Lake Lanier Islands Triathlon (Emerald Pointe Triathlon) - TriathlonSprint

I stayed in the back and to the outside of my wave to avoid the crowd, and it worked; only one person hit my foot and I just hit one person's foot one time. Unfortunately, I swam nearly the entire time on my back. I think it was not being comfortable swimming freestyle for any great distance combined with being in my first wave start at my first triathlon.

Swim freestyle the entire time which will require me to spend a significant amount of time this winter getting my distance and overall comfort level higher.

I don't have a wetsuit, so I didn't have to worry about that part. I also don't have clipless pedals. Therefore, I put on my running shoes for the bike leg. I put on a long sleeve shirt, windbreaker and gloves. I tried eating a cereal (breakfast) bar and got half of it down before deciding to throw the rest away so I could start the bike leg.

I will jog in and out of transition next time since I walked the entire time. I want to experiment with energy gels to speed up my nutrition intake; I didn't want to try anything new on race day and risk making myself sick.

This course was NOT "relatively flat" as described on the website; I passed several people walking up the first big hill. I set a mini goal on that hill to continue pedaling throughout the course (i.e. no walking at all) which I met. On the truly "relatively flat" parts, I maintained a comfortable cadence to ensure I finished the race. My cables were sticking when trying to shift, so I used my thumb to push the end of the cable nearly every time I shifted. Also, my seat height dropped about 4 inches from when I started the bike leg to when I returned to transition.

I need to get a computer to tell either how fast I'm going or what my cadence is so I can go faster. If I had known I was averaging 13.7 mph, I would have picked up the pace some. I also need to work on my bike to get the cable working properly and correct my seat so it will maintain the same height throughout the ride.

Since I don't have clipless pedals, I already had my running shoes on. I walked in and out of transition (just like in T1) mainly to conserve energy to ensure I finished the race. Because the transition area was on top of a fairly steep hill, I didn't have a chance to jump off a moving bike. Of course, I still probably would not have tried it because there were too many specators around! After taking off my helmet and windbreaker, I put on shorts, a hat and race number before leaving transition. I took off my long sleeve shirt and tossed it to my brother after I left T2 and realized I would probably get too hot if I kept it on.

I will jog in and out of transition next time to decrease my time. I will also take off the long sleeve shirt in T2 and put on my race number and hat as I'm leaving the transition area.

I started jogging out of transition then began walking. My idea was to do alternate between jogging and walking. When I reached the first mile marker, I looked at my stop watch and began calculating that I could possibly finish the race in under 2 hours which was my "stretch" goal (Again, finishing it was my top priority.). Therefore, I began to walk a little faster than I had been to that point, and I started to jog a few more times than I normally would have. I did make sure to walk through the drinking station both times to drink all of my Gatorade.

I need to get a heart rate monitor to better pace myself and lower my overall time.

I walked around with my wife, kids (& my niece) and brother to see all the vendors, ate some fruit and drank a lot of Gatorade. I had a protein drink and found a vendor making sandwiches so I got a turkey and cheese sandwich for some additional protein.


Without any way to track my speed/cadence and heart rate, I didn't risk pushing myself too hard for fear of not being able to finish. My bike needs to be tuned so it will work correctly and dependably. Of course, my bike was free, so I can't complain too much about it! I also need to be more consistent with my training because I slacked off considerably towards the end due to increased time at work. I will need to figure out how to continue the training even with the extra time at work.


This was a well organized event with a ton of volunteers and participants. My only recommendation is to have a little more accurate description of the bike and run legs - perhaps removing "relatively flat" would be a good place to start.