XTerra Buffalo Springs Short Course Triathlon - TriathlonShort Course

Seemed like we waited ages for the short course start while the pro's and full Xterra racers started before us, but in reality though I think we started ahead of the scheduled start time. We lined up on the shore and watched the full course racers start their second laps. A couple of people were not wearing wetsuits and they all received big cheers as they started their second lap. Don't know which group or track but they played a song over the PA system that had the words "don't let me drown" which I found amusing!! :) I positioned myself to the back and outside right of the field as I anticipated I would be slower than most and this was also my first mass start along with my first Xterra. When the horn sounded waded in and set of. Immediately realized that I was caught up in with slower swimmers and had trouble getting around them. Had to stop a couple times to work out a path through everyone. Got thumped in the face, one guy came across in front of me horizontally and was also kicked in the face by a guy doing breaststroke all before the first buoy! I was unable to get any sort of rhythm going. Turned the first buoy and then went wide right to try and avoid other swimmers. People started to spread out between the two buoys and on turning the second buoy I found myself in open water. Was able to get my stroke going without interruption and was feeling good. Knew I had lost some time so only sighted every ten strokes or so. Seemed like the shore was not getting any closer and had to make some adjustments as I was going slightly to the right shore rather than straight. And then I could feel the bottom of the lake at which point I stood up. When I looked at my watch as I started running I was really pleased!! 18 mins!! All the masters swim training through the winter and spring has paid off. I had been anticipating 20 to 22 mins. Did not have to breaststroke and did not freak out so those were all plus things from the race. Official timing had me at 18' 22".

I felt pretty good coming out of the water so think I could have gone a little harder. Also maybe start nearer the front.

Struggled to get my wetsuit unzipped and was half way to my bike rack before I could get it around my waste.

OK, I am going to start by saying in retrospect I was not prepared for this course either mentally or physically. This was my first serious attempt at single track and it showed! Having said that I have to admit the course was pretty amazing. I knew that roughly the first three miles was downhill. Ride past the lake and enter the National Forest and then the forest service road gets pretty steep with some big ruts. I was taking it pretty conservative not wanting to eat dirt and was getting passed quite often. Once I hit the burn area single track is when things got interesting. For me that whole section of the course looked like a barren planet in a sci-fi movie. I struggled through this section and realized I was holding people up so pulled over a couple times to let people pass. One of the elite athletes went flying past like I was stood still, well actually I was!! The last uphill section out of the forest was pretty brutal and I had to walk once to get my heart rate down to a point where I had it under control.

Had a blast although my mountain bike skills need some work, OK a lot of work! Should have ridden the course before hand and trained better.

Could not get my right shoe undone. Struggled with it for a while before I could get it undone. Chatted to the guy next to me clearing out his gear from transition. He had already completed the short course

Need to practice getting out of shoes while coming into transition.

Came out of T2 and my legs were just gone. Had to walk out of the camp ground and up the hill. Finally started to get my legs working and was running down hill and walking up hill. Hit the half way point and started to run more consistently. Pretty steep coming down from the waterfall. Approaching the aid station I was thinking more about water or gatorade and was not paying attention to the course markings you can guess what happened next!! Am thinking OK can't be far now and a female athlete passes me, come around a corner and she is running back towards me saying we have gone the wrong way!! Did not catch her race number but whoever you were - thanks!! Little detour look to have cost me about half a mile and 5 mins according to my Garmin. Once back on course the run back into the finish was pretty flat. Started to rain pretty hard coming into the finish

Know the course!!

Great race, great atmosphere, great location. Organizers had everything under complete control. Can't wait to do it again.