NE Season Oper Sprint Duathlon & Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This segment was canceled after the local fire and rescue support boat sank in the rough waters. I am actually disappointed in the Max team that ran the race. While, overall, they do a great job, nobody should have swam. Besides the dangerous conditions, the strong winds were moving the buoys from the second they were placed in the water. What started as a quarter mile swim easily grew to a half-mile swim by the time the third wave was started. The effect of this moving target was most obvious during the first wave of elite men: several of the lead swimmers were 30 - 40 degrees right of the buoy at the half way mark (the buoy was moving rapidly to their left). How can you run a race where the distance is dramatically different between waves as well as swimmers within the same wave (the fastest swimmers had a shorter swim as the buoy hadn't moved as far away for them)? Also, though they claimed the wind picked up after the race started and made the conditions worse, I was down at the water from 7:00 on and the wind and chop were consistently rough all morning. I know that there is a certain machismo associated with triathlons. However, I would have hoped that participant safety would have been evaluated before the first wave even took off.

Given the cold temps (air 42 - water 62), I should have skipped the 'warmup' swim. As I was in the 5th wave of swimmers, I was out of the water for 20 minutes before I would have started. I did actually jog in my wetsuit for a few minutes but even that did not warm me up. Many of us joked that we were going to keep our wetsuits on for the bike and run portions just to stay warm.

Hands were cold and it was hard to get through T1 quickly. I put body glide on the inside and outside of my wetsuit around my shins, but it was still tough to get off. As they changed my race to bike / run, it appears that my T1 time was merged into the bike.

Wait for a warmer race!

After the swimming fiasco, the bike portion was handled well. There were plenty of volunteers / police at each corner and everything was marked well. There were a number of rough sections, but the Max team did a great job of marking the course and communicating the section around mile 7 that was especially rough. My biggest challenge was that my lower legs / feet went numb from the cold. I also had to wait a minute for the additional fire and rescue trucks to clear the route after the boat sank and so many people needed help getting out of the water.

I suppose I could have gone with electic socks...

Dismounting with numb feet is challenging. I got off my bike ok, but could barely walk - each step was a challenge and I could only take small, slow steps to my bike rack. I switched gear quickly enough, but really, really needed a bio break. Given my simple goal of finishing, I gave in and shuffled off to the portolets in the transition area. I probably could have cut my T2 in half without this detour.

Skip the detour and suck it up.

Running with numb feet is hard. It wasn't until the second mile that I could feel them. I tried stretching, walking, skipping but nothing worked. However, after I left the second water stop, my pace did pick up and I had a very strong finish - From the resevoir's retaining wall to the finish, I passed a dozen runners. I also sprinted after crossing the final bridge to the finish and still had plenty of gas left.

Other than waiting for a warmer day, I don't know if there was too much I could have done differently. The one thing I didn't try was sprinting earlier in the race to see if the additional blood flow would have defrosted my feet. I thought about it, but decided against it given my goal of just finishing my first tri.

This should be called the 'warm-up description'. I put more clothes on in order to warm up - I never did get warm or break a sweat during the race. I grabbed a banana and a water and got in line for the free massages. I enjoyed the post race food, but the service was exceedingly slow.


The cold weather and strong winds were the primary factors. Of course, this was also my first tri, so I could have done better with more training time.


Overall, I enjoyed the race. My goals coming into the race were to finish strong and not be last in my AG. I accomplished both of those goals. Also, as I said above, the Max team put on a good event. My only criticism is that they didn't cancel the swim for everyone. I am scheduled for two more of their events this year and I am looking forward to them.