Tritonman UCSD Sprint - TriathlonSprint

There were only about 40 people in my wave and I still couldn't swim around them. I tried going out near the back, which was apparently a mistake. Every time I'd get in a rythm, I'd crash into somebody in front of me. I'd swim out wide to apss and it'd be like they were there waiting for me to block me. argh. Spent a ton of time just padlding with my head up trying to find a clear path to swim. I knew was in the bottom 1/3 of the swimmers, for sure. Also, found it was much easier to sight without the goggles. About 20% of the way through the swim, I just moved the goggles off my head and that helped a lot. I could see the people and markers in front of me. Didn't have any of the wrong directions stuff today, since whenever I varied 10 degrees of course, i'd crash into somebody.

Start further up/sprint the start. Learn to dodge people better. No goggles from the start, or maybe different goggles.

This was 'fun'. Transition area was a giant mud pit. They tried putting the matts down along the middle, but it was futile. Feet were an inch thick with mud by the time I got to my bike. got my suit off and just scraped as much mud off as I could with my hands. Tossed the bike shoes on without socks, hoping they'd dry some and I could get more off when I got back to run. Waded through mud to the end of transition, put on my Garmin, and tried to hop on bike. Turned out shoes were so covered in mud that I couldn't clip in.

Go barefoot through the end of transition and put shoes on on course. Put baggies over shoes, maybe? Get a bigger towel to transition on so I dont have to change in mud.

Bike was awesome. One problem, I wasn't able to clip in the whole way. The transition area was a giant mud pit. By the time I got out, my shoes were caked in mud. I tried kicking it off and even got off the bike about a half mile in to try to dig it out, but there was no hope. So, rode the whole way without being clipped in. Even with that challenge, had an amazing pace on the bike.
The backside was much slower than the first part due to the wind. So, that's why those splits were so much slower on every 3rd & 4th mile of the three loops. I anticipated this from my ride the day before and, in fact, the wind wasn't as bad. I was almost thrown off when I saw 22mph on the Garmin at one point.

Push harder. Didn't realize how much I'd have left later. Also, fix T1 so I could clip in.

Waded through mud again and put the bike away. Got out of shoes easilyl. Socks went on nicely thanks to tip to roll them partially. Running shoes slipped on nicely thanks to Yankz. Overall, I was very happy with this transition. Flipped the Garmin to run at the end of transition area.

Nothing.

Run was great too. Threw socks on at transition and got shoes on pretty easy. Course was very winding through a park (on grass) with gradual hills. Like someone said, it was like a high school cross country course. The guy who was directly ahead of me on the bike and I were running together the whole time. He was about 4 yards ahead of me most of the time.
GREAT pacing by dude ahead of me. I thanked him when we got in and he thanked me for the motivation by breathing down his neck the whole time. Felt 100% fine after the run. Didn't have a good idea on total effort going in. I think I would have pushed the bike a little harder and maybe even have made a move on the run, but with those splits I'm not going to complain. Also, the kid in front of me was in the open 20-29. So, I beat him by 4 minutes, anyway .

Push harder. Do some off-road work. It was the first non-pavement running I had done in forever.

Walk around. Put stuff away.


Mud in transition area. Going too tentatively on run & bike since I didn't have an idea how hard to push for the distance.


I don't think they could have done much more about the mud. Its San Diego, its not supposed to rain anyway :). They did have the matts out and made a solid effort. Great race for a first race. Would be tempted to fly out and do it again. Plus, nice college chicks to look at (kidding).