The Rookie Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

This was my first swimming race of any kind, much less open water. I was doing okay for around the first half, navigating around people to avoid getting beat up. At about the half way point, I realized that I was breathing way too hard and got a little bit panicy, but I was able to do a little breast stroke, calm down, and finish it (albeit at a much slower pace). I think I just got way too much adrenalin at the race start and went out too fast even though it didn't feel like it at the time.

I would try harder to be calm at the beginning of the swim and maybe go a bit slower than I think in order to get in a good breathing rhythm. Probably getting in and swimming around before the race would have helped as well.

I had decided not to do anything too crazy for T1 as a beginner, and I thought it went well. I took my cap and goggles off on the run to the bike racks, quickly dried my feet and put on socks and bike shoes, put on my sunglasses and helmet, ran out with the bike, and did a normal mount and clip in to the bike to get going. There are fancier things I can do with some practice to shave off time, but I was happy with the execution of what I had planned here.

For my next race I'll probably ditch the socks (although I don't feel it cost me more than 8s to put them on) and look into potentially having the shoes clipped into the pedals (if I have time to practice it). Other than that, I mostly just need to run a bit faster :)

After the over-breathing swim and craziness of the transition, my heart rate and breathing were too high at the beginning of the bike, and I could tell. I dialed back my effort level at the beginning to try to get back in control, which worked. After about 3 miles in, I felt more or less comfortable with my breathing and get my head in a good place again. I wasn't able to drink much of my water-Heed mix as the over-exertion on the swim made it hurt my stomach.

I had never owned a road bike and borrowed one from a friend for the race and some training a couple weeks prior. This was also my first bike race of any kind. I was happy not to have any mishaps, although I felt I had a lot of room for improvement on the performance.

Getting the swim pacing/panic down better would be a big improvement to my bike ride.

I just left my shoes on and took them off when I got my bike racked. I didn't come to a complete stop on the dismount, but it wasn't anything fancy/fast. I felt the racking and shoe changing went well.

I might try the shoes left on the bike thing next time (if I have time to practice it sufficiently).

The run was the portion I felt the happiest with. I was able to run close to 8-min miles after almost an hour of the other exercise, which is pretty decent for me. It felt good to finish strong. I drank a little bit of water (didn't feel I needed much) and pored some on my head to cool off a bit.

Maybe go a bit harder at the end to use up whatever I had left, but overall I felt good about the run.

No real warm-down. I just wandered around looking to catch my wife and a friend as they went through various points of the race.


Going to hard on the swim and getting nervous about that.


Overall a really fun experience. My wife and I definitely want to do some more triathlons :)