Pelican Fest Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Swim? Hardly. I wasn't nervous about the start at all like I thought I was going to be since this was my first tri and I have only been swimming consistently for about 2 months. My plan was to stay at the back and to the outside right (going into the left turn) so I could make a wide outside sweep of the first buoy and avoid all the thrashing around. This plan didn't work because there were buoys paralell to the shore that marked off the swim beach that ended to the right of the first buoy, so everyone had to pinch in to get to the first turn (at least it felt that way - maybe it was wider than I remember). So I just went for it and tried to swim through all the chaos. Right in the middle of going around the buoy I got swamped, my goggles jacked and inhaled mass water. It took me a while to recover from that (and only after hanging on to a floatie provided by the rescue kayak). I proceeded to alternate between side stroke, back stoke and crawl swimming every which way but straight and several times questioned why I signed up for this, all the while continuing to swallow/inhale more water. I contemplated at least once flagging the boat to get out but it was no where in sight so I gave up that thought. Eventually I got in a groove of crawl a few strokes, backstroke a few strokes, sidestroke a few, etc and just concentrated on each buoy and next thing I know I was done. I really thought I was out there for 45 minutes, not 27. I had figured the swim would take me 20 minutes so overall it wasn't as horrible as it felt while I was in the water.

I need to swim A LOT more.

The person(s) who racked their bike next to mine was in the relay and the woman waiting around for her bike partner to show up started chatting me up about my bike setup/Garmin while in the middle of transition. I didn't wear my top under my wetsuit and putting it on wet was a disaster, combined with trying to be polite and talk to this lady. Then I got stuck behind two old folks (60 and 54 respectively) going on a liesurely stroll two wide out of transition. I wasn't sure what the protocol was for passing so I used the time to get my breathing back to something close to normal. Of course then I had to get around them once I got on the bike course.

Swim better and not be in this position....

Ate a Gu and took a sip of water (I drank plenty on the swim) as soon as I got on the bike. The bike seemed easy enough, I wasn't sure how hard I could push since I had no idea how/when the flailing in the water was going to catch up with me. I'm not sure how many people I passed on the bike, but it seemed like a lot. I forgot to switch data fields on my Garmin so I had heart rate (which was useless because I chose not to wear my monitor) cadence and distance. I needed MPH so I really didn't know where I was on my speed. The end of the bike goes on the sidewalk then back on a road and I wasn't sure about the course so I slowed down a little too much the last 1/2 mile.

Swim better, set my Garmin up correctly.

Same lady trying to chat me up again - her relay partner was still not back from the bike. She was kind enough to say "Wow you're done already! Great bike ride!"

Not much - maybe run a little harder off the bike through transition and carry my stuff(race belt/visor etc) instead of putting it on in transition. Saw Brian going the other way on the run when I was leaving transition, saw Drew shortly after that going the other way also.

I started getting a cramp/stitch in my side at the start of the bike (no doubt from my antics in the swim portion) and it continued to get worse so at the start of the run I was really feeling it and had difficult getting my breathing dialed in. Other than that, I felt good on the run and probably good have pushed a little harder absent the stitch. Again, Garmin was useless except for the distance data. I looked down at it early in the run and saw 10.10 and thought "holy h*ll I am going backwards here!" then I remembered I only had distance and not pace on the Garmin... So I ran without knowing my pace or heart rate. Right before the final little loop before the finish I saw my wife, kids and Brian which was really great because up to that point I felt like I was out there totally on my own (which was basically the case with only 19 people having a slower swim time....)

Set my Garmin up right.

Ran through the shute and Brian waived me down, found the family and hung out on the grass and got food/drink provided by one of the sponsors. Then it started to rain, so Brian and I walked back to transition, got our gear, left and met the family for breakfast.


My swimming.


I guess not too bad for my first ever event. I need a training plan to follow instead of a few bikes and a few swims 2 months before.