leaving on my next lap around so the sidewalk was clear, but I got a large BURST of diesel exhaust from the bus as they drove away.

Not much, push harder. I'd been having calf issues the prior week and kept waiting for it to sieze up on me, but never did so feel like I could have gone even harder!

Cleaned up transition area, put all stuff in my car (parked in the bottom of the parking garage) and hustled back to Dixon with my clean/dry clothes to take a HOT shower.


Early season AND the conditions


Well run race, VERY appropriately named this year. But the best indicator for me is whether I'll return again (no matter the weather) and in this case absolutely I'll be back next year.