Lake Sammamish Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The start of the race was difficult as I was running into someone or getting run over by someone about every 5 seconds. Finally worked my way around the first buoy and got a nice little area around me to swim in and tried to get into a ryhthm. Looked back and got a little boost from the amount of people still behind me when I approached the second buoy and headed back to shore. I felt like I was getting dusted but after seeing a lot of swimmers still behind me I decided to just put my head down and go with my every third stroke breathing all the way in.

I would probably try to get off to one side or the other a little more so that I wouldn't be right in the middle of the scrum for the first 100 yards.

I had a hard time getting my cycling shoes on after the swim because I could not keep my balance in order to slip them on my feet. Not too terribly happy with this transition.

I think next time I will have a bucket there to sit on so that I can sit down and get my shoes on more quickly.

I felt like I had a pretty good ride and tried to keep my speed up as much as possible. I had a really hard time with the hill on the way back as it was longer and not quite as steep as the quicker climb on the way out. I stood and went right up the first hill but couldn't seem to stay standing the whole way up the hill on the way back. Standing on hills is about the only way I am going to get up them quickly and probably 6-8 riders passed me on the hill on the way back. I started to cramp in the last two miles of the bike and drank as much water as possible the rest of the way in. Drank my whole water bottle. Overall, I could have done better but I was pretty happy with the ride overall at I stayed above the 17.5 MPH goal I had set for myself.

I guess I just need to do more hill work in order to at least keep pace with the field up the hills.

I had my socks rolled which helped me get them on more easily, but I didn't pull them up enough in the back which in turn let my shoes rub on my achilles and gave me some pretty nasty sores on the back of my heels. Overall, I felt like this transition was better even though it wasn't very fast. Pulled on a t-shirt as I headed out of the transition area and finished another bottle of water in hopes of getting rid of the cramps in my right leg.

Pull my socks up higher or wear longer socks and just move with a little more urgency through the transitions.

My run was terrible as I expected it would be. I didn't run once before the triathlon and knew that this would be the most difficult part of the race for me by far. I ran for as long as I could, which wasn't that long, and then did the ol' run walk method until I came to about a half-mile left and I ran, or rather jogged, the rest of the way in. Not very happy with my run obviously but I can't really expect much more since I didn't actually train for the run at all. Kind of got what I deserved.

I need to train at least a little for the run and I would make sure my whole heel is covered by my socks in order to avoid the sores from my shoes rubbing.

None.


I didn't train for my run which caused me to drop precipitously in my age group. Also, since this was my first triathlon, inexperience was a factor. I will definitely try and improve on my transition times in the next race.


This was my first Triathlon so I really had nothing to rate this race against. I really enjoyed it and thought it was well organized and everything was pretty much on time (start was delayed by 5 or 6 minutes). I wish they would have had more water on the running course as they only had one station at about the 1.75 mile mark I think? I was dying for a drink of water by that point.