Bigfoot Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

It was very shallow along the shoreline so I tried to stay as close to the buoys as possible on the way out. I had a great start and was at the front. I got passed by a few people as I transitioned from the start sprint to a steady rhythm; I was very tempted to keep up with them, but I reminded myself that those guys would probably burn out, and I'm pretty sure they did because I was in the top three coming out of the water in my wave. Overall, it was a great swim and a PR for sprint distance.

Just keep improving.

I made some big improvement to my transition from last year. I stated with shoes on the bike (no flying mount though; still working on that) and went sock-less.

Fastest T1 time in my age group.

Learn how to do a flying mount. Practice getting into shoes; it took a little longer than I planned, but no major hiccups.

I definitely went out too hard on the bike. Living in Chicago, I'm not accustomed to hills, so I often tried to make up for lost time from up-hills on the flats.

Pace the bike better; remind myself that I still need gas to run.

I was in and out of the T2 very quickly. Made a quick run around the transition. I was already out of my shoes on the bike so I just had to rack, put on my bib, slip on my shoes and head out. I killed it.

Coming into T2, I only saw 5 bikes on the sprint racks, and my age group was mixed, so I was pretty sure not all were in my age group. I left T2 confident that I was in the top 3.

2nd fastest T2 in my age group.

Nothing.

I totally bonked within the first 100 meters!! I quickly realized that I went out too hard on the bike. I'm a slow runner to begin with, so I was not expecting to hold my position, but I wanted very badly to hold top ten (although of course I was praying for a podium!) I only passed one person and got passed by about 10-15 people, but for the most part, they were in the age group ahead of me so I remained confident I could finish in the top ten, and I did!

About half-way through, my right Achilles started hurting, and in hind sight, I probably should have stopped to walk (it's a little sore now), but I powered through it and the pain went away. The intermittent rain during the run felt great!!

Pace better on the bike and train more on the run; it's definitely my weak point.

walked around, drank lots of water, ate some crappy french toast and sausage.


inadequate run training, but this is in large part due to trying to limit shin splint damage.


Great course, great volunteers, bad after-party (no music, no beer, crappy food), no finisher's medal (not too disappointed about the latter, but it's always nice to get something at the end).