Bluff Creek Triathlon - Sprint - TriathlonSprint

Ooh boy, here we go! The start was messy. 117 started in my wave. I always expect some level of contact, but in my opinion there were far too many people in the wave. Actually, the wave consisted of all the male sprinters. It was wall to wall and I could not get around anyone for the the first 400 yds. It was hey, I'm hitting your feet. I need to get past you but you have 2 people on either side of you. Okay, I'll just go over. Smack! I took a couple of shots to the the head and had to stop at one point adjust the goggles after they got kicked off. I never got into any rhythm. I'm actually looking forward to doing a longer race to get more of an indication as to where my swim is at right now. There was a super long run from the slippery boat ramp to transition, part of which I had to backtrack to pick up my goggles that had fallen out of my wetsuit arm. I guess that trick doesn't always work.

Not sure, maybe get more aggressive swimming over people. I know there was a long run to transition and that time was reflected for the entire field, but ugh that was still slow

It seemed like it took forever to get the suit off the ankles. Other then that, good as gold

Practice getting into shoes on bike until I can comfortably do it in a race.

Okay, so I'm on my bike successfully, unlike the last race. Time to drop the hammer. I got passed coming out of the park. Hey you, yeah you in the blue shirt, you're my rabbit. He kept a good pace and I hammered after him, picking off bikers left and right. Well, just on the left I guess, but you get the point. One of these days my swimming is going to come around so I don't have to play this catch up game. I finally passed blue shirt about halfway to the turn.

The nice thing about an out and back course is you can count how many people are ahead of you. There were about a dozen or so that I counted. Blue shirt passed me again just before the turn and lost more ground with my less than graceful 180. Picked off a few more people on the way back, including a fellow AGer. Apparently that angered him because he repassed me heading into the park.

Nothing. That was a pretty good bike, in fact it is my fastest average to date. Oh, I did get a new aero bottle for shorter races and there are 2 options for straw holes. Of course I picked the wrong one so I had to lean way forward out of the saddle to get a drink. I'll need to make sure I get that right next weekend.

I got out of the shoes a little early but that's okay. Quick T2

Nothing

I beat blue shirt out of T2 and just had to concentrate on catching AG-man. No biggie there. I blew by him just after getting out of the woods. Yeah, we ran on some curvy grass trails in a lightly wooded area. Kinda cool actually.

Not much going on in the way of traffic. I went down the big hill thinking, man, that's gonna be a beyotch to climb on the way back. I counted 6 or 7 people ahead of me before reaching the turn around. 6 or 7? Holy crap, that's it?

I started surveying my competition on the way back and recognized a guy in a black suit that podiums local races in my age group not too far behind. The bad news, he's faster. I hung with him for about 4 miles at the Drake half a month ago before he left me in the dust. Uh-oh, better get those wheels a moving.

I pushed the last half hard. Powered up the hill, feeling surprisingly good. Just before we hit the grass trails I get passed by guy who tells me not to worry, he's part of a relay. Thanks for the heads up dude, I was about to get pizzed. As we're twisting through the grass I can literally feel black suit getting closer. We hit the final dirt path and I can see the finish line through the trees around the corner.

I'm sprinting now. Wait, why is there a woman sitting in a chair in the middle of the road? Oh, we're turning sharply into the grass I see, just a little too late. I did my best Barry Sanders cut, which I assure you was done with much less finesse than he had, and sprinted in a couple of seconds ahead of black suit. Sweet!

Nothing. This run felt great.

Walking and chatting. Mom and dad made it for this one too, so that was nice.


Crowded swim? But that seems like a lame excuse. Maybe all of the German food and beer from last week? Either way, I gotta step it up next weekend


Great first year race. Thanks Alex and Steve!

This went much better for me than the last race. More hardware and I won a free entry into Hy-Vee during the post race raffle, so bonus!