Druid Hill Park Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

You would think that when you seed yourself by selecting your anticipated swim time, folks would at least be in the ballpark. I seeded myself to swim around 5:30 for the 300, which I've done easily in the past. First 25y went great, felt awesome. Hit the turn and in about 10y I was already gaining fast on the swimmer in front of me. Got to 75y and passed her after tapping her foot (she did a good job of allowing me to pass). Got to maybe 125y and tried to pass the next guy. He sped up. Then slows down in the dead middle of the lane. He's like a freakin' buoy blocking the entire lane. Now there are about 4-5 swimmers all over each other. So, off the next turn I basically go all out (this is the 175-200 length, I think) and pass the DB. I get to the wall and let the person behind me pass, and then I had to stomp it again to keep ahead of Mr. I'm in the Pool By Myself. The sprint cooked me...I just swam in from there. Final 50 was good. Hit the wall about 5:35.

Solid swim for me, but that redline sprint got my HR way too high this early.

Seed myself higher. I have no problem letting people pass me in the pool. Happens to me all the time in Masters so I'm good at it by now. :-)

Long run uphill from the pool to T1 (maybe 200 yards or so?). Wife (bad cop) is yelling at me to hurry the hell up. Daughter is yelling "Go Daddy Go".

HR is WAY too high now, so concentration was tough. Almost fell over twice putting bike shoes on. Transition area was pretty wet, so it was tough getting my socks on.

I'm really slow at his T thing. 117th??? REALLY??

Not have a picnic at T1.

Ran out of T1, got to the mount line and tried to clip in my left foot. No go. I just started pedaling as best I could on top of my Speedplays and my right foot clipped in. It was probably a half mile before I could get my left in. Ugh.

I had never ridden the course before so I took the first lap about 90% 1) to learn where everything was, and 2) get my HR down a bit.

2nd loop was faster. Passed maybe 5 people that were ahead of me, plus a bunch of folks in later waves on their first loop. No one passed me, and I crushed the uphills. :-)

Probably only raced a mile in aero due to the technical nature of the course, and my unfamiliarity with it.

24/265 overall...can't complain about that.

Unclipped fine...off the bike and run into T2



Know the course ahead of time, but honestly given my need to get my HR under control it probably didn't matter. Drink more; technical course took me off my game a bit on that.

Nothing special. Got in and out. Helmet off, shoes off, bike racked, running shoes on, bib strap on, go.

Practice...way too slow. 169/265. Yeah, you read that right. In a beginner race. Shouda brought a bottle of wine to my picnic.

Started out of T2...got the usual good cop/bad cop routine ("Go Daddy Go!!! We're so proud of you!!!" vs. "This is a RACE Harris!!! Get going!!!"). Mi familia...uh!!! :-)

First 75 yards was up a steep wet grass hill so I eased into this, go to the top and then it's two loops around the lake. I wanted to do the first mile just sub-8, but the legs and breathing just weren't liking anything below about 8:10. I started to loosen up maybe a mile or so into and settled into about 7:50. Walked the water stops for 3-4 seconds. Got passed by two runners (none in my AG), passed a gazzillion on the 2nd loop, mostly swim specialists. Gave everyone kudos. Tried to kick at about 2.7 but I was full-on in the Pain Cave at this point. Just maintained pace and finished about 24:07...a little above goal but faster than last week's open 5K.

Ran the tangents perfectly...Garmin read 3.0 or so.

Run a harder first mile, but I just didn't have it in me today.

Cold towel, water, medal around neck, timing chip removal. The usual stuff. Grabbed T-stuff, walked back to car. Jogged around a stretched a bit. Drove 10 minutes :-) back to house.


Swim chaos, lousy transitions, not knowing the bike course,

Oh, and absolutely no taper.


Podium, baby!!! Well, sorta. After the top 3 overall and top 3 Masters are pulled out of the mix, and the guy who got DQ'd...3rd in AG M 40-44. First ever...I'll take it. :-)

Well...my transitions might need some work. Ya think???? Ugh.

Bad cop says "Dude...you've been running your whole life??? You should be sub-22!!!" Tough crowd. :-)

Happy overall with the results...first tri in three years and did well. Oh, and by the way, I seeded my self 89th in the swim and came in 87th. Just sayin'.

Good race overall...great for beginners because it's a pool swim and a flat run course. HILLY bike. Well-run, perfectly on time.

Great for spectators...my sherpas got to watch my whole swim, bike start/finish, plus a good part of the run.

T-shirt is cool too. It has a giraffe on it. :-)