Twin Rivers Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The lake we used is actually private property. There is a boat sales company right next to the lake. They probably use the lake for test rides and diagnosing problems. Since there are a number of hidden cracks and dropoffs on the boat ramp, it was decided to have everyone start in the water instead of whatever they were planning.

I didn't get bumped around nearly as much as I thought I would. I bumped into a few people along the way and even accidently grabbed some guy's ass at one point.

There were four buoys in the corners of the diamond. It wasn't nearly as congested by the time that we reached the first buoy. We had spread out enough that you didn't have to worry about hitting anyone anymore. I kept in freestyle for the first two lengths, then did about 20 seconds of breaststroke between the second and third buoys so I could catch my breath a bit. I then returned to freestyle until the third buoy where I decided to switch to breaststroke that whole length. The fourth buoy was actually a set of two buoys that you had to swim between. This is so that you wouldn't run into the rocks on the side and also to guide you to the boat ramp. Once I hit that I freestyled in the last 50 yards. One of the volunteers picked a bunch of seaweed off me as I was standing up. I hadn't even noticed it.

I had only breathed that hard after a swim once. The water felt nice and cool. I don't own a wetsuit, but maybe a third of the people were wearing them.

Train more so I don't have to go to breaststroke.

Because the swim was on private property, we had a bit of a run to get to transition. A lot of people brought over some shoes to the boat ramp so that they don't have to run barefoot over a bunch of gravel. Mine were also there, good thing I brought my slip on shoes as my non racing shoes. The run was definitely a quarter mile, maybe even a half, but that is probably stretching it. Breathing hard the whole way but I caught a couple people during the run. I felt like I was very efficient during the transition. Ran to the mount line with the bike, stopped, got on, and away I went.

Nothing

I was pushing hard on the bike, I probably passed about 25 people on the ride, and was only passed by about 5. The out portion I was probably averaging 24mph. Didn't feel like any wind, but there was some on the back portion. Probably averaged 20 on the return trip.

It was an open course, so we had cars coming in and out a number of times. I got stuck behind an SUV at one point. The SUV couldn't get around the biker in front of it. The driver couldn't get around because of oncoming car and bike traffic. I thought about trying to pass the SUV but decided against it. I didn't think it would be very safe. There wasn't enough room on the right without going off the road, and because of the oncoming traffic I couldn't go around on the left. I had to slow down to 15mph for probably 45 seconds. This was right before the turnaround which was being patrolled by a cop. The turnaround was right next to a convenience store. So, he made the SUV stop. The bicyclists would go wide into the parking lot and do a U-turn onto the other side of the road. You don't have to lose a ton of speed doing it this way.

Nothing, the car problem happened to several people, just one of the perils of racing on an open course, I guess.

T2 was more of an adventure for me. Got the bike racked quickly. Sucked down some more water leftover from the ride, dropped the Camelback quickly, switched shoes quickly, but then I ran into a few minor problems. I took off about 2 or three steps before realizing I still had my helmet on. Went back, took the helmet off, and readjusted my glasses. Took off and determined about ten seconds later that I still had my gloves on. Oh well, I thought, I'll just stick them in my shirt pockets.

These problems weren't that big of a deal.

Remember to take off all the bike stuff.

It warmed up considerably sometime between the start of the race and the start of the run. I couldn't run as fast I wanted to just because of the exhaustion that I had. Tried to push it a bit more once or twice, but it just wasn't happening. Just need more training. I gave back a number of spots that I picked up during the bike.

Weigh less, train more

None, talk to my rackmates.


Not enough training


They had a lot of problems getting the times accumulated right. The actuary in me just wants to write them an Excel file to make things a lot easier for them.