Sportspectrum River Cities Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Start was bad. Before the first buoy I almost hit a kayak. Oops. Got back on track and pretty much swam solo until the turn from home. On the way back I finally found some feet and stayed on them until I could stand.

Felt like I was a lot faster than 1:55. Not sure how far up the timing mat was from the water.

Draft earlier.

Decent transition with no major screwups.

Mount the shoes.

Hammerfest. There weren't too many folks on the road since I was in the 2nd wave (first wave was the Elites), so it was kind of quiet. Probably about even on the number of folks I passed and those that passed me. Did catch two of the elites, which was a good feeling.

Use the aerobottle to save time when drinking

Remember to unbuckle my helmet while running. Last race it stuck and I lost some time. No problem today.

Ride on top and swoop in rather than a screeching halt and clippity clopping.

First mile was really good. Passed 5, including 2 elites. Mile 2 I got a stitch in my side which really annoyed me. Not as much as what happened next. At the end of mile 2 we ran a trail portion, which was very muddy thanks to the monsoon. I'm still a little careful having broken my foot 2 months or so ago so I slowed down a lot here. If dry I could have gone faster.

Left the trail about 5 seconds behind a guy with a similar pace as me, so I just put my head down and followed him. About 1/2 a mile from the finish we were directed down a road by some volunteer that didn't know what they were doing. When we started meeting people we had already passed we knew something was up. So we turned around, passed them again, and headed for home.

I was not happy about that, but I was almost done. A few minute later I saw the Sport Spectrum arch right by the road, crossed under and passed over the timing mats. Done. Why is Shannon yelling at me? Oh, that wasn't the finish line. Those mats were there for the announcer to call peoples' names before they finished. Didn't remember seeing anything about that in the packet.

Still frustrated, even more so now, I jogged the rest of the way in. Luckily nobody passed me. Apparently this happened to a lot of folks too.

Not go the wrong way, not stop early.

Got my finisher's canteen, which was a nice change from another medal, drank lots of water, several free beers, a hot dog, a banana, more water, more beer.

Stretched for about 20 minutes at the false finish line and yelled at people to keep running.

Then hung around for a couple of hours waiting for AG results. I don't understand why Atomic Racing Systems doesn't post your AG ranking when they do the prelim results. I counted that I was 9th in my AG, but I had no idea how many of those were in the elite wave. I was hoping that 5 of those ahead of me had done the elite wave. Sadly only 3 did. Trophies went down to 4th place in my AG. Rats. Not that I had planned to place, but it would have been sweet.


Swim - drafting
Bike - the engine
Run - course knowledge and bad advice from volunteers


Good swim course, one of the best bike courses I've ever seen, and a pretty challenging run course. More expensive than a normal sprint, but the swag you get is worth it. Excellent race.

Just don't go the wrong way on the run or stop too soon. :)