DeGray Lake Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The start line was perpendicular to the shore, so some waded to start and others stayed where they could stand. I went out to the deeper area as it was much less crowded and floated on my back waiting for the start.

I got off to a good start and found a couple of feet to follow. I decided they were too slow, so I jumped on another to the first buoy. I feel I'm doing well, but not putting too much of an effort. I felt this was perfect as I'd probably not be swimming faster on my own. I round the first buoy ok, then I start pulling to the left. I lost the feet I was following and got to the point where I couldn't even see the dude when sighting. I was way wide and off course. I made it back to the last turn buoy pretty good, but I ended up swimming an oval instead of a triangle. I also didn't pick up my effort at all and just cruised in a nice easy rhythm.

I swam until I was about mid-thigh deep in the water and then ran up the boat ramp into T1.

This was by far the cleanest water I've swam in. I could actually see other peoples feet when drafting.

Better navigation and more effort. Both would probably come with more OWS practice.

There was a pretty long run from the boat ramp into T1, but I really just take too much time on transitions. Mostly it's my mindset as I don't like to rush through the transitions.

I was worried about this course. There are essentially no hills that I train on and driving the second hill is intimidating. Also, I just have a 11-21 cassette so I was afraid I'd run out of gears.

I hit the first hill out of transition and wanted to just get over it at as easy an effort as I could. This hill is about the same as Windhaven for any of the Plano peeps for a frame of reference. I made it up in decent shape and didn't have to stand at all, so plan 1 was fine. Once up, I'm cruising at a decent clip with the plan to just ride moderate saving some for the big hill.

Before the race started, I had checked the weather and notice the humidity was 99%. With this info and the free electrolytes from the race packet and the fact that I love trying things for the first time in a race, I took one pill before the swim and dumped two into my water bottle. My first sip from the water bottle turned my stomach with the powder mix in and I couldn't drink much at a time and had to wait 10' or so before drinking again. Luckily, I downed about 3-4 bottles of water pre-race and it's only a 1 1/2 hour race, so I figure I'm okay with just sipping every 10'.

I'm passing a few people here and there and settled behind a couple for a little while before passing them as well. I'm really riding at a conservative pace, but yet only one person passes me. I make it to the big hill. There was a hill to come down which gave good momentum to start the climb and looking at it wasn't too bad on the bike. I grind up in the easy gear standing for about half of the climb. After the big hill was more incline almost to the turnaround. I managed to take about 3 sips of the water all with the same result of it turning my stomach a bit.

After the turnaround, I was a little more aggressive at times, but I'd find myself back at the moderate pace. Other racers were spaced out much more now and only when I'd get another rider in my sites would I really put a hard effort. I was still being a bit conservative as I knew the run started off with a good uphill jaunt. About halfway back, I guess I started to get thirsty as I was able to drink with no problems of it messing with my stomach and I managed to drink my entire aerodrink just as I had planned. It was kind of disappointing to have to go down the last hill riding the brakes in order to make the near u-turn at the end.

Push the pace. I was too intimidated by the hills which really weren't that big of a deal for me.

See T1 comments

Right out of T2, I see my family rooting me on at the base of the hill. I give them all a high five and continue upward. The first segment was up a pretty steep hill and I was laboring. I wanted to walk a bit, but just couldn't with the family watching, so I just sucked it up and kept running. Even with sucking it up, I got passed rather easily by some ulta-fit 50 year old dude I'd not see again until he turned around. After the big hill, it was mostly a modest incline all to the turn around.

I had been having some lower back tightness/pain on this run, so I stopped at the turnaround to stretch it out. I let two guys go and took off after them. One was a 20 something and the other was in my AG. I decided to push it and all the way back and make the AG guy think no way he could stay with me. I never looked back, but he was a noisy runner so I knew I had pulled away a bit and I continued at my hard pace. Back was still bothering me and the downhill pounding wasn't helping. With about a half mile left, I stopped to stretch it all out again. Looking back, I still had a good enough lead where I thought I was okay, but that AGer was hanging on better than I had anticipated so I settled for a quick stretch just to loosen up a little. A quarter-mile later, a guy came flying by me in my AG and I couldn't hold on at all. Turns out he had the fastest run split in my AG. With that push along with the final push to empty the tank the last tenth of a mile, I was able to hold off the other guy in my AG.

This was the second race in a row I was battling people in my AG down to the finish and it certainly brings an added aspect of fun in comparison to my previous years of racing.

Again, I don't run any hills and my mile run splits ranged from 9:36 down to 7:02 for the fastest. Also, I think the run was completely shaded and I didn't even notice if it was hot/humid during the race.

Nothing; I'm cautious about my back and certainly don't want to blow another disk. The run was the only leg that I got out of my conservative mentality and really raced.

Drank alot of water, ate some bananas & oranges and hung out in the lake shower. This was a boat with a water pump and a fireman's hose spraying the parking lot just past the finishing chute. It was simply awesome.


Excellently run race. I really liked the parking lot shower and the freshly cooked burgers.

I'll definitely be back in the future.