Hickory Grove Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Wow, this was probably the worst open water swim I have ever done, including my very first tri several years ago. I don't know what happened here. I was slow, couldn't breath, couldn't get my stroke into any kind of rhythm. It was kind of a washing machine start with lots of flailing limbs, but that's no excuse. And this after having one of my better swim performances at Pigman the week before. Just odd...

I'm going to chalk this one up to just a freak occurence, but if I had it to do again, I might have started to the outside where there was a little more open space. That, and bring my wetsuit to the race, that may have helped...The swim time did include maybe a minute of running to the timing mat at the entrance to the transition area, but still pathetic.

This was a good transition for me. I stayed focused, did what I needed to do, and got out on the bike.

Nothing

This was the first race I have done that has featured multiple laps of the same course. I think I kind of liked the setup, with the exception of the out-and-back portion. Being this was a sprint, I was hammering pretty hard, and I felt pretty good. Having done the Pigman HIM, I wasn't sure how my legs were going to respond, but I was happy with how things were going. I was averaging about 23 mph with the exception of the one larger hill on the course. Then I got to the third lap, and I dropped my chain for the first time ever. Not sure what happened there, had no indication of any issue before hand and everything was fine after I lost about a minute stopping and resetting the chain. I did a good job of refocusing and finishing the ride strong after that.

Not drop my chain...

Again pretty good for me, no major issues here. Just did what I needed to do...

Maybe do more stuff while running toward the exit to transition, like clip on my number belt...

I went out fairly hard, but this not being an A race, I didn't really push it too hard. I knew with the poor swim and problem on the bike, an age group award was not very likely. I was able to maintain about a 7:00/mi pace without too much effort, passed a few people and got passed by a few. The last half mile or so I was definitely paying the price for the greasy burger I ate the night before, but things settled down enough to maintain my pace to the finish.

Better nutrition the night before might have helped some. At that point with the problems earlier in the race, I just wasn't into it...

Walked around and waited for my buddy to finish. He came in about 5 min. after me, pretty good result for his first time out there. Went and enjoyed a pretty good post-race spread, packed up the car, and headed home.


Freaky poor swim performance, not sure what the cause of that was. Equipment issues on the bike. Lack of motivation on the run.


This was a well-organized event! I had hoped for a better finish, but I had a good time nevertheless!