Bartlett Lake Adult & Youth Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

First time swimming in open water - tough morning. Crawl with head above surface for first 25 yards, then tried to get into a rhythm, but the murkiness of the water, the cold and the chop psyched me out a bit, and I could not get my breathing in sync. Swam most of the race breast stroke or on my back. Because of the temp I did not get in and warm up, and this was likely the cause of my inability to settle in and swim at any type of normal stroke or pace.

Be prepared for open water swim. Warm up in the water about 5 minutes before the race to calm down and get comfortable.

T1 was ok. I was still a bit miffed by my performance in the water, but I got out of my wetsuit fine and into my bike gear fine.

Course was brutal - all uphill the first half. Kept as good a cadence as I could, averaged about 5-6mph. On the downhill the only time I pedaled was the 3/8 stint that was uphill. Glutes were very sore during the downhill phase. Had to ride the brakes quite a bit to keep from going too fast - still a bit unsteady on a road bike.

Train on hills to prepare.

T2 was much slower for me due to the soreness. I took my time, knowing I was already behind my expectations, and just wanted to finish.

Inner thighs and glutes sore from bike, had to walk about 1/2 mile to stretch my muscles to allow for running. Picked up the pace on the downhill, and running is my strong suit, but still was disappointed with the results.

A poor swim performance killed everything, and the difficult design of the course also hindered a positive performance. Heard it is one of the tougher triathlons around, so not too upset about the total time. Just happy to have kept with it and finished my first triathlon.


Will be back next year to give a better performance.