Naval Station Newport/Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Clearly the swim is my weakest discipline. I was solidly MOP on this one. Being my first traithlon I think I held a little bit back on the swim. I sort of only have one pace, and lately thats been a pace I've been using to complete much much longer swims (1.5 miles) than a sprint tri. So clearly that was not fast when used here. I need to work on doing some faster intervals, but really the short distance stuff doesn't interest me as much as the longer races. Still I could have been faster than this. I did however do awesome in the pack. Physical contact didn't bother me in the slightest. In fact on the last leg into shore there was a guy I just couldn't seem to get around who was determined to push me off course. So I pushed right on back and pushed him right back on course! I had no fear in the water at all. In fact I loved the chaos of the mass start. I had a blast. I went for it right from the gun in hopes of getting out in front but I was not fast enough. So I ended up right in the middle of the pack of the thirty or so people in my wave and I loved every minute of it!

Swim at a speed more appropriate for the distance. I swam at way too slow a pace. Clearly I need to do more faster shorter repeats if sprints ever become a priority for me. But frankly I'm far more interested in the half iron and evenutally full iron distances.

Sadly this race didn't keep track of transition times. I beleive that T1 is included in the bike time and T2 is in the run time.

That said though I worked really hard on my transitions during my training. I left my shoes clipped into the bike pedals and felt very very confident with that approach despite this being my first race. I even drilled through transtions several times the day before the race to make sure I had it down. I came out of the water feeling great, ran into transition, and had my wetsuit off, glasses and helmet on and was off and running in no time. Nice quick mount and I had my feet in the shoes in no time in a nice unpanicked fashion. Couldn't have gone much better or faster.

I need to work on a true flying mount. Right now I leave my shoes clipped in and rubber banded in place and run to the mount line and then very very breifly stop moving forwards just long enough to throw my leg over and onto the forward bike shoe. I just need to add the "flying" part to the mount but I need to practice that last bit a little more first.

I think I could have gone a little harder on the bike. Not much but a little. Unfortunately the only bottle I had with me on the bike ejected when I went over a big bump over the railroad tracks within the first mile. So I had no fluids until mile 1 of the run. The taste of salt water in my mouth got pretty annoying by the end of the bike. Of course I've never ejected a bottle in training. It only happens on race day! I've only recently put aerobars on my road bike and I'm happy to say I stayed in them the entire time and felt very comfortable. I passed a lot of people on the bike and that felt great. Especially when I passed the guy with the Zipp 404 front / Zipp disc wheel combo. : )

Maybe rubber band my bottles in or try and find a bottle that won't eject on me! Also go a little bit harder.

Awesome T2! couldn't have gone better. Had my feet out of the shoes with just a tiny bit left to pedal before the dismount line, threw my leg over the top tube and hopped off right at the dismount line and went running into transition. I had my bike in the rack, helmet off and running shoes on in record time and was on my way. Put my garmin into the watch strap and my hat and race belt on while moving. I wish I had the split for T2 as I'd bet it ranked right up there.

Nothing... this one went perfectly!

The run course was odd. I never saw a mile marker which was frustrating and I didn't quite get my garmin started in time so I wasn't sure how far along on the course I was at any point. The first aid station was supposed to be at mile 1, but I swear it was more like at mile 1.5. I was desperate to get the salt water taste from the swim out of my mouth by the time I got there. I think I could have gone a tiny bit harder on the run, but overall I'm quite pleased with it. Not knowing the course (its a navy base so I didn't have access to preview it) meant that I wasn't really sure how my progress was. Visually there weren't many cues either. Still I had a strong performance on the run and felt good off the bike so that was nice.

Run a little harder and push myself just a tiny bit more. Even thirty seconds faster would have made a difference.

Walked a bit, drank water, some gatorade. When I got home I spent the afternoon horizontal with some compression gear on which always helps my legs feel better. I felt fine the next day. Oddly I swear I've felt worse after running a 5K all out than after the sprint tri.


It being my first triathlon I think I held back just a tiny tiny bit that I wish I'd dipped into. I just wanted to be sure and manage my energy appropriately. Next sprint I'm doing is in two weeks so I'll really leave it all out on the course.


I really enjoyed the race and thought they did a nice job of putting it on. Very newbie friendly and very competitive as well. Nice mix of participants. I would definitely do it again.

On a personal note I'm really pleased with placing 22nd on my first traithlon. I think thats a strong performance and just makes the top ten percent of the field. Considering I've been following a half ironman training plan for several weeks now and just did a two day block of training that included a 60 mile ride / 3 mile run brick followed the next day with a 13 mile run on the thursday/friday before the Sunday race I think I should be really pleased with my performance. With a proper taper I expect I could be faster... but theres no time for that. The 1/2 is in six weeks and thats my priority.

For a full race report see my blog at:

http://nickwisdom.blogspot.com/2010/08/i-am-officially-triathlete-n...