Smithfield Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Started swim very nervous about being my first tri ever, then it came to my turn and got off feeling like I was already tired/lethargic and thought how will I get through the race. I thought I was going slow and kept expecting the guy behind to catch me but I notice each lap that it appeared he was losing ground on me. After a couple of laps of making sure he didn't catch me, I realized I was on the last lap, nice. Jumped out of the pool and took a major breather, got up and just tried to jog slowing into transition and keep moving. I didn't pass or get passed by anyone, good time estimates I guess for me and the people before and after me.

warm up in pool, learn to do flip turns, maybe smoother breathing and stroke, but really felt that I pushed my swim and got a good result

T1 seemed to take forever, I had too many things to mess with. Transition areas were muddy from last nights rain. Toweled off arms quickly and put on pull over due to it being 45 degrees out. Toweled off muddy feet, then I got my socks and shoes on good. I was trying to put my helmet on backwards, that wasn't working. Struggled with garmin on wrist and bike gloves, like I said too much to mess with.

Practice transitions, probably could improve this area with some practice.

First ride with my new bike fit, new cleats and new aero bars...I know, not supposed to do that, but all went pretty well and according to plan overall. I just jumped onto my bike out of transition (was thinking I might slip right off and on my butt in front of everyone, but didn't and started pedaling, then I clipped in my cleats. Got passed right out of the gate, but took it easy first 4 miles, then the hairpin turn I was ready for, but still went pretty slow and barely made the turn. Tried to pick up pace a little. At mile 7 feeling pretty good, took hand off aero bar to clear nose and went off the road onto wet muddy side, thought I was going down, but pulled it back onto road. That woke me the hell up, can you say adrenaline surge! I picked up pace even more after surviving that close call. Spent most of my time in aero bars, felt pretty good, except the first turn and a couple times I swerved and of course going off roading that time. Tried to keep good position, move hands and fingers around every now and then. I didn't get any handlebar palsy like my last two rides last weekend, so I was real happy about that. I passed about 3 and got passed by about 3. I expected to get passed by more than that so I felt pretty good about that.

Push harder and just get more time on my bike.

Unclipped shoes early before stopping to be safe. Had to stop the bike completely, and get off, nothing fancy, just happy to get this far without any issues. My bike rack was just 4 racks in so nice and close. Parked bike with a little struggle, but took off helmet ok. I had just bought some yankz and used them so running shoes slipped right on, took a sip of gatorade and I grabbed my race belt and took off slowly. Put on race belt just before leaving transition area. This transition seemed to go ok.

Seemed to go ok overall, maybe pull leg around bike and glide into a stop and work on that.

Started out faster than plan, but felt ok. Then started to feel back pain a little probably from my new bike position and aero bars. About .75 mile I took a GU, first time to try that as well, then I started to feel a little cramp and thought that might not have been a good I idea. Cramp seemed to go away as I continually picked up my pace. I took a drink of water at turnaround and picked up pace a little more. I got to 1 mile marker and continued to push hard down the hill and then with 200 yards I pushed with all I had and finished much faster time that I planned, so I was very happy with my run. I passed more than I got passed, so that was good.

Not sure, everything went well.

Walked over to bbq food stand and got a plate of bbq pork and slaw sandwich, hush puppies and mac n cheese, what a wonderful end to a pretty great day.


faster T1, probably could have pushed harder on bike, improve biking overall.


Thanked all the volunteers that I passed, they were awesome! Thanks to my wife and daughter for coming out to support me and supporting all my training efforts. Thanks to my BT group for supporting me and answering my endless newbie questions that helped me get this far in a short period of time.