Dewey Beach Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I made a huge mistake of swimming straight out for the first buoy. By the time I got there I had drifted 15 yards past it and had to swim against the current and 90 swimmers to get around the orange ball. I tried swimming straight - I sighted every 10th stroke, I alternated breathing from my left side (the side I'm comfortable breathing on - but the side facing out to sea) to my right side, but I was zig zagging pretty bad. Went out to sea once and had to be reigned inby a Kayak and went too far toward shore. Still passed a fair number of caps from the wave in front of me and a few from the wave in front off that. My guess is around 17 or 18 minutes for the half mile.

Start up-current from the buoy. Also try to conrtrol my adrenaline. I took off like a wild man when the horn sounded - I was clearly ahead of everyone in my wave for the first 75 yards, by 100 yards I thought I was going to drown - I pushed way too hard all the way through the race - especially on the swim - killed me on the run

The hardest part of the whole race was leaving the water and getting to my bike. I ran so hard to get out of the water and then sprinted across the beach and up and over the dunes, when I reached the top of the dune I heard a loud pounding in my ears - I thought "well this is it, I'm going to die right here doing my first triathlon!". coming down the dune I ralized the pounding was the AC/DC they were playing over the loud speakers - but I was still way out of breath from the dune crossing. Did I mention I weigh 265 lbs? running all the way ot the back to get my bike and then all the way to the fron to get on it was a big disadvantage.

I pulled the buckle right off my chin strap of my helmet I was so pumped up. I needed to calm down. My hands were shaking so bad it took , what seemed like - 20 minutes, to get the buckle re-threaded on the strap and get it on my head. Rough transition!

This was the easy part. I just stayed in the left side of the lane and rode past hundreds of cyclists. I was shocked by that since I was riding a beat-up 15 year old steel mountain bike - I didn't feel like I was going that fast- maybe because I was in the last wave of three waves of first time triathletes. I was passed by only one rider and he was on a fancy carbon tri-bike with aerobars, and I pretty much kept pace with him for the rest of the race, trying to stay back far enough so I wouldn't be drafting.

Buy a real bike, and loose enough weight to get in an aero position on it.

My bike doesn't have toe clips or clipless pedals or the like. Just regular old pedals - so I rode with my running shoes on - that helped the transition - especially since my rack was so far in the back.

I swallowed a Gu gel shot real quick before running - I think it made me cramp up. It was the first time I'd ever tried a gel shot (maybe not a good time to experiment with one) and I cramped up big time right after swallowing it. Next time I'll try new stuff before race day.

I was so pumped up with adrenaline I think I used up everything before the run began. That coupled with the cramping and the heat - I was miserable and slow. They were calling for rain, so I didn't have a hat - it was hot and sunny and not having a hat made it eve more misearble - but as soon as i saw that finish line - woo-hoo! I felt much better.

Loose weight, hydrate better - wear a hat

Not sure what that would be - Dogfish Head Brewery was a sponsor and they were pouring free beers for all racers - my warm-down was standing in line for a free pour (BTW, being in the last wave killed me on this one too - they ran our of beer before I could get one - Duhooow)


Being 6 feet 265 lbs (about 90 pounds over weight). Making rookie mistakes, pushing too hard up front.


What a great day - I finished! I finished 10 minutes behind the winner of the master clydesdale group - and finished ahead of most of the participants - better than I thought I'd do. I'm already planning my training to get ready for next season's races - Oly anyone?