Radiant Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The cold water took your breath away at first, but I had done a short swim the day before so I knew what to expect. I only spent 2 minutes getting used to it before the gun went off because they only allowed 1 wave at a time in the water. I stayed to the outside and just tried to get into a good rhythm and not worry about speed. I was surprised at about 200 yds that I was FOP for my wave, but shortly thereafter we started catching the previous wave and my wave started overtaking me. I started missing breaths because of the contact and had trouble sighting because of all the comotion - had to break out of freestyle and breast-stroke about 5 times to regain composure. Finally after about 500yds I started feeling smoother and breathing better.

Practice OWS and warm-up. The lousy spring has prevented getting into the lakes and my OWS experience was limited to 200yds the day before the race. As people have said over and over, OWS is a totally different beast than the pool. In the pool, it always takes about 400yds for me to relax and get into a rhythm. I should have done a warm-up of about that length, but I was worried too much time in the cold water would sap me.

I had planned to start taking off the wetsuit the second I got out of the water but when I stood up I felt a little disoriented - the cold water, the OWS experience, the crowd, the commotion - at this point I felt like I needed to regroup a little and take my time. Had a little trouble getting feet out of the wetsuit, even though I had applied Body Glide.

Practice OWS and removing wetsuit - its not the same as practicing in the living room.

Felt really good to be out of the water and onto the bike. I passed a few people and about the same number passed me. It was very spread out and most of the time the nearest rider was a half mile away. Didn't feel any urgency to really hammer it with no one around. I had trained on this course about six times and I knew I was going faster than any previous training ride - so I was content to save something for the run.

I could have gone harder, especially in the early section with the head wind. Should have trusted my brick training and had faith that my legs would hold out in the run no matter how hard I went on the bike.

This went just as planned, don't think I could have done it much faster. As we ran out of the transition area grass, onto the pavement to the mount line, the volunteers were yelling "walk to the mount line". At the time, I didn't think about it much, but later my wife told me they were doing it because people with their bike shoes on were slipping and falling. I was barefoot with shoes clipped in, so I lost some of my advantage for doing that when they made me walk.

nothing

Legs felt as good as can be expected coming off the bike, I had practiced the transition run quite a bit. Calves were a little tight, but after the first half mile everything felt normal. Passed five people and got passed by two.

I could have gone harder in the first half - I held back too much and had too much left at the end.

A little stretching and a walk to the beer garden.


Not being able to practice open water swim, and basic lack of experience. Since this was my first tri, I was unsure how hard to go - saved too much and could have gone harder on the bike and run.


Race is put on by a housing development with a private, man-made lake. They really do a great job and everyone in the neighborhood comes out to volunteer and support - a great first tri experience.