Medical Lake Kiwanis Mini Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

I just learned to swim this spring. I was extremely concerned about the distance of 1/4 mile. I know this is nothing to many participants, but I had no concept of the distance on the water and had been training at a distance probably twice that distance. When I seen the bouy I got the impression we were swimming at the shallow end of the pool. As a contrast the next days bouys were out for a 70.3. Really made the distance look crazy. I still had a moment of panic, but ultimately came in with the first group of swimmers. My strategy was to be on the outside toward the front. I also went wide on the bouy and thank goodness because there was a traffic jam at the bouy and I swear on guy had his arms around the bouy and was hanging there while everyone was yelling at him.

I think in the future I would swim this without the suit. Water is pretty warm and the distance is no longer an issue.

Enter transition was just weird. I practiced finding my bike, yet I was so disoriented.

Now that I have done one sprint, I will just calm down and get it right.

I lost my water 4 miles in. Going to have to change my setup.

Modify the water system to something that allows me to drink/sip while continuing to drive. The bottle took concentration I can't spare.

This transition was much smoother for me. Legs were mush though.

Got into the run pretty fast. I had no idea how mushy my legs could be. I had done the course a week earlier, but under race conditions I had put so much effort into the bike ride that the run felt as though I was running backwards. Got my legs about 1/2 mile in and all went well from there.

I need to build speed into my training. I have found that I train at my race pace and that is what I get. My pace is too slow.

I do not understand yet how to build speed. I think I am pretty good at building strength. Need to work on endurance as well and learn to hydrate in the race.


The race does not have timing intervals, you just get an overall and you are left to figure out what your age group placing is. No timing chips. This race ranks up there with a community fun run as opposed to a santioned 5k race. It was the perfect first sprint. It has motivated me to an olympic distance in September.