T-Rex Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Nothing special here. I love swimming in my wetsuit! The time was about 1.5 minutes faster than my fastest time on this course, so I can't really complain. My sighting was spot on, in fact, I hit two of the bouys, and I even caught a couple drafts along the way. I do need to continue to improve my endurance. I made it about halfway through before my arms began to fatigue, but up until that point, I was able to hang relatively close to the front. I swam until my hand hit the bottom, stood up and got super lucky getting my wetsuit unzipped in the first try. Took off my googles and cap, stuffed them into the sleeve of my wetsuit, and ran to T1! Even though the water was 78 degrees, as warm as it can get for wetsuits, I really didn't feel hot at all until the last 100 yards or so. The wetsuit (although a bit of a crutch for me) helps so much just by keeping my form together longer.

Hmmm... More swim training. I have 1 more tri this year and it only a 500 yarder, so my hopes are high for it.

So the chips all screwed up here, and I got assigned a default T1 time of 44 seconds. I actaully think its pretty accurate, since my time was only .5 seconds off from what they assigned me. Whatever. It was a good T1. After enough practices, the transitions "slow down" in your mind and become routine. 44 seconds to get the wetsuit off and get going on the bike is plenty fine with me. Took off to the mount line, hopped on, and took off.

Nada. Maybe move a little quicker on the run in from the swim, but I just try to control my heart rate during that time.

I was able to cruise this... and still set my fastest bike time ever...

There are three things I hate about this course. The transition setup, the amount of turns on the bike course, and the beginning of the bike course where you can only ride single file. Got stuck behind a girl riding at oh...14 mph..... Come on! lets go! But I digress

After I got around her I got my shoes fully situated and took off. The first mile is all about not loosing a ton of time, but not blowing up after the swim. Once I settled down, I was able to pick up the pace. I was passing a bunch of people, and even though I started in the elite wave, I am not the strongest swimmer, but I'm pretty good on the bike. Today, I just felt great. I was consciencely trying to hold back a little for the run, but every time I looked down, I was above 25 mph! GREAT!

Got to the first major turnaround, and I though I saw the leaders heading back... I wasn't to sure though. At the second turnaround, I knew exactly where I was. 8th place and not so far back. I caught two more guys the way back, and got passed twice (by the same two guys I rode out of transition with, we were just swapping places the whole time). Entered T2 in 8th.

Nothing, I felt like I saved plenty for the run here, and still had a great split. The turnarounds on this course and the narrowness at times can really limit your speed. Without that, I'm pretty sure I could have been sub 30 on this course, which would have been great.

3rd fastest T2!!! and the faster guys had 19 second T2's... Needless to say, I left T2 a couple spots ahead of where I entered, either 4th or 5th.

What can you do differently? Pause time? take a timeout? Throw your chip accross the run mat so it stops your T2? I don't know.

OK. The run started out pretty good. My plan was to run "easy" for the first mile (its 100% uphill) at about a 6:40 pace to get everything underneath me. When my body is really clicking, I can run 6:10 ish for a 5k pace in a sprint tri, but I have been slacking my running a little bit too much perhaps... The first mile, I did keep it under control and felt pretty darn good being at the pointy end of the race. I was making distance up to the guy in front of me, and then A fast dude went blowing by me. He is more than double my age..... Holy crap. haha. It took a little bit of mental recovery from that blow, and managed to convince myself run my race. Hit the first mile right at 6:40 and I really wanted to pick it up from there. But my body had other plans. I cramped up nicely and was only able to manage a 7 minute mile for the second mile. I think about 4 guys passed me in that mile. The third mile did me no favors either, and I ran a 7:07, and got passed at least once more. Oh well, it serves me right for slacking. Unfortunatly, with about 3/4 mile left, I started feeling good again, and was able to drop back to around 6:30 pace. Crossed the finish line right as the clock clicked to 1:07. A PR for this course (not the run.... at all)

More running.

Walk around, talk, suck down water.


Ready.... run training. I never thought I would say that. More miles needed in the month remaining before my next race. I set swim and bike PR's for this course, and if I ran anywhere near what I was running at the beginning of this season, I would have run about 1:04, which would have moved me up significantly. OH well.


This was the 5th time in two years I have done this course. It was my fastest time, and besides the comments above about what they should fix (transition, narrowness, and the turnarounds on the bike) I really enjoyed racing here. It is also my last time racing here, as next year I won't be in Michigan by the time the series starts, so it was fun guys!