Nature Coast Twilight Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Good swim for me! Much faster than I expected! I got whacked in the face by a guy and my right goggle filled up. I was swimming too fast to fix it. I was determined not to let him beat me in the race, just for that fact. He was a bit faster than me on the swim but I chased him. I exited the water at 6:26 and entered T1 at 6:53.

I was 25th overall at the end of the swim.

Not let mister kicky get me in the goggle.

Pete had already gotten there, so we just congratulated each other on a good swim and he headed out a bit before me. I figured I'd catch him in a few seconds.

Nothin...very smooth. Nothin' special here.

Probably my fastest bike split at CR to date. I'll have to look at last year. I hammered non-stop for the entire time. I took a bunch of places here and jockeyed for position with one other guy in my age group. It would end up being the guy I had to take first place away from...and oh boy...the SAME GUY who kicked me in the face. There was a headwind for the last two miles on the bike...and when you've just been pushing 24 and 25mph, it's really hard to fight the wind. I had to push SO HARD just to stay at 22. But I couldn't let "mister kicky" gain time on me. I stayed ahead of him until the last mile, where he passed me again, but I stayed with him and let him pound it out while I let up a bit to let my legs relax for the run. I figured "I'll get ya on the run".

I had the 8th fastest bike overall. Imagine that. I have never had a top ten bike before.

I picked up a bunch of places here and wound up in 10th place overall after the bike. I came into T2 just behind "mister kicky". I was NOT gonna let him stay ahead...the run was next and that's my strength.


Nothin...GREAT bike split.

Simple and easy again. I did my flying dismount as I got to the line, ran my bike into T2, kept an eye on "mister kicky", and did what I had to do. Running shoes on, belt on...time to GO!

Nothin. I love that I haven't been wearing socks for biking or running in the sprints I've done this year. Saves LOTS of time.

Wow...there were some fast runners out there cuz I didn't have a better run rank than my bike rank. Funny how that works huh? I'm used to having an average bike rank and a REALLY high run rank. Interesting...

Not my fastest run, but I was tired after hammering the bike for 25 minutes. I had a major stomach cramp (just from going so hard) and a sidestitch that I had to get rid of. I was in second in AG at the start of the run, but first place (again..."mister kicky") was right ahead of me and he was slow. I passed him only a quarter mile into the run. He said as I passed "I tried to hold you off but I just couldn't!" I picked up another spot from the guy who had the fastest overall bike split but couldn't run very fast. I finally burped my cramp and sidestitch away at the 1 mile mark, after taking a swig of water. At the turnaround I was in 9th and I saw a few people catching up to me so I sped up. I pretty much sprinted the last half mile to stay in 9th overall.

Later on, I learned that the two top women went faster than me, even though they started in the wave after...so they never caught me but I still ended up in 11th overall since their overall times were faster.

I'm totally happy with 11th overall out of 219 finishers!! Percentagewise, that makes me very smiley!!

I was able to nab first in age group...and for 35-39, I was very surprised!! I had been expecting to be "the slow one" this year due to aging up into the MOST competetive age group!!


Maybe turn on the heat a little earlier? Maybe if I didn't have the cramps or sidestitch I'd have been able to do that.

I threw up. ALOT. It was pretty much everything I'd just taken in after the race...I had drunk two bottles of water and two bottles of Gatorade immediately after finishing. Probably just drank too much too fast. I felt better after puking though.


Maybe a little bit of wind and the sidestitch.


I always love the CR races...they're fast, they're fun, and I usually find some new speed when I go there.