New Jersey State Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

All (except for brief swim up/down a section of the Asbury Park beach) of my training was in the pool. In the pool, i had made awesome strides at being an efficient swimmer. In open water, however, i felt like i was a rock. I freaked out a little when i took my first breathful of water (within 5 mins of start), and it took a while for me to get my rhythm back. Of the whole swim, i freestyled half of it, on my back for a quater, and side stroke for the other quarter. I stopped once to grab a kayak, but i realized that i wasn't as tired as i thought i was, so pressed on after a couple seconds.

DO MORE OPEN WATER SWIMS! ! ! ! !

With this being my first race, i took it real slow --- probably TOO slow. As soon as i got to my nifty bucket (everyone seemed to be impressed with my little implement), ate a 3rd of a granola bar and drank some gatorade to clear my throat, dried my feet off and rolled my socks on, put on sweat gutter (i profusely sweat waterfalls), put on helmet and glasses, hit my garmin, then walked to mount area. in seeing the other reports, there were some complaints of the distance between transition and mount, and i can definitely see where that could be an annoyance.

Practice transitions at race pace. Practice running in bike shoes and/or barefoot.

Surprisingly, i felt strong on the bike. I ended up passing a lot of people, and not being passed by anyone. I had trained a couple times on this course previously, and on race day, this was my best lap around here. not bad for being on an old trek (from the mid 90's, only has a 6 cog cassette), probably undersized now.. =)

Besides more bricks and speed/heartrate training, get a new bike (aero?). Ride with groups.

At the end of my bike and walk/run through transition, I'm realizing that i'm a little spent. So i tried to down another third of that granola bar that i had opened up, and the rest of the leftover gatorade and water from my bike. A little difficult to swallow. and BOY was it hot..

try to jog through everything. i wasted a lot of time pussyfootin with everything..

this felt like my worst run ever. my head started to pound. After maybe the first mile, i started walking to give me a breather. I started doing 2 min on/off intervals, and after starting to feel a little more comfortable, i started ignoring the off interval.. after a little bit of time of this, my garmin goes off and tells me that my HR is 205 (actually higher after looking at my data).. so i quickly got back down to doing intervals (which soon enough prompted me to then start ignoring the run intervals).. the headache wasn't as pounding as badly at this time, so my stops to grab some Heed and water must've started paying off.. anyway, i make it to the loop, then start heading back and start doing 1 on/2 off intervals.. and in the last half mile, i feel like i've recovered enough to make it all the way back.. i start my run, and maybe a minute into it, my calves start cramping up.. so i slow to a walk again for a little bit, then i slow jog it in for the last quarter mile.. ugh

before the run started, it was off to a bit of a drag.. i forgot my race belt and got all the way to the timing mat, then had to run back to grab it, then headed back out..

ummm, i also started developing bad blisters halfway through the run.. so i've gotta make an earlier decision about which shoes i'll run in (i have 2 pairs that i rotate.. i felt good in both, but the shoes i ran in felt like they were the least broken down.. coincidentally, however, these weren't the ones that i had done a bulk of my later training with).. either that or buy a new pair.. and work on more endurance runs.. OH YEAH.. DO SOME RUNNING RACES ! ! ! ! !

ummm.. sit in the shade for 20 mins.. drink profusely.. eat light, then nap for a couple hours when i got home.. ate at a family friend's house..


i know this is my first race, so i should feel happy that i accomplished it.. which i do, don't get me wrong.. but it's annoying/bothersome to me that i didn't come close to performing as well as i had trained.. but yes, this is my first race (never ran, biked, or swam competitively before), so on that respect, it's huge.. call it my internal competitive fire for being so ho-hum about it..


i'd also like to give a shoutout to everone that completed this race ahead and behind me.. that heat/humidity was brutal.. and thanks to CGI racing/the redrows for putting on a great event.. i'll be sure to make this a yearly event for me..