Toyota U.S. Open Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

While waiting for my wave to start we saw a few people getting fished out of the water by the boats. It freaked out some of the girls in my wave and I tried to calm them down w/encouraging words. Fear can be contagious and I did not want any of that.

Start was a 6 person time trial start, and the first few groups ahead of me were slowly wading in waist deep before they started swimming. When it was our turn to go, I decided "F-it" I went running over the mat and dove in. I was so ready to get this swim on. I knew I had to pace myself correctly on the swim. Coming from a short distance swim background I have a tendecy to go all out in the first half and burn out the 2nd half. My main goal was to swim strong but make sure to sight well.

Going to the first buoy was rough but fun. The waves were pushing us to the right and back to the shore and in OWS I have a tendecy to veer to the right. Not only that but the waves were actually high enough that it was blocking my view of the 1st buoy. I would swim, ride a wave crest to see the 1st bouy. Repeated that about 3 times to see if I was even going the right direction. Dang...I was off by alot. I veered pretty bad to the right and off course. Had to get back on track. Fought through the waves and found a mass of swimmers. Once I started going the right direction again I started to pass a lot of swimmers. I picked my head up to sight and I was about to put my face back into the water when I suddenly looked down into the face of a guy. He must have flipped on his back and I didn't even see him because I was right on top. (Sorry! I didn't mean to dude!) I felt so bad b/c I could see the panic in his eyes. After rounding the 1st bouy it was alot easier. I found my rhythm and made sure to sight a little more frequently. Coming around the 2nd bouy I found my self side by side a bunch of swimmers. We were all coming into the swim finish together and at the same pace so we were all crowded around each other. I knew I didn't want to drop back and get kicked in the face so I made sure to keep my ground. Oh snap! Is that someone trying to grab my ankle to pull me back? Oh hellz no, turbo kick on......

I sight terriblely in OWS. I rely on the black line so much as a pool swimmer. I need to really work on sighting moving forward. Also, I have a very weak right side. Something is off on my stroke, but I will be getting that fixed today in my underwater film session with Texas Triple Threat. Overall, with the conditions and how badly I veered off I felt that it was a pretty good swim for me. My main goal was to not go balls to the wall the first half and die the 2nd half and I didn't. I felt strong to the swim finish.

I had an epic T-1. I was a littly wobbly coming out of the water, forgot going horizontal to vertical quickly made me woozy. Oops, memo to self. Had to grab on to the railing for a few seconds. Got goggles and caps off ok, left them in the wetsuit arm sleeves but getting the wetsuit off my legs was another story. Still a little wobbly and shivering really badly I struggled with my wetsuit off dance. Almost fell and busted my a$$. I was getting frustrated and my HR was starting to climb on top of all this. I knew it was just going to get worse if I kept fumbling so I decided to take my time. Dried off best I could, rolled arm warmers, compression socks on and threw on a cycling vest to try to keep my chest/core warm. Worried about my asthma in this weather. Finally got helmet, sunglasses, and shoes on. Threw towel and wetsuit in trashbag.

More practice transitioning. I didn't really start practicing until the week leading into the race. Big mistake. Lost alot of ground with wasted time here.

Took my time mounting the bike, and took it easy first few miles. I knew we had 2 really killer hills after the dam so I was taking it easy. That long hill was a M F'er. After we got through the 2 hard hills I started to increase my speed. This is where I surprised myself a bit, I was actually passing people up.....even guys! I honestly thought I would be getting passed up left and right. I wasn't pushing it as hard as I should have but I was very nervous about the slick roads and crashing. I've crashed twice this year and have a healthy dose of fear of putting the bike down so I chose to ride very conservatively overall. Not only that, but I knew my death shuffle was coming up.

Happy no accidents, so not sure if I should say to push the pace harder even knowing that I could have. Considering all of the conditions I'll take it and say this was a good ride for me.

Coming off the bike was comical for the spectators I'm sure. I got off the bike and started stumbling with my bike because I couldn't feel my legs, feet or hands at all they were numb and frozen. Started leaning to the left and swerving all over the place. Got to my rack spot A*K*A swim #2 and fished my plastic bag out of the pond. My hands were not cooperating and had a hard time getting helmet, cycle shoes off and running shoes on and tied. Fumbled alot.

Practice, practice, practice! Once again I lost alot of time here because I didn't practice until week leading up to race.

Time for my death shuffle..... This is my HUGE weakness and I know it. Coming out of T-2 I knew I had to just race my pace no matter how many were passing me up. I knew I had to control my breathing and HR as much as possible or my asthma would rear it's ugly head and I would be in big trouble. My goal was to run the entire 5K and just enjoy it as much as possible. I still couldn't feel my feet, legs and hands but I knew to just keep moving. As much as I hate running I had so much fun seeing TTT coaches/teamates and friends on the sidelines cheering me on. I was hurting but I couldn't help but to smile and crack smart a$$ comments along the way. I honestly just ran my pace and encouraged TTT members who I saw coming on their way out who were rocking the 10k Oly run. About a mile into the run my body was not numb any longer. My back was on fire, my legs were felt like bricks and stomach was starting to cramp. I wanted to walk so badly, but I didn't, I just kept my little death shuffle along and was so relieved to see the finish line coming ahead. I picked up my pace the last few hundred yards and put on my biggest smile coming across the finish line.

Run more X 1,000,000. Glad I was able to run the entire 5k, but it sure wasn't fast or pretty. Will be going into a half mary program to bring run volume up.

Drank sports drink, ate oranges, bananas, and protien bars. Hung out a bit and got lots of hugs from TTT team members and friends. Just awesomeness all around. Riding the post race adrenline high!


I'm really happy with my swim and bike considering the crappy weather, lake and road conditions. Transitions and run ate up alot of time but this was my first tri so now I have something to base off of and work on.


Can't really compare to anything else but I had the time of my life even in the rain and cold.