Emerald Pointe Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I never trained open water swim so I didn't know what to expect. Turns out it's a lot different than pool swimming. I found this out when I did maybe 30 yards of warm-up swimming and managed to collide into the only other person doing warm-up swimming in my area. I had no pre-set strategy of how to survive the start. When the start was sounded and the salmon started to splash around I found that I could maintain my little niche in this school of fish by swimming a basic crawl stroke but keeping my head out of the water to monitor where my competitors were. I did this most of the way to the first buoy because competitors were so densely packed. After the first buoy it thinned out significantly and I could get into my stroke somewhat but I was surprised how much energy I had spent getting there. I got into a rhythm the rest of the way where I would do about 9 strokes on a 3 stroke alternating breathing pattern and then take 1 breaststroke to spot and make sure I was on course. I was somewhat surprised to find that for the most part I wasn't drifting TOO much. This rhythm wasn't too fast but it was relatively comfortable and I got out with ease. I do wonder what my actual swim time was because this time included climbing that MONSTER post-swim hill. I intended to run up the hill but if you've done this race you understand why I ended up walking 1/4 - 1/2 of it.

On the next one, assuming I'm in better shape after training more than 11 weeks, I may try to start from either the outside or the inside edge of the pack and try to race to get to buoy 1 first so that I can be in the front of the pack after turn 1. For a first attempt I didn't think I did too terribly on the swim though.

My T1 was pretty OK. I didn't have a wetsuit, and considering how comfortable I am in 71 degree water, I can't imagine I'll ever use one on a sprint tri. Got to the T area, dried my feet, threw on my shirt and pulled my already rolled up socks on. Slipped on my bike shoes clipped on the helmet, grabbed my bike and struggled to get my sunglasses on. There was NO way I was going to attempt to mount the bike without my shoes on - that would = crash. Besides, I had a convenient front-of-transition location. I hopped on and was able to get my cleats into my pedals faster than usual.

I guess just do everything I did faster - I'm quite slow at dressing myself in normal conditions so this isn't bad for me. If I get a LOT faster at the individual events, maybe I'll consider trying to do the bike-shoes-already-clipped thing. For now it's just not worth the risk.

I bought my bike this summer on craigslist used, and it's about 8-10 years old. This is most evident in my rear shifter that is going bad. For the first 3 miles of the bike ride, no matter how I pushed it, and in spite of screaming and cursing (sorry if you heard me!) I could not get the rear gear to shift. At all.

Fortunately it got (a little) better once we got out of the Emerald Pointe park, but then I got to the first big hill and I accidentally put my rear shifter in its dead zone, gear 8 (it's only an 8 gear cassette) where there's no guarantee I'll ever get out and the gears randomly shift between 7 and 8. Again, I'm cursing, and pushing the gear lever furiously the whole way up the hill. When I finally mounted the hill miraculously the gear finally clicked permanently out of 8 and from there on I was able to avoid my dead zone and have better (though still bad) response out of my rear shifter.

Apart from that my ride was good. I almost missed the first turn because nobody was saying to turn there - I thought that they were just standing there because it was an intersection. I was most of the way past the street when they screamed "TURN HERE!!" and I was able to dive onto the road at the last second.

I was also amazed at the sound of riders with disk wheels - truly awesome. I got passed by about 10 million 30-somethings but not many of my own age group, and I passed some of my fellow age groupers. I finished the ride strong and hooping and hollering. I was having FUN and feeling FAST!

Buy a $9000 bike. Just kidding, but if someone wants to DONATE me one (say a FELT DA TT/Tri bike for example) I'd be MORE than happy to take it. In the meantime I'll just buy a 8-speed Sora (the only one available in 8-speed) rear shifter.

I guess due to the delerium from the bike portion, I had trouble racking my bike here. It shouldn't take almost 2 minutes to put on running shoes, a hat, and shorts (with my number pinned on) but apparently it did.

Maybe get a race belt instead of shorts? But all around be faster. Find a bar somewhere and practice putting my bike seat on it.

Well, it was what I expected. I am a BAAAD runner. It's not that I went too hard on the bike - I actually did about as well as I ever do on a run. That first mile after the bike transition is SOOOO hard. My legs feel like bricks and especially the tendons in my hips get really hot and sore from trying to drag them along. I was downright depressed when I thought I had gone a long way and then I saw the sign that said 1 mile. I started feeling better around the turn and when I got back to the water station I was downright chipper. My mood and my running both got better as I continued on, except for a pretty bad side cramp that I ran through. About 2.5 miles in I got passed by a guy with 60 written on his calf. Mad props to whoever you are. I shouted "Awesome, man! You are a badass!" at him as he pulled away from me. I expected him to respond "I know" but he was in the Zone and probably didn't even hear me.
Rounding the final turn and running up the hill to the T area and the finish line felt so good as did the cheering and seeing my beautiful wife. I felt like I had all the energy in the world. I flashed a pose for her picture and then I kicked out a good sprint for the last 50 yards or so. Then they were trying to stop me to take my chip and suddenly I felt not-so-good. I almost fell over with dizziness while they took my chip but felt better when I was walking again.

I obviously just need to train more and better. Running sucks, but until triathlon replaces it with street luging, I've got to do it. Maybe next time I'll do a cart-wheel across the timing pad. On second thought, that's probably a bad idea.

I drank water and gatorade, and more water. I poured water over my head trying to cool it down. After about a bottle of water had been poured over my head it finally started to feel cool and I started feeling like myself again - somewhat. Chatted with Amy and the friend that she had made who was also watching her husband finish. He had finished before me and was kind enough to cheer me on. It was good to hear several voices cheering me on by name when I thought only Amy knew my name.


Ummm... being a sucky runner. Having an old bike with a bad shifter. I'd probably also be a little faster if I weighed less, had trained more, and knew how to change clothes quickly. All-in-all I'm pleased with how fast I did for my first tri - though I REALLY wanted to finish in the top half of my age group.


GREAT GREAT GREAT race. It was my first, so I don't have anything to compare it to but I was MORE than impressed with how well everything was organized. I can't give the organizers more praise. The only knock was not starting on time. I felt very safe the entire time - they said the course was open to traffic but I didn't get passed by a car the entire time. Thank you so much Jim Rainey and Georgia Multisports Productions.