Heart of the Highlands Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

The swim is supposed to be my strong sport and while I can't complain about being out of the water in 6th place, I didn't feel good in the water at all. I couldn't see the buoys at all until close to them so I had to assume the group in front of me knew where they were going - fortunately they did. My intention for the swim was to go comfortably hard and I just never really got into that groove. I think I just need to swim in the wetsuit in open water more often.

Maybe try to get on the feet of the faster group in front of me early on and draft, might have saved me a little time and effort.

T1 time is included with the bike time and there was also about a 400m run from the water to the transition zone. I had my birkenstocks at the water exit to run with to T1 and that was a big mistake. I couldn't really run in them and it cost me a lot of time - 3 people passed me during that short run. I was also a little slow and deliberate once I got to the bike. I didn't want to make a stupid mistake.

- Have better shoes at the water exit to run with.
- Practice transitions more

The time includes the run from the water and T1. Pace from my computer said 31.4 km/hr. I was a little worried about what the hills would be like but after driving the course the afternoon before, I wasn't nearly as worried. Only one bad hill right after the turnaround. I felt really good during the entire ride. I pushed pretty hard and only struggled on the one hill but everyone I saw on it was going slow - except one guy that passed me at the bottom of it and he stood up the whole climb and put quite a bit of distance from me.

Not much.

T2 time is included in the run. Again, I was pretty deliberate so as not to do anything stupid.

Practice? Learning to run without socks and getting laces I don't need to tie would help too.

Time includes T2 - was probably just over 25 mins actual run time.

Man, I suck at running. The course was very hilly - first km was uphill just about the whole way and I had a hard time getting into a groove. Had to stop once to re-tie my shoelace. One guy passed me right at the start and that was it until about 200m from the finish I could hear someone flying up behind me and I knew based on what I was hearing that there was no way I was going to hold him off so I just let him go.

I don't think there was anything I could do differently at the time, I just need to run more to get faster.

Nothing much, packed up my gear and headed back to the cottage to have a shower before the BBQ


I think the two and a half weeks in France hurt me. I was under-prepared for the swim as I had barely been in the water for the month before the race. My sucky run held me back too but I am constantly improving there so I will just have to be patient and it will come.


Things started a little bit late but I think it was because they had quite a few more participants than they usually get. Other than that, things seemed to go really well and I would definitely do it again.