18th Annual Desert Grande Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

At the start I passed two swimmers in the first 50 meters. The stagard start is just everyone's best guess at to what their finish time will be. I was taking a breath every three strokes on the first 50. I passed the second swimmer at the end of the first lap right as we were touching the wall. I dove deep to go underneath the other swimmer as I didn't want to impede her progress. It took a lot out of me to pass like that and I had to start breathing every other stroke. On laps 3 - 8 I fell into a good groove and passed one more person. I was right on pace with where I thought I would be.

I was very happy with my swim. The only thing I could have done better was to train better ahead of time. I was shooting for 8:00 - 8:30 and I hit that mark.

I thought I had laid my stuff out pretty well, but when I started to put my bike shoes on I realized I hadn't pre-opened them up. I had practices having the shoes already on the peddles and then trying to put my feet in as I peddled, but couldn't really get that down, so I decided to put the shoes on first. Once I passed the mounting line I couldn't get my shoes into the clips. It probably didn't help that I had just run through wet grass in the shoes.

If I had practices the transitioning more I probably could have shaved 15 - 20 seconds off which would have pushed me up one more position in the fat boy category. I wasn't expecting to have that much difficulty getting my shoes into the peddles. I should have practices that more.

I did the bike on a $75 mountain bike that I bought 5 years ago at Walmart. I did was buy some clipless peddles, put some road tires on it and added a $20 cyclometer. I am VERY glad I got the new tires. My bike is really a piece of junk. I won't be doing another triathlon with it.

There were section of the road that were very smooth and section that were very rough. In the smooth sections I was maintining about 19 mph, while on the rought sections I was lucky if could stay at 15 or 16 mph. I thought that with a full susspension mountain bike this wouldn't have been so bad.

I had a real tough time finding the right gear most of the time. Again I am going to blame this on the bike.

About 1/4 mile before the end of the bike I started to unstrap my shoes so I could be ready for T2. I hit the dismount line running into the transition area.

Overall I am OK with my bike performance. In training I had been able to average speeds a little higher than 18 MPH, so I think I could have done a little better, but overall it was OK.

Well, while I have been complaining about I didn't really have the resources to get a new bike. I think I will try and get a used one of Craigslist or Ebay. Hoperfully that will help me knock a few more minutes off.

Getting my gloves off was a pain. I should have taken those off before I dismounted. I didn't account for the speedbumps in the parking lot though, so it would have been tough to take them off while riding.

I also broke my sunglasses as I took my helmet off. It's good they were a cheap pair.

I think for this distance race I really didn't need the gloves. That would have saved me a few more seconds.

The run is by far my weakest event. I was getting passed like crazy the hole time. That being said, I did two minutes better in the race then I had ever done during my brick workouts. All those people passing me really pushed me to run faster.

I was very happy with my run time. If I can loose 30 pounds and keep training I should be able to shed six to eight minutes pretty easily.

I didn't do much for this. My wife and kids were right at the finish line cheering me on, so I gave and received quite a few hugs. After that I mostly just walked around and drank gatorade. I had quite a few family members that finished after me and I stayed at the finish line to cheer them on.


The fact that I have 30+ pounds of fat on my gut is the biggest limiting factor.


I am very excited to have completed my first triathlon!! I had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to continuing training and competing in sprint to Olympic distance triathlons.