Lake Lanier Islands Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I was in the 5th wave, with each one 4 minutes apart, so about 16 minutes after the 1st wave. My goal was to swim hard to the first bouy, which was a huge bottleneck for the groups ahead of us. It was about 75 yards out, and required almost a hairpin switchback turn. Everyone was coming to almost a complete stop, so I wanted to get there ahead of the main pack in my wave.

It was all going according to plan until I got close to the bouy. There was a guy swimming about the same speed, and was between me and the bouy. I kept waiting for him to turn, but he never did. He was swimming straight past the bouy. I had to stop, wait for him to get past my line, then get going again. People started running over me, and a bunch of guys got all jammed up.. just like the waves before.

This is when my swim fell apart. In my haste to get out ahead so I could round the bouy efficiently, I got completely gassed. There was no settling into a pace, so I started side stroking. With my head above water I could see a bunch of guys panicking. There was one guy hanging onto the bouy, while a bunch of the backed up guys were yelling and screaming. There was a lifeguard in a kayak that had 6 or 8 guys hanging on. I thought they were going to sink her. If I weren't struggling a bit myself through all this, I probably could have seen a bit of humor in it all.

I couldn't ever get my heart rate back under control, so I decided to side stroke all the way in, switching sides every 10-15 strokes. I was a bit disappointed in my poorly executed strategy, and I was really really struggling the last 100 yards, but decided to HTFU and tough it out.

Start at the back of my wave, and settle into a comfortable pace, then maintain.

T1 time included a quarter mile run up the beach, across 100 yards of uneven boat dock decking, then up a very steep hill covering a total distance of 1/4 mile. I joggged up the hill, and passed about 20-30 people who chose to walk. My heart rate was really elevated, but I knew I could use the hill climb to my advantage in making up some time from a very poor swim.

Once I got to my spot in transition, everything went fairly smooth. I'm grateful for my end spot because I had plenty of room to use a 5 gallon bucket as a stool. Wetsuit came off with no problem, socks and cycling shoes went on with no problems, glasses, helmet, unrack bike, run to bike out.

I had to run the whole length of transition with my bike cleats, which I was a bit concerned about, but it turned out to be no big deal. After I crossed the mount line, I came to a complete stop, clipped in, and took off.

Nothing.. I was happy with T1 today.

I just LOVE passing guys on $10,000 tri bikes with my aluminum Giant road bike. I passed at least 100 guys on the bike, and only got passed by one guy (that I didn't pass again later). The course was pretty easy to follow, and was well marked. Coming back into the park the road is narrow and divided, plus has curbing on both sides. This woudn't be too bad, but there were cars entering the park, so it made for some interesting manuevering. I fortunately didn't really get held up that much though.

At one point, coming up on the big bridge that crosses the lake, I found myself quickly closing on a cluster of 4-5 bikes and a car slowly coming up behind them. The bridge is fairly narrow, and if I failed to pass the cyclists before the bridge, I was probably doomed to get caught behind them (and the car) for the next 1/4 mile or so. Well not today.. I sprinted past the car on the right side, and squeezed past all 4-5 cyclists to their left, and had open road all the way across. I'm grateful the lady in the car was going slow enough so I could safely pull this off.

I tried to drink as much as possible in the last mile to hydrate for the run.. probably 4 or 5 big gulps.

I was pretty much riding as hard as I could ride. At no time did I think about saving my legs for the run. I figured I would deal with the run when I started running.

Nothing.. I was happy with my bike today.

Just like when I mounted the bike at the start, after I crossed the mount line coming in and came to a complete stop and unclipped. This was my plan, and everything went smooth. My legs felt a little stiff running with the bike, but not too bad. No time was wasted getting my bike in the rack, and getting my running shoes on.

Nothing.. I was happy with T2 today.

I felt surprisingly good from the very start of the run.. I was actually having fun. At the aid station right out of transition, I didn't drink anything, but joked with one of the volunteers.. I asked her how my hair looked, She said GREAT! It was pretty funny because I knew I was sporting "wild hair" otherwise known as "swimcap, bike helmet, no run hat hair". hahaha

I passed a bunch of guys.. I kept trying to see the age group of everyone since ages were written with a black marker on the back of their (our)legs. I passed a few in my age group, but mostly younger guys. Three people passed me on the run, one being the winner of the women's race. She looked strong.

My run was my post-high school personal best for 5k, even without a swim or bike beforehand, so I was very happy with that. My goal was to break 23:00, and I did that by 4 seconds.

Nothing.. I was happy with my run today.

Walked around a bit. Drank a water and some Gatorade.


Swim strategy and overall lack of swim training.


I could not have picked a better race as my first triathlon. It was close to home, and the swim was relatively short, which was good since it is my weakest sport. The uphill run to T1 was an advantage to me, even though my HR spiked somewhat, I gained ground on the competition making up some time for poor swim.

Overall goal was to finish under 1:20:00, so very happy with the 1:16:11