Rattlesnake Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I really thought I nailed the swim. I jumped in and just went for it. I verred to the right for a while. I was sighting off a buoy that was inside the turnaround one. I kayak came over and pointed me in the right direction. It was a little hard to see because the swim out was straight into the sun. Good thing those buoy's were big and orange. After that I just cruised around the turn buoy and headed for shore. I felt great coming out of the water which was my goal. I ran up the beach, gave a thumbs up to my son and then promptly stubbed my toe and took a header on the beach with my wetsuit around my waist. Jumped up and kept running into transition. Somebody yelled nice recovery, I just hope someone got it on film. My practice in the open water has definately paid off.

Nothing. By far my best OWS ever! The digger in the sand on the beach I could do without next time though!

Got to my bike, got the wetsuit off, got my helmet and bike shoes on, took off and bumped the bike on the end of the row. The bike helmet went flying. I stopped and picked it up and put it back on the handlebars. Slowed me down, but it was the right thing to do.

Nothing, just be more careful going through the isle.

This course had some long big hills. When I was going down them at 30 mph, I knew I had to come back up them the other way and so I just pedaled as hard as I could going down hill. Coming back up I stayed at a good pace. Triathlon bikes with disc wheels sound like jets when they blow by you. I was on my mountain bike with road tires.

Ride a road bike or triathlon bike next year.

Shoes and helmet off. Running shoes and race number on. Hat on. Grabbed some water going out of transition and looked for a garbage can to put the cup in and wasted some time. There wasn't one, so I dropped the cup and took off.

Nothing. Transition went pretty smooth. No socks on this one and it made for speedier transitions.

I thought I had a good run. I"ll have to see what my time was. I thought my first mile was around 7:30. When I hit the 2 mile marker, I was at about 16 min, so I was on pace, but I didn't start my watch right at the transition mat, so I was a little slower. When we were coming down the home stretch I saw a guy with a 38 on his calf and I dropped the hammer and blew past him. The last 100 yards I had super long strides and I was flying across the finish. Finish hard my cross country coach always taught us.

Run faster. I need to keep building speed.

Water, Gatorade, sandwich. Talked to my son. I stuck around and waited for results and awards. I really wanted to know my time and I was hopeful for one of the top 5 newbie slots. I didn't get any hardware today, but having my son there to see me race for the first time was more fulfilling than any award they could have given me.


Only having a mountain bike. Taking a header on the beach. Getting stuck in transition. The bikes in transition were too close to each other, the isles were very narrow.


This was the Spring National Championship. I believe the overall male winner had a time of 54 min. There were a lot of guys that were 1:00:00 or better. It was a very fast race and a lot of good racers and a lot of fast bikes. My goal was to break 1:20:00 and I DID IT! My other goal was to get out of the swim and actually run to transition instead of walk. I DID IT! I had a good time! Met some fellow BT'ers, had my son there and a few friends cheering me on. It was a good day. My big toe on my right foot hurts. I'm sure it will for a bit, but I had a great race today!