Milton Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

The swim is my weakest sport and as a result I had quite a few butterflies in my stomach prior to the event. Was I going to have those "oh God, is this over yet" moments? Was I going to be panting the whole way? Having never completed this distance in a race I really had no clue.

I'm happy to say that I did it. I didn't pant. I didn't have an "oh God!" moment either. I dropped about a minute/100m since my last triathlon about 10 months ago. Oh sure, I'm not the fastest one out there but I'm happy with my results!

Towards the second half of the course I wasn't sighting enough and kept going off course which added to the distance I swam. Definitely need to work on that.

I was a bit slow taking my wetsuit off.

On the Tuesday prior to this race I picked up my first ever Tri bike, a Cervélo P2-SL Pro. Having only ridden it for about 20km prior to the weekend I decided to go out for a nice and slow 75km ride on Saturday, the day before the race. What was I thinking?

I promised myself that I would ride at an easy Z1 pace. Well that good intention lasted about 2 minutes; after that it was push push push. I just couldn't help myself. The P2 felt so good and I was able to put power down so easily. What was I thinking?

I've heard that the Milton bike course is a hilly one. The major hill that everyone was talking about was 6th Line Rd, a 1.4km climb. I'm not what the grade of the climb is, but it's steep; everyone was huffing and puffing and there were quite a few walkers as well. Between the fatigue left over in my legs from Saturday's ride and this tough climb, I was pretty much done. Every hill hurt. Still, I managed to carry quite a good overall speed and I made up a long of ground on other competitors. I love my Cervélo.

Don't kill my legs in the days leading up to a race!

It wasn't enough that I was hurting on the bike, it's on the run course where my fatigue from Saturday's ride really set in. I struggled with cramping in my right quad through the entire run.

I tried running through it but it just wouldn't go away and eventually I had to walk and massage my right leg since the pain was pretty bad. I had to do this a couple of times throughout the run.

The water stations were manned by kids (I assume from local schools) and at the last station the kids were shouting, "Who wants a splash? Who wants a splash?" These kids wanted to have some fun and throw water at people but no one was biting so I though, aw hell, let them have some fun so I yelled to one kid to go ahead and splash me. Well, he wound up both arms and with all his might he flung two full cups of water right in my face. It bloody hurt! Damn! Oh well, at least he got a kick out of it. Love the volunteers!

Don't kill my legs in the days leading up to a race!

My hard headedness which cause me to take my bike out on a long ride the day before the race and give it all I've got. What was I thinking?!!!


On the way up to the event I was thinking that as much as I love training (and I really do) did I really want/need to actually compete in races? Having not competed in a triathlon for 10 months I forgot what it was like. Well after the event, I had my answer. YES I DO. I loved every painful minute of it and was smiling form the finish line all the way home.

While my age group placing is mediocre my overall placing was average and I'm okay with that. Since my last event, my swim pace improved by over a minute per 100m, my bike pacing improved despite the massive climbs and tired legs and my run was still decent despite having to stop several times due to bad cramping.

I love this sport!!!