Matt Mason Memorial “Cowboy UP!” Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Time trial start. I seeded myself around the 7:00 line marker, probably about 6/7th in line. Once I got my cue to take off I sprinted into the water as far out as I could. The water levels were pretty shallow due to the lack of rain (only 8ft deep at the first turn buoy). I started going out like gangbusters and immediately passed two people ahead of me. Once I got to the first buoy I felt a lot of tiredness in my shoulders. I realized that I wasn't going to be able to pull off some spectacular swim - I just didn't have it in me. So I just focused on long strokes and good underwater technique.

A pretty simple and straight forward swim leg. No drama, no catastrophes. Just a decent in and out of the water swim. Time includes a decent length jog all the way up to the entrance of transition.

Lack of swim focus this last month or so during training didn't help my performance.

Quick in and out with the bike. Horrible job of getting on my bike and getting going. I left my shoes on my bike and I had planned on slipping my feet in while getting up to speed, but I struggled with this - despite practicing this with little trouble yesterday. The simple task of getting my bare feet on top of my shoes and pedaling was almost too much to overcome. Once I finally did get going my right shoe buckle managed to slip out of its buckle loop. I didn't bother fixing it, I just rode with my shoe unbuckled.

5/257
3/78

More practice, or maybe I should just go back to putting my shoes on in transition before running my bike out.

Once I finally did get going I was panting hard. Could. Not. Catch. My. Breath. But, I was going hard, this is a sprint, so no need to hold back. I don't think I actually brought my breathing and HR down until around mile 3 or 4.

For a 10 mile course (which me and some others only measured around 9.15 miles) this was not boring. I don't recall too many flat sections. You were either going up some incline or going down one. Some hills were more steep than others and often the momentum of one downhill carried you up the next. The road leading in and out of the park left a lot to be desired. Pretty typical of what one would experience at a park, but a little too many cracks and breaks in the road. Before I knew my 9+ mile bike ride was through and it was time to dismount.

Hammer a little harder on the uphill climbs.

I thought I moved pretty well on this. Not sure why I'm slower than my peers.

73/257
15/78

Nothing.

5k runs are painful. 5k runs in a triathlon might be even more painful. There is just no point during a 5k sprint race where you get to just run and enjoy running and being out there. It's always "GO, GO, GO. This is a sprint, keep moving!" At least that's what's going on in my head. So with that I managed to get my breathing and HR to skyrocket back up, which in turn made the first mile go by slowly because all I can think about is "I'm I done with this yet?"

Nice course, and trail. Three aid stations on the course, one of which you passed twice. So if you were really thirsty on your 3 mile run this race had you covered. Towards the end, on the last mile, I really started to feel good and I hit my running groove. HR and breathing came under control and this became a lot more enjoyable. I managed to negative split each mile. Right before the turn towards the finish chute they handed out American flags to run with and I thought that was pretty awesome. A good reminder as to what this race was about.

Nothing. Good effort throughout.

Walk. Talk. Some eating and drinking.


The last two months have not been the greatest time in my life for training. Just hasn't been enjoyable. I blame mostly the hot weather for not having that good mojo feeling I get when I'm out on a good SBR session.


Great race, especially considering it was a first time race with a first time race director. Great volunteer support, plus the local community really came out for this event. I would consider this event again in the future.