Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I had a fairly good start, but after the second buoy it was tough for me to get back to shore. I was having trouble sighting the shore and even swam in he wrong direction at one point! I also had trouble getting past the breaks on the way back.

I would get a warm up swim in and make sure I spit in my goggles. I should have looked for a body surfing opportunity when coming back to shore, but was focused too much on swimming. Because of this I kept getting pulled back. More open water swims in training will better prepare me.

Getting my suit off and drying my feet was quick. I didn't have a lot of time to practice jumping on the bike, so decided not to do it, but I did rubber band my shoes to the pedals. That's a big time saver! However, after passing the T1 mark and trying to get on my bike, I was dumb. The bike course starts on an incline, and I had forgotten that you need to get to speed first before slipping into the shoes. Needless to say I had to clip my shoes out and then put them on and clip on, which cancelled out the time saving I did in T1!

I'm going to really practice doing the hop on so that it becomes second nature. I watched some videos that show properly slipping the shoes in and will practice that as well.

This was a fun course, but I ended up getting a flat on my back tire around mile 11-12. With no spare tube (see below) I rode the rest of the way flat. I actually managed a fair pace considering, but my time would have been significantly faster if that didn't happen.

I forgot to bring things before the start that would affect my race times: a spare tube and nutrition. I usually tape my gels to the top of my frame, but forgot in the hustle to get to the swim start. I think that affected my run. I also forgot my spare tube, which was integral as I got a flat on my back tire. Funny thing is I changed my tire after the race was done, and in a Charlie Chaplin-esque moment as I was standing next to the bike it popped on its own due to pinch flatting. I forgot a few key things when changing the tube that caused it, so I think even with a spare tube that might have happened.

A few days later I recapped on how to properly change a tube. The step I was missing was pre-inflating the tube before putting it onto the wheel. I also got a new back tire (Continental GP4000s) and had my wheel trued, as well as bought a floor pump. I noticed that the whole time I've had my bike I've been seriously under-inflating my tires. I'm sure that's also been affecting my performance.

Slipped my bike into the rack, threw my helmet on the floor, and put on my racing belt, shoes, and socks.

I've been trying to switch to running sockless since it'll save lots of time, but I got badly blistered during training so decided not to. I'm still working on it. Also, I think I should put my racing belt on under my wetsuit next time. It's less to worry about.

It was a slow run for me since my legs were spent on the bike from riding flat. I picked up shin splints along the way and had to walk a couple times in 30 second intervals.

Running is my weakest part, and I had to skip out on too many long runs during training due to scheduling. For my next race onward I'm going to focus more on the running aspect of training since it makes the biggest impact on time. Eventually I want to run sub 8 minute miles at the Olympic distance even after long bike rides.

Walked around. Didn't stretch much.


Forgetting simple things in preparation inhibited me moreso than actual training.


Well organized and all of the soldiers that volunteered tried as best they can to help out even with little knowledge of what triathlons are. People were very friendly and encouraging.