Tiburon Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Let me start off by saying this swim must have been WAY short. There is no way I swam that fast, I'm more of a 1:40-1:45/100 swimmer for this distance.

Anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE triathlon swimming. I am not particuarly fast, and don't really enjoy pool swimming that much, but in the open water with a bunch of other people is just fun. Especially with the cheater wetsuit on (I'm one of those weak swimmers who gains like 10 seconds/100 with a wetsuit).

Swim went great, some mild contact here and there, nothing bad. I sighted dead straight and was heading back into the harbor before I knew it. There were definately a lot of folks WAY off course, which would be easy to do because there were quite a few bouys out in the harbor that were not related to the race. It was a bit hard to pick out the correct ones to use. At each major turn I pulled up for a second and got a real good look at the bouy I was headed for next. The extra seconds for sighting at the turns was worth it for me.

Nothing.

Because there is a long run (~1/4 mile on the street) from the water exit to transition, I put an old pair of shoes off to the side at the swim exit. This worked perfectly, I ran off to the side, stripped off the wetsuit, put on my shoes and ran to transition. After the long (and quite tiring, I might add!) run to T1 everything was smooth. Already had the wetsuit off, so I just pulled off my shoes, slipped on the bike shoes (old velcro only MTB shoes that I wear without socks), put on the helmet, and GO!!

nothing.

Fun ride! A decent mix of flat bike paths, and some twisty and hilly roads. I had to slow down once for a car that was driving slowly, frustrating, but probably only cost me a few seconds. Felt like forever though! I had 1/2 bottle of water with HEED in it that I drank by mile 6.

get a road bike. I'm still plowing along on my 20 year old mtb with city tires.

Unclipped and did a running dismount. Guy next to me had racked in my spot, so I had to take an extra few seconds to move his bike over. Hate that!! I had a little trouble with my shoes, the bike shoes were sorta stuck on my feet (just from being so wet I think) and my Zoots were hard to slip on. I think I over body glided them, I was having a hard time getting a good grip on the heel tab to pull them on. Grabbed my hat (with my race belt inside it) and RAN!

Overall, pretty smooth and efficient, I'm happy with it.

ugh. I had high expectations for myself here, I really wanted to run sub 8 minute miles. I could tell within the first 1/4 mile I was in a bit of trouble with that... I dunno if my bike pace was too fast (could be, I pushed pretty hard the whole way on the bike) or if I just didn't rest enough before this race (ran 6 miles yesterday), but my legs just didn't have much in them today. I focused on high cadence and just ran as fast as I felt I could. When in doubt, I tried to go a little faster. At the finish line I had no kick at all, so I guess I pushed about right...

[on edit] WOW! I wrote the above before seeing the scoring (I ran with no watch, so I didn't really know how I was doing other than by feel). Turns out I DID IT!!! 7:56 pace!!! I retract all my whining and complaining :-) [end edit]

be faster :-) [on edit] nevermind, I'm happy now :-) [end edit]

Hung out for a few minutes and got my shirt and goody bag, then headed into town for breakfast with my S.O. Had a great breakfast on a deck overlooking the bay.


just gotta keep training!


Awesome race, very well organized, on time, well marked course with someone (either police or volunteers) at every major intersection helping stop traffic for the race.