Carls Family YMCA Happy Trails Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was my first ever race and I had no idea what to expect. I had only spent roughly 2 months training for the swim portion so my goal was to simply take it easy and get through this part of the race without being exhausted. I will say that there was NO WAY it was 80 degrees in the water. My legs were freezing up due to the cold water and a wetsuit would have helped.

I needed to focus on this aspect of the race more. When I entered the water 2 months prior I took for granted that I would be able to adjust to that distance. Having lived on a lake I swim all the time but I underestimated the amount of effort to go long distance on a swim. Next time I will be better prepared for this portion.

I wanted to make sure I wasn't too cold on the bike portion and would pull something so I took my time changing.

Next time I'll be quicker simply by being more aware of my time in the transitions.

I prepared pretty well for the bike section of the event. I live near the event location so the hills did not surprise me. The only issue was that I started in the beginner wave so I spent most of my time passing slower riders and didn't have anyone to really keep pace with. Also I never got to hydrate on this portion due to my water bottle dislodging at some point.

Next time I won't be in the beginner wave and I'll try to find someone with a good pace and keep them in sight. I'll also have to figure out a better place for my water.

Not a bad transition for my first one. Legs were a bit unsteady off the bike so I made sure to take a little extra time stretching them out for the run.

My Ipod kept me on pace for the run but I spent too much time looking for it in my bag. Next time I'll make sure it's in a better spot.

The run went a little worse than I expected. I actually had to stop to throw up at 800m to go which I was very surprised at. I felt fine immediately afterwards but it threw me way off my focus.

I needed to better hydrate on the bike to be ready for the run. I felt hot and dehydrated which led to a slower pace than I'm use to. I could have easily shaved another 1:30 off my time if I hadn't been so thirsty.

Jogged a half a mile and stretched out afterwards.


Cold water with no wetsuit and poor swim prep. No hydration on the bike and a lack of a pack to pace with. No knowledge of the running course going in.


I really enjoyed my first triathlon. I have to say that the thing that surprised me the most was that when I wrote down my guess for my overall time I cam within 1 minute of that time. It was good to see that a lot of hard work had payed off. The problem now is that I have the bug and I'm already back to training. Now I just need to find someone to train with!