Firecracker Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Not too much to say about the swim, other than it was absolutley horrible. At the end of the race brief the ref said. " the swim will start in about 5 minutes." About 3 minutes later, everyone is kinda mingling on the beach waiting to get into position, when all of the sudden, BANG! the gun goes off! No warning that I or my girlfriend heard at all. I scramble to get my goggles on and start my watch as I'm running for the water.
Once I get in the water and start moving I can't believe how rough the water is. It was so bad, I remember saying to myself, "when are they going to make this a duathlon?" I could only sight when I was on the wave peak. The swells must have been 3-6 feet.
Once I made the trun into shore I thought it would be easier. Boy was I wrong! The waves had an uncanny knack of breaking over me at the exact same cadence I was trying to breath. It seemed like every breath was met with a wall of foam in the face. One hit my so unexpectantly that I had to stand up and catch my breath as I puked out water (it was that shallow).

Not swim this race.

Not my best T1, but nothing went horribly wrong. It was a longish run from the swim timing mat to my bike, but not too bad. I was dragging a little from the beating the ocean gave me.

Nothing.

I had a little trouble starting out. I couldn't seem to get my feet in my shoes and my legs felt dead. I didn't feel a headwind on the outbound leg, but I know I was working hard to maintain 19-20 MPH. Once I turned downwind I was able to pick up the speed.
My trouble in this entire race started right before the halfway point of the bike, I just didn't know it yet. I spotted a guy in an orange jersey from a local tri team that I thought I could pick off. I managed to pass him a little before the U-turn, but he turned tighter than me and got ahead of me again. That seemed to set the mood for the rest of the bike. We played tag all the way back in to transition. I would pass him and a few minutes later he would pass me. I don't know how careful he was about drafting, but I know I was. I noticed quite a few people blatently drafting and I remember telling myself, "keep your distance". Anyways, long stroy short, he ended up just ahead of me into transition.

Nothing, I had a pretty decent bike for me.

Not too many problems here, had to pass a guy n the chute that was a much faster biker than a runner.

Nothing

I managed to get out of T2 ahead of orange jersey guy. I started a little shaky, but got up to speed pretty quickly. I was a little worried that I gave too much on the bike playing tag, but I settled down. After the turn and a little ice water on the head, I was able to turn up the speed and started passing a few people.

Not my fastest run, but I ran strong. I think I balanced my run and bike the best yet at this race.

Not much, walked to the truck and changed out of my soaked clothes while I waited on Heidi to finish.


nothing


I'm not really sure how to finish this race report. I'm still a little ticked, even after a couple of glasses of wine. I would have won my age group and placed 12th overall instead of 19th, but.....I got a penalty. Apparently the USAT ref thought the tag that orange jersey and I was playing on the bike, constituted an overtaking penalty. Both of us received a 2 minute penalty. The funny thing was, I never once saw the ref during the bike. Where was he and why didn't he say something?
The first time I realized I had a penalty was when I was looking at the race results printed out on the side of the trailer. As soon as I noticed it, I went looking for the ref. I had no idea why I got a penaly. He stated that it was an overtaking penalty, I didn't drop back far enough when passed. Same thing for the orange jersey, he got the same. The ref said, " I knew you didn't know the rule." ( I knew it, and I complied). I said, "I know the rule and I followed it. But I'm not going to argue with you." I just walked away at that point, no sense arguing. He was doing what he thought was right and arguing would have been pointless. The 2 minutes cost me first place, but what can you do?