Giant Acorn Sprint - TriathlonSprint

The goal for today's race was PACING, so I tried to swim a comfortable pace that would allow me to save some energy for the bike and run. Many of the other swimmers had wetsuits but I didn't feel as though I was at a disadvantage without one. The water was the perfect temperature - easy to get in, but not too hot for a good swim. My sighting was a little bit off and I think I did a little zig-zagging, but overall I felt like I kept up a nice pace without burning too much energy.

I wouldn't change anything about this swim, although I need to remember to work on holding a straight line in open water.

I didn't feel as though this transition was particularly fast, although at 50/287 it looks like this was where I ranked highest among the women. Likely because I didn't have a wetsuit to remove. I've always seen warnings in the forums here that it's hard to get a tech shirt on when you're wet and I've never had a problem with it, but today it was a bit tricky, which lost me some time. Forgot to open up the velcro on my bike shoes prior to the race as well, so there went another 15-20 seconds. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of the day but I could have gained some easy time here.

I need to remember to open the velcro on my bike shoes to gain a little free speed, but otherwise it was a good transition.

Once again, pacing was the name of the game today since I think my history of cramping calves on the run stems from pushing too hard on the bike. I tried to use the flats and downhills to my advantage so that I didn't have to cook my legs going uphill.

Nothing. I could have likely gone faster on the bike but would have killed my run in the process so I'm happy with my pacing.

This was a pretty quick transition for me. Helmet and bike shoes off, running shoes and visor on. Put on race belt as I ran out of transition.

I could have saved a few seconds here or there if I hadn't put my race belt and visor on top of my shoes, since I had to move those before I could put my running shoes on. Next time I'll make sure they're the first thing I can reach so I can do both the visor and the race belt while running.

It's no surprise that I lost a lot of ground in the rankings during the run, but I'm happy with it nonetheless and I felt as though my pacing really paid off. I took it really slow out of transition so I could get my breathing under control. My left calf cramped up a little bit after the first mile or so, but it was nothing I couldn't run through and eventually it loosened up for the last half mile or so. I successfully ran the whole course and even picked it up a bit for the home stretch. Given the fact that I felt like I was plodding along at a snail's pace for most of the run, I was pleasantly surprised that my pace was a little faster than my training pace for that distance.

I wouldn't change anything about this run. In the future I can try for a race pace that's a little farther off of my training pace, but this time around I only had a few training runs that were over the 5k mark so I'm pleased with my results.

Walked around for a few minutes and drank some water. After I had recovered a bit I ate some Brunswick stew! That was a really nice post-race meal.


Given my level of training and fitness coming into the race, I performed as well as I could have hoped to. Increased fitness is the only thing that could have significantly improved my times.


In my experience, Set Up Events always puts on a well-run race and this was no exception. The race started right on time, the courses were well-marked, and the Brunswick stew was an excellent addition to the post-race food!