TrySports Mayo Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Started on the backline, and just focused on swimming my race, and on swimming on-course. I achieved both of those. Caught a couple of drafts here and there, but moved off as needed. Swam to the best of my current ability, didn't have to make any significant course corrections, sighted about every 12th stroke or so. Caught Alan running up out of the water, so we were pretty much on-par with each other for the swim.

I can't remember a better-feeling swim. Had I not had to navigate around a few frog-kickers, I would've made up a few more spots. Though I was 21/29 AG and 111/151 OA, I thought this was one of my best efforts in a non-wetsuit swim. I can see steady progress if I'll just stick with it. Swimming focus must remain for the rest of the season, through the winter. Need coaching first.

It's time to actually get some lessons, and join masters. It's hard to suck so bad at swimming, then nail the bike and run, EVERY time.

I really lost a lot of positions here. I really thought it was a lot quicker than this, but I got bogged down putting on socks, in advance of the trail run that would be coming up after the bike. Looking back, I should've gone shoeless on the bike, and put on the easy-to-pull-on socks (black) just before the run, instead of trying to pull up the Sock Guy socks before the bike. All said, I hit my goal of sub-2:00 on T1.

61/151 T1 time, not good, but not awful.

No socks on the bike, put the socks on before the run.

Took an Orange Burst GU when I turned back onto 49/Virgilina Rd. Felt good out of the gate. Right before the race, I swapped to the Vista SLs with the 12-27 cassette still installed. Traded aero for weight. For 75% of the race I was happy with that decision, then came the flat road headwind...
No one passed me for good on the bike. Had one guy at the start who passed me on 2 successive downhills, then I rolled past him on the uphills for good. Another guy that passed me back after I passed him on Mill Creek, then I put him away too.

Caught up to halfpint, who had a fantastic swim, and was working a great bike, out on Mill Creek. He snarled "you and your legs!" as I went by :)

Early on, there was quite a bit of blocking, position fouls, riding left of center...I was calling out "Move right unless you're passing!!" quite a bit at the start. 111th out of the water, and 14th after the bike...not bad.

Took second Gu (Vanilla Bean) with about 3 miles left on the bike.

Race wheels? Aero helmet? More work on flat road headwind power generation? I felt like I worked the hills well.

This felt like a very good T2. Breezed in, breezed out. Took a bit to get the shoes off due to the wonky strap on the right shoe, but I got the bike racked, shoes off, helmet off, slid on the Wave Elixirs, grabbed hat, race belt, and water bottle and was gone.

18/151 T2 time. Not bad, but could've been quicker.

I could've benefitted from my trail shoes. In hindsight, bike sockless, at T2 put on run socks and take the time to put on the trail shoes. Speedlaces in the trail shoes might've worked, but I've never tried them in those shoes, only the Elixirs.

I was passed by one 23-yo male early on the run, but aside from that, I was making passes the rest of the way in. 111th on the swim, 14th on the bike, and 9th on the run, means I picked off a couple on the run. First was a Relay, then another AGer before mile 1, another 2-3 before mile 2, then held on for the end. Fastest in my AG run, yet one of my slowest sprint runs to date. It was that tough of a course.

Trail shoes, trail shoes, trail shoes. That and yankz/speedlaces.

None. Greg beat me by 28 seconds. I just walked over and we chatted about our race. Went back to the finishing area and cheered on competitors. Walked down to the 2.5 mile point on the run and cheered on competitors, took a couple of photos. When Lainey came by, I beelined up to the finish for some more photos.


Swim. Swim. Swim. Same thing as every race. Super-long T1 compared to others. Speedlaces on the run. Correct shoes for the run. Aero helmet, race wheels. More speedwork on the bike (I have not ridden with IOS since last year)


A very nice, small, intimate race. Transition area is a little screwy (it's on a hillside), and I wish they'd assign rack locations, as these free-for-alls get weird with everyone throwing their stuff around. Still, it worked out okay, and I got to race with all my BT buds!! Even got to help a couple of folks who haven't done many with some time-saving tips (tape those Gu packets to the top tube, pre-opened; grab and go!)