Splash Triathlon @ Sea World - TriathlonSprint

People were grabbing on to my legs and holding on! That was a little scary.

Is it just my imagination or does the swim get more crowded each year? This is my 3rd time doing the race. The first time was my first triathlon ever, and I hardly ever got touched by anyone. Maybe I was just lucky. This time, I was getting touched (or worse: grabbed, kicked, or knocked) a couple of times per minute.

I got hit in the head right as I was finishing. I probably started walking a little sooner than I should have, but I had to come up for air after getting hit on the head anyway.

Overall I think the swim went fairly well. Don't forget to keep good form.

I wore my comfy Keen sandals during the quarter mile run.

I kept thinking "Do I have everything?" when leaving T1.

I ran too fast from the swim to the transition area. I got a side stitch. I would have been better off walking.

I'm just guessing on these rankings. They combined the Bike time with T2. I usually have really slow T2s so I bumped up my rankings by 5%.

I wish people would STAY TO THE RIGHT EXCEPT WHEN PASSING. I wasn't yelling that at people, but I was saying "on your left" quite a bit. Everyone was very well mannered though. At least the USAT referees were out doing their job.

I was secretly hoping to break 20mph on the bike. Oh well, not this year. (although... see comments at the bottom)



Maybe next time I won't take the second water bottle. I think I drank slightly over half of my large water bottle.

I was running to my bike rack and I was getting so tired that I had to stop and walk. I thought "oh no... I'm going to have trouble on the run."

Upon starting the run, I realized it was going to be tough. The first mile was a 10:45 pace (slow for me) and I was really at my threshold. Any harder and I would blow up.



On the run, it started occurring to me that all the cycling I have done this summer does *not* seem to be improving my fitness level, or at least not my anaerobic threshold. All that the cycling was doing was improving my economy on the bike -- teaching my body to expend less energy on long rides. The benefits certainly did not transfer over to the run. My run was a good minute per mile slower than in previous years, and I was still pushing my threshold the whole time.

I need to spend some time on the track.

Race food: various cookies, bagels, snack foods like goldfish and pretzels.


I've mostly just done long rides this summer, trying to increase my bike endurance and power.

I need to do some more threshold workouts on the run.



I had a slow leak on the bike.

Before the race, I pumped up my tires at my car before heading to the transition area. Just before heading over to the swim area, I gave my tires a squeeze to make sure they were rock hard. I thought to myself the rear tire doesn't feel quite as hard, but I just thought I didn't completely fill it up. I wasn't concerned about it.

After the race, I noticed the tire was somewhat flat. Not 100% flat, but enough that it was bulging on the sides quite a bit. Now, this afternoon, it is completely flat. I wonder how much resistance this added on the bike.

As always, the enthusiasm at this race was wonderful. I hope I can continue to do it in future years.

I always forget how painful sprints can be. My heart is still recovering, although the rest of me is fine.