Parvin State Park Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The other tris I'd been in had claimed to be .25, but after swimming the OWS at Wenonah the week prior, I realized my idea of the length was way off and I was going to have a lot of work ahead of me. I did my best in the swim, didn't panic, and just tried to stay on course. My stroke was not as fluid as it is in the pool. and I need to work on that. Coming out of the water I was happy it was done! When I got my actual swim time later that day, it wasn't as bad as expected, but I definitely need to work on it.

Practice longer lengths, more practice in open water.

Felt pretty good on TI wish I could have gotten more to drink though. Took about 30 seconds to get myself started on the bike.

Practice getting started and clipping in faster.

The bike has been my nemesis since my tri season last year. I really devoted most of the winter to getting better at it. Within the first few minutes I started passing people....ME PASSING PEOPLE?? I couldn't believe how I did on the bike and actually had to say "on your left" to people. Of course I got passed also. Around mile 6 a girl with the same bike passed me, I took another look and saw the 23 on her leg... OH NO SHE DIDN'T! I stayed behind her, making sure I didn't draft, and at about mile 8 caught her. Mile 9 she caught me and I had really started to burn out. A problem I have on the bike is that I don't feel comfortable grabbing the water bottle. Pathetic I know, but I wasn't really in the mood to crash and unfortunately didn't get to drink during that leg. When I got home and saw my time and pace (which we figured out was way off) I was so happy! Compared to my last tri in September which was also 12 miles and flat, I took 12 minutes off my time!!!

Even though I'm faster on the bike, I still need to get better! Practice clipping in and out and grabbing my bottle so I don't dehydrate.

I bonked this one bad. I forgot my race belt and took too much time to get water.

Drink water during the bike and be more prepared.

I was hot, tired, and dehydrated. More shuffling than running at this point. I also had some trouble navigating around the runners coming in the other direction. I also realized I forgot my racebelt and was convinced I was going to be disqualified (found out at the turnaround that it doesn't even matter.) Once I stopped worrying about it, I felt much better, with about 1.5mi left, the nightmare occurs. A girl with a 24 on her leg goes past me. I realize I'm in deep you know what, and keep with her for about .4 miles when i realized there was no way it was going to happen. If I stayed with her any longer, I probably would have had to walk and dropped dead. I was mad, frustrated, and disappointed. I could only hope at that time that maybe she would bonk right before the finish line. Of course she didn't and she finished in 3rd place :( I thought I was way off pace, but actually ended up just a tad over my usual pace.

Run faster!!!!! Cramped a bit so more water would have been a good idea.

Found water!! And the rest of my teammates of course who were there to cheer me on at the end! Just relaxed and tried to bring the heart rate down.


I really didn't train enough. Even though my race was at my standard of where I've been timed before, my standard isn't good enough. It's time to bunker down and get faster!


There weren't many post race activities run by the race, but Team Triumph had a great celebration going on! This was my first tri without any family, but TT really did a wonderful job replacing them. They cheered and were encouraging the whole way through!!! A good intro race, but the bottom line is that this race didn't have too many newbies, and my lack of training showed. It's really time to step it up.