Reeds Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

After the terrible swim at the last race I was looking for a better performance. It went very well. I started off towards the inside and in the middle of the pack. Although I did bump into quite a few people, I was careful not to go out to aggresively and I just swam my own pace. It made the whole swim quite a bit nicer and I ended up with a better pace than I'd put up before. I ended up bumping into a pack of swimmers from the wave ahead which slowed me down a little bit but it wasn't too bad.

I wouldn't change much other than continuing to work on technique. A better early vertical forearm would help the speed a bit.

The transition area was very large which accounts for part of the long transition time. I also setup my spot poorly resulting in some delays which should have been avoidable. Racks were assigned by race number but you could pick any spot on the rack.

Improve the setup and test getting the bike in/out of the rack. I put my bag under the bike but it ended up getting in the way. It made the bike hard to get out under the rack's horizontal rail.

This was the best bike performance I've had. I pushed nearly 22mph which is faster than any average I've had, even on shorter rides. I tended to lose a little ground on uphills but I'd more than make up for it on the downhills. My only complaint is that the bike course was a little crowded due to the number of racers and many people weren't paying much attention to drafting rules.

Practice hills more frequently to maintain a higher speed on the ups.

The long transition area contributed to the long time. My Speedplay cleats make running challenging which made it particularly challenging to run the length of the transition area.

Not much other than considering different shoes/cleats but this doesn't seem particularly important for now.

This was a great run for me. I went out around a 8:40 pace because I haven't raced a five mile race before and I wasn't sure what I could hold. I ended up picking it up and ending up with a pace nearly as fast as my 5K race pace. I kicked it up to a sprint at the end to beat out a guy that I'd been trading back and forth with for the entire bike and swim.

Nothing, it was a good run.

Walked the length of the transition area, which ended up being a long cooldown. Walked back to the finish line to return my chip when I realized I blew by the chip return volunteers. Drank some Gatorade and had a bagel from the refreshment area.


The only real limiter was training.


Overall this was a good race which I'll do again next year. I did have a couple minor complaints. There was no pre-race communication via email or the website which left me wondering about race day details. They ran out of velcro straps for the chips so we ended up having to use disposable wrist bracelets. The aid stations had water but no Gatorade, Gu, etc. Despite those minor complaints it was a fun race at a great venue. The announcer was fun and interactive and the course was really great.