Webster Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I was delighted with my swim. I swam as straight as possible and don't recall making any alignment adjustments. I'm used to laying back and letting the field thin out so I can swim with no one around. However, there were too many people in the wave to ever get any real separation, but strangely enough this didn't bother me this swim. It usually does. I never felt fatigued during the swim. Clearly the best tri swim I've had. To be honest though, no way the distance was 880 yards. A time of 14:11 is way too fast for me.

Nothing.

The time is not as bad as it appears. After the swim, there was a run of about 1/3 mile to the bike area. I left some slippers near the swim exit. Every time I saw a bare footed person do a little jump after stepping on a pebble, I was glad I was wearing something. Still, the transition time was slow, as I noticed people near me that got in the transition area after me, leave before me.

Not sure, I just know I'm slow.

My biking is terrible. I had done a lot of riding around the neighborhood in preparation, but it didn't help much. I was hoping to at least get in the 15 MPH range (48 min), but came up short. The big hill sucked the life right out of me. I was going so slow at one point, that when I glanced behind me, I realized I was slowing down traffic more than an accident off the side of the road on a highway. I pulled over to let people pass before starting up again. For safety reasons, they didn't want people going too fast down the hill as there was a sharp right hand turn at the bottom. This part didn't bother me as I'm sort of gutless when it comes to bombing down hills anyway. The rest of the ride was uneventful, but not very fast.

Just keep practicing.

Could have been better, but I didn't care. I was gassed.

Okay, I was hoping the bike wouldn't do the double whammy it usually does, that is a slow ride and then have nothing left to do a decent run. Unfortunately, it was the double whammy. I had nothing left for the run. My mind said, "Let's go". My body said, "Might be a good idea to read the Sports section on the Lazy Boy". Since the formula says my maximum heart rate is 159, and it was in the 170's when I started out, I had little choice but to walk for a while. This is the way it went for most of the run. I would run until my heart rate got too high, then walk.(very frustrating) As a "back of the pack" guy, the water station is my barometer. If by the time I get there, the water is no longer cold, I'm not doing good. Took a drink, --- warm water, not even cool, just warm. Confirmation that I was doing crappy. If I ever write a book about my tri experiences, it will be titled "Warm Water". The only encouraging thing was with about a half mile to go, the "bicycle fatigue" seemed to go away, and I was able to run the entire last half mile. Not bad considering the way I felt at the beginning of the run.

I can run okay, it's the bike's that draining my energy.

Found a shady tree and lied down for about 10 minutes. I had nothing left.


Ability in the bike.


I was impressed with the safety in place for the race. Post race refreshments of bananas and supermarket mini muffins was not impressive.