Long Beach Island Annual Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was the first time I actually jockeyed for position at the start. Based on the results from the previous year's race, I knew that I had a legit shot to podium. I had practiced strategy for a 400m several times with my coach, and I was mentally preparing myself. I really wanted to establish myself in the front of the pack in the first 100m in order to get a clear swim.

When I got out of the water I knew I had a great (for me) swim b/c there was almost nobody out in front of me at all.

I would have swam the entire course ahead of time. For some reason I never actually made a turn during the swim, but I still managed to swim in the curve which is made by this course.

36/331 overall.

This is where experience paid off. I passed 3 or 4 guys who came out of the water before me just by being quick about getting my shoes and helmet on. I didn't waste much time at all on my way out to the road.

Nailed it on the bike. At first I thought that maybe I was doomed when I turned back into the wind, but then I realized that everybody else was struggling mightily as well. I think it helped a lot to be in aero w/ a cone helmet for this windy section of the race. If you look at the race data it looks like something you'd see from doing an indoor training video.

I wouldn't stray out into the middle lane at all because I almost collided with a police motorcycle heading straight for me. Also I would have swapped my cassette for the 11-23 because I ran out of gears when going with the wind. In this situation it would have benefited me to have bigger gears at my disposal when going w/ the wind.

No data for T2 for some reason. I hit the button on the Garmin at the wrong point too, so that's not helpful. I do know that there was a little kid that told me that I was the 11th person off the bike in the race. This gave me great hope that I could make the podium for my AG if I didn't get passed during the run. I thought this b/c several other younger male AG started with mine and I figured a fair amount of those guys were the ones off the bike in front of me. Thanks little kid for the race update!

Yes! That Z4 training paid off handsomely! Within a half mile after the start I paired up with a guy who was in the AG below mine and ran with him most of the way. It was great to have a buddy to pace with. I had my 310XT and he said he wanted to try and stick to about a 7.5 min/mile which was what I figured I could max at. I told myself that I wasn't going to let anybody in my AG pass me if I could help it. :)

In the last .3 of a mile I left my buddy and poured it on because I saw somebody creeping up on me. I managed to hold him off barely at the finish line only to find out he was in a different AG. I figured better safe than sorry at that pt! If I knew his AG, maybe I wouldn't have killed myself.

Walk around and smile because only a handful of guys had finished at that point.


Wind!


Its the hometown race and I had to do it. Its the first race where I took home hardware (a nifty mug)! There really couldn't have been a better finish to my season. I was so proud of myself for going beyond my training goals.