Kring & Chung Newport Beach Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Swim was good, I got into a great rhythm and sighted well. The buoys were easy to see and there were no waves. I caught up with several orange caps and green caps from the waves in front of me. I stop just after the first buoy to check on an Orange cap woman who had stopped swimming. I asked if she was OK. She said she was tired and kind of anxious. I told her to just keep moving so she could finish. I explained that she could swim on her side or back. She had a friend with her who demonstrated how she could kick on her back to rest. I got back into my rhythm and figured I would let a lifeguard know.
When I got to the next buoy I saw a lifeguard on a paddle board, but he was already paddling in a green cap large guy. So I kept swimming knowing the girls were not far from shore.
As I rounded the buoy for the final turn I noticed a beautiful rainbow arching over the bay. It was great to see on every breath. I exited the water, reached for my zipper and ran up the sand and toward transition.

I've never been one to swim fast. I have endurance and don't get tired. I will continue to work on speed drills because at the end of the pack out of the water puts me behind on the bike.

I was third in my division for my T1. I'm not sure why I do it faster than others, but maybe because I run in and run out with the bike. The run across pavement took the sand off the feet, so that was nice.

It was sprinkling by now but at least the air temperature wasn't too cold. I was a little stressed about getting my bike wet and dirty, but like my husband said, "Carbon Fiber won't rust." It got a little crazy full of people when the earlier waves began to pass us on their 2nd lap at the beginning. I was hoping it wouldn't be that bad through the whole ride. We had no choice but to ride through puddles. The riders that weren't experienced really slowed down for all the curves. It made it hard to pass and keep a steady speed. Since I had taken my bike out of the jeep so early in the morning in the dark, I had put my front wheel on backwards so my speedo didn't work. So I could only ride by feel and didn't really know how fast I was going. I was comfortable just pushing the whole way. I had ridden the steep hill the day before and had no problem standing all the way up, but today, I had to sit before the top, but was still able to get around the corner.
After the turn around on my way back down the steep hill a rider in front of me rode the brakes the whole way down and it wasn't easy to pass with other riders still coming up. I finally was able to breeze by him knowing he would pass me as soon as we had a little incline.
I passed a lot of riders, but it was hard to tell which ones were on the super sprint or our course.

put the wheel on the correct direction.

1st in division for T2. I don't know why I can do it so fast. No socks helps and elastic laces. I had already put my number on in T1 so I didn't have to stop and do that.
I wish they would remind athletes to remember that they may be finished but others are still out racing. The super sprint finishers were packing up in transition and standing around talking and blocking getting in and out of the racks. My husband said I was too nice when I loudly said, "Excuse me please" as I was trying to get out of the rack area to transition to run.

I ran ALL the way up the hill. Not fast but I stuck to it and did not walk. I should have pushed it more, but wanted to be sure I could finish. I kept trading places with a tri-lab 49 year old. She walked and ran while I tried to maintain a jog, but she was still faster than me. About 1/4 from the finish I decided I could probably pass and beat her. She was 1/4 mile ahead and I picked up the pace. She realized it was a race and tried to keep pace with me, but gave up at the very last minute. It made for a good spectator finish, since we were kind of the end of all the waves.

push harder and then only walk if I couldn't keep going.

I high fived the girl I out paced at the end and then walked back to find Jeri. She was on the bridge and I ran back in with her.


My husband was a sweetie and by the time Jeri and I came back from the finish line festival he had totally cleaned up my bike. (He said cleaner than it was before..) I would have been 4th had I entered in my age division (50-54).