Mission Bay Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Slower swim than last year, but it felt much better and there was a lot less contact. I didn't really know where to line up last year and this time it worked out. I had ZERO contact the whole way. I am not a very fast swimmer, but I've learned seed myself up towards the front and just take the straightest line. The fast swimmers usually drop me pretty quickly and I tend to find some open water.

Work harder to stay on the feet of the leaders. This will take more dedication (than none) to swim training.

Still have trouble with getting wetsuit off over heels. This time, I did remember to Body Glide, but it still took a while. I haven't perfected the whole stomping on the suit with one foot and lifting up with the other. At least I didn't have to sit down. I noticed that JH's bike was gone. I can usually swim with him, but he smokes me on the bike and run, so I knew I wouldn't be seeing him again.

Get the wetsuit off quicker.

Was curious to see how I would do on the bike. I haven't been riding on the road all that much - just a few social 1-2 hour weekend rides. I have been spinning 2-3 times a week for the past couple of months. I was about 2 minutes faster than last year, so I have to be happy with that. During the race, it felt like my cadence was high, but I never checked it. I should have been up over 100 and I was only around 95. I should have brought my heart rate monitor, but I forgot it. I was passed once, just before heading out on the island and then once again (by KC) in the Sea World parking lot, just before the finish. He said, "here we go again!" (same thing happened towards the end of the bike at IB). Both guys were in my AG, so I knew there were at least 3 in front of me, most likely more. With the wave starts, it's pretty hard to tell where you are in the race (especially since I don't swim with the lead pack). I was in the 9th wave, so there was a lot of traffic out on the course.

Keep an eye on cadence, wear HRM. Push harder!

Good (albeit slow) dismount - wanted to be sure to not lose a shoe this time. There was some congestion going through the timing chute so I had to wait for people to get through the bottleneck before running around them. When I got to the racks for my wave, I only saw a few bikes and one more AGer, DW, getting ready to run out. I started down the wrong aisle and when things didn't look right, I had to go back out and down the next one. This race wasn't all that important to me (or at least not important enough to risk blisters), so I decided to wear socks on the run. Took a little more time, but definitely worth it - I'm pleased to say that my feet are 100% blister-fee today!

Pay attention / plan ahead so as not to miss my rack. Not wear socks?

Felt sluggish at the start, but had DW in sight. I had gotten out of transition before KC, so there were at least 3 ahead of me. It didn't seem like I was making up any ground for quite a while, but I caught up to DW at the Mile 1 marker. As I ran by, he told me I was in 4th. Still 3 more ahead, with JH definitely out of reach. With about 3/4 of a mile to go, I saw the other AGer that had passed me on the bike and I caught him right at the start of the last bridge, heading home. Just tried to keep up the turnover up and over the bridge and then through the finishing area, so as not to be caught from behind.

Push harder from the start. I finished 3rd AG, but saw that 2nd place was just 6 seconds ahead of me. 1st was more than 2-1/2 minutes faster.

Walked around the finishing area and caught up with Monica. When she headed home, I walked back to transition to pack up.


I didn't really target this race and still feel like I had a decent effort. The spin classes are probably perfect training for a 10-mile bike race. I'd like to swim faster, but I really can't expect anything if I don't spend time in the pool. I felt good on the run, despite running the 34-miler in the mountains the week before. I took most of the week off from running since the 50k, so I felt rested, but I really haven't done any speedwork in quite a while. I feel like I could shave a minute or so off the swim and maybe 30 seconds off the run. 56:00 would be a good goal for next year if I race.


Mission Bay is one of the originals. It is well organized. The bike course is definitely longer than 15k - I have had it at 10.2 miles the past two years. It was nice to see them give awards 5-deep in some AGs. I still think they should give out medals instead of the pins for all finishers, adjusting the overall costs accordingly.