DQ Triathlon at Marlton Lakes - TriathlonSprint

Swim time is an estimate...official results don't show a swim or T1 time for me...guess the chip signal wasn't strong enough. One of better swims, so that's frustrating. But I looked at my watch about the time I stood up and it was less than 12 minutes, and from the other times I know the total swim and T1 was 14:46. Since I put on socks in T1, I'm estimating that at around 2:50, so I rounded to 12:00.

Based on this result I've obviously improved my form, which is encouraging and exciting. But I feel like I could've done even better. I think I exhaled under water OK, but still felt like I was gulping a bit when I rolled to breathe; swallowing some nasty water too. I wasn't able to get that "smooth, consistent" feeling I get in the pool, and I had to take a few backstroke breaks. Got to be a psychological thing.

Somebody from the wave behind me actually swam over me...a first! It wasn't as scary as I'd imagined it would be.

Probably not much...this was a good swim for me.

Estimated time, but probably pretty reasonable since I put socks on to protect the blister on the left heel. I got out of the suit pretty quickly, but definitely took longer trying to wipe off the feet and putting on socks. The right one didn't roll on right, kind of crooked, so had to do it again.

Not get a blister so I can go sockless next time. That SOB was ugly. I doctored it up with a few coats of NewSkin topped off with Krazy Glue (read about that on BT as a way to run with it). TSW was, understandably, appalled when she learned about this later.

Another disappointing bike ride...I haven't cracked 19mph yet this year, which is frustrating in the extreme, especially given that I've allocated more bike time in training this year than in previous years. I actually felt pretty strong out there, had it in the big ring the entire way, only got passed two, three times. HR info shows I averaged 155 for the ride, so I suppose I left some in the tank.

Don't know, probably not much. I felt like I pushed pretty hard.

Average T2, a little slower because I was dealing with the Garmin and because I was starting to feel that blister.

Again, not get a blister. Try to figure out some method of dealing with the Garmin in a race.

A little bit frustrated here...wondering what the actual distance is. My Garmin shows it was 3.12, official results show 3.0. So by my data, I ran the entire race at a pace lower than 10/mm, which was the goal. But the results don't reflect that. Ah well...I know what it was, and it was a good run for me, pretty much according to plan. HR averaged 169, I think, and I was at 172 when I finished, meaning I did this run pretty much at threshold pace. I pushed it up hard for the last quarter-mile...the Garmin reflected a shade under 9/mm. Each of the other miles reflected lower than 10/mm. So I just decided to update this race report to reflect the 5K rather than three miles as advertised.

Not a lot...this went pretty much according to plan, even though the official results don't reflect it. I was pretty blown when I finished.

Walked around a little bit, that's about it.


My stretch goal at this race was 1:20:00, and I missed that by 1:39, which isn't too bad. I beat my previous best here by a minute, so I'm not too disappointed. How could I have saved 1:39 and met the stretch goal? I guess I could blame the blister for a few seconds, at least the amount of time it took me to put on socks and the time it took me to gingerly put on my shoes in T2. Be a little smoother on the swim would help. Would love to cut half a minute or so off the bike, which would also help.


I like this race. It was my first tri in 2006 and I've done it every year since. Size of the field is good, course is decent, fairly close to home, and pretty organized.