Rockin R Toobin Triathlon - TriathlonOther

River was very low in places requiring you to trudge upright for 20-30 meters. Bottom was shallow even where deep enough to swim, so got a lot of bottom much churned up in your face/teeth. Narrow channel for first 100m created real challenge to swim in that tight of a pack--lots of banging around.

Start at back of wave. I noticed that the guy who won my age group was more than a minute slower than me in the water, so waiting a few seconds for the wave to clear out seems to be a decent strategy.

Took a bit longer in T1 than necessary, decided (for whatever reason I'll never know) to pull on riding gloves, taking valuable seconds. I guess after the debacle that was the swim due to low water I wasn't feeling particularly rushed.

Forget bike gloves

I used every gear on the bike a number of times--from down hills that had we hanging on for dear life, to looong up hills in granny low. I need to learn to get more comfortable on the bars going fast (30+ mph).

Push harder. Although I wasn't too disappointed with my 19 mph pace given the hills (I have no place to ever train on hills), but I could have pressed harder, should have been able to go over 20 mph average.

Good quick transition

Learn to jump off bike while moving so as to cross line and keep going

All of the hill work I have done running paid off, not only on the run leg but also on the hilly bike course. I shortened my stride, kept chest upright, and trucked up the nasty hill (~8% grade, .4 miles), passing a number of folks in first .25 miles of run leg. My legs never felt rough like during a normal brick, maybe due to my focus on the hill, maybe because of the borrowed tri bike I rode. After first half mile I was settled into a nice 7:30 pace, negative splits all the way. I felt great, passed many people, moving up 2-3 spots in age group (reeled a guy in who had passed me on the bike leg).

Run faster at start, expect more from my body.

Light stretching, walking, Slim Fast shake, Gatorade.


Need more time on the bike, need to trust my body to perform at higher levels of exertion


This was the first of what the organizer hopes to turn into an annual event. The river swim is probably too long, given unpredictability of water levels (perhaps a 300m swim may have worked out better, given shallow water down course). The bike leg was tough but challenging. The run leg--if you got through the first half mile hill, was flat and fast. Post-race food was good, all in all a well-organized race.