US Women's Racing Series - Naperville Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I re-learned how to swim back in September and felt pretty good about the swim, as long as I could stay calm. But I knew it was going to be awful since it was my first swim with so many people. Ugh! I got pummelled. I'm actually a pretty straight swimmer, but no one else was, and i got swum over several times. When I could get a clear path, I passed people, but mostly I ended up doing sidestroke and breaststroke becasue every time I put my head in the water someone seemed to kick it! I also need to work on not freaking out when I can't see the bottom. OWS is not something I plan on doing a lot of but maybe I can practice more this year.

This was by far a much faster time than I can do in the pool (about 19 min) but I've heard this is actually a much shorter distance than it's supposed to be, so i'm not surprised by my 16 min time.

I just need practice in OWS and race situations--I'm sure that will come in time. Right now my goal is not to be fast, but to be comfortable in the water.

I'm still not ready to go with clips on the bike so I had to put my shoes on, which went well. I did take extra time to put on my HR monitor as I need to be cognizant of my HR on the bike so I'd have something for the run. I was proud of how efficient I was. Only problem: the barefoot (long) run from the swim to the bike. My feet can't take it! I hobbled. Once the shoes were on I was able to run the bike to the transition, at which point I had to stop to get on.

Need to practice bike mount. Clips are my goal for next year.

This is my fastest bike time yet! My normal course is very hilly so I flew on these flat roads. Most proud: my cadence was 100% consistent, I'm finally getting the hang of the gears so I was able to keep switching gears to keep that cadence the same. Passed almost all the people in my wave who had finished the swim ahead of me. I'm used to doing a two loop course on my long bike day so I was aware of what i needed to save on that first loop to be able to do the second.

Really need to practice drinking on the bike! I was beyond happy with the bike portion of the race. I know speed will come in time, this is a new bike (I haven't owned one in 10 years) and with our crummy weather, have only been able to get out and ride since mid-may. Can't wait to see what my speed is this time next year.

Very smooth transition, had decreased my resistance on the bike so when I got off I didn't cramp up or get wobbly. Glad to have done all those bricks! I did put a shirt on which did take about 30 seconds, since no race belt and wanted to wear t-shirt with obnoxious saying.

Learn to dismount while moving.

I had a stress fracture in December and was in an airboot until end of February. I wasn't able to start running without pain until the beginning of May. I'm not actually up to a 5k distance yet in training, and I didn't want to reinjure myself, so I was very careful with the run. (Plus when I do run, I find the smaller steps I take, the less pain I have, so I'm really, really slow.) I walked for a while with a woman from an earlier wave who was really struggling. Overall I ran about 25-30 of the total minutes which is about what I'm doing in training, and that was my goal. Foot hurt after, but it's fine now. I did sprint the last 100 feet or so.

I need to learn how to drink while running! There's not a lot I can do right now about my run speed, but hopefully I will improve over time. I'm actually shocked I finished in 41. I thought I would be a lot slower than that!

Cried, walked, stretched. Ate a banana.


It's just training base. I was a complete couch potato this time last year. Plus being out of training from Dec-Feb (was able to do some swimming, but biking hurt a lot) didn't help either. I've already shown a ton of improvement in the past month so I'm happy!


Not enought toilets. Totally unprepared when it came to parking, both for the race and for the Saturday expo. But race was really fun, very supportive. This is my first, and I wanted to enjoy it--I probably could have pushed harder but as it was I was able to enjoy the day, enjoy the spectators, cheer on my fellow athletes, and reflect on the fact I was doing a triathlon! Plus, if I'd been running really fast, I would have missed seeing the chipmunk who ran along with me during the portion of the run along the riverwalk. I'm definitely doing this race again next year!