Savannah Sprint Triathlon Series - TriathlonSprint

This was my first tri and it showed. I had trained a lot on the swim as I knew that was the only part that I couldn’t stop and rest so I respected it more than the other two portions. Well, good thing. Standing at the starting line I realized i was one of three guys with no wetsuit (oops). That was my first mistake. The second mistake was starting in the middle of the pack. I got kicked more than i was ready for and instantly realized that was a blunder and slowed so everyone could pass me. After the group got by i got in my groove and started making some progress. This is where the third mistake came in which was forgetting to sight...the next thing I know my head hits the kayak guys ore who is protecting me from swimming too far right (towards shore). I look up and he says ”wrong way"..."you need to go that way" as he points to everyone else (75 yards away now). By that time i was so upset with myself that I almost panicked. The water was cold--making it already hard to breathe and now I have just added another 150 yards to my swim. To make things worse the cold water made my goggles fog badly. Anyway, i managed to make it around the buoys and get back in an awful 13 minutes. I will say about the wetsuit thing that I passed many people in transition that were fighting with their wetsuits.

Sight, start at the back of the pack and pass people if I can, make sure I have some non fog stuff on my goggles and wear a wetsuite.

I have never been so happy to get on my bike. The course was fast and flat as described. I passed several aero heads and only got passed by three guys. I felt like I had a good bike for me. Next year I would like to get my speed up in the 20mph range. This is definitely all I had though and I am satisfied with it.

train more.

Ok, by this point my legs were shot and this was all pride. I wanted to at least run a 10 minute mile and I would have done that easily if my hamstring didn’t ball up 300 yards from the finish. I was amazed at how paralyzing it was.. and as I bent down to stretch it my abdomen cramped. At that point I fell on the ground and straightened my body to stretch my abdomen and my hamstring locked up again. Thoughts of not being able to finish so close to the finish flashed through my mind...I was basically paralyzed. After about 30 seconds (I must have looked like I was having a heart attack) the cramps subsided and I hobbled to the finish line. This was a very rewarding experience and I will definitely do many more.

more fluid/ electrolytes/ potassium and train more for the run.

Great race and nice people. I thought it was well organized.