Lowell Mill City Tri - TriathlonSprint

i finished the swim faster than i expected for my first Tri. the upstream took more out of me than i expected. Race Director told everyone before the race that the current was stronger than usual. Tired on the return trip but according to family & friends i was crusing on the way back (the current helps).

more OWS training. most of my training had been pools. OWS is obviously very different experience. and try not to get sick during the week leading up to the race!
i would also try to do a little more drafting. i've never swam with anyone during training so i was uncomfortable drafting so i only did it for about 1 minute

I got up to speed quickly but i had more trouble than i expected getting my feet into my shoes (they were already clipped in when i started). i pushed the tounge of the shoes down too much when i first started riding on top of my shoes out of T1 and i took a few extra seconds trying to pull them back up to slip my feet in

Should have started taking off wetsuit much earlier. i had my arms out when coming up the beach and crossing the street, but didn't start pulling it down more until i was at my bike.

Did well on the bike. rode with a decent pace. Could have gone faster but being my first Tri, i didn't know how much i needed to save for the run - as it turns out i needed more energy for the run.

practice more hill training. slowed too much on some hills.

slow to get my running shoes on, but otherwise good T2. racked the bike, put on the shoes, grabbed my hat and took off.

shoes were tied too tight with the zip laces. i would loosen them for the next race so my feet get in more quckly.

wish there was some shade on the run. the sun was tough. run was very slow for my liking. taking the final week off from training (due to the illness) had a very negative effect on my run time.

train for a longer distance and run more bricks after bike training.

walked straight to the river, took off the shoes and took a nice cool down soak for 5 minutes, joined by a handful of others who finished @ the same time. At 68 degrees the water felt great!! Ihen grabbed a couple orange slices and some Orange Vitamin Water. chatted with family while walking around for a couple minutes. Cleaned up my transition area and loaded the car for the drive home


being sick leading up to the race and not training during the final pre-race week hurt a lot. Mostly hurt the run (as evident in my time).


Good set up. the people were friendly and there were a lot of volunteers helping out. the race went smoothly throughout. A couple more water stations on the run would have been helpful, and afew other racers shared that sentiment with me afterward.
the post race activities were non-existent. i dont know what typically happens after most races but there was nothing happening after this one. the food/drinks were helpful but that was about it.