Tomato Man - TriathlonSprint

I started out with a comfortable pace taking a breath every 4 strokes first 50 meters felt good. Got bumped a few times. Then It got congested and I got kicked in the nose about 75-100 meters out and had a bit of a bloody nose and started to swim harder and started not being able to catch my breath. I was getting crawled on, pushed and shoved. I decided to stop and just bob in the water for 10-20 seconds and let everyone pass me. Then I started to swim again and could not seem to catch my breath and my swimming was a complete mess. I started to calm down again rounded the first bouy and had the sun right in our eyes I couldn't see more then 10 feet in front of me and tried following people. Hard strokes with right arm soft on the left and breathing every other stroke again I was off course and got corrected. Then went off course the other direction and started to get very frustrated. I would say about 550 meters into the swim I seen all the women passing me that started after me and I had some cleaner water and I finally settled down and was able to swim the last 200 meters taking a breath every 4 strokes and started making up some ground and swimming straight. About 5 times on the swim I just wanted to quit and stop because my performace was completely sub par for me. But this was my first Sprint distance race so I tried not to be hard on myself.

Need to find a way to calm down and deal with being beat up on the swim. There were a lot of people and I am not sure there was clean water anywhere on this swim. That alone drove me to not swim properly and I think kept forcing me to pull harder with my right hand and not my left and I was only breathing to one side the whole time. I tried left side a few times and got nothing but water each time. I went out too hard and lost my breath... Need to control it so panic doesn't kick in.. I had a really hard time settling down on the swim. I also need to not beat myself up half way through when I know it isn't going as well as I would like.

Not bad. I got to T1 and seen my garmin and a high heart rate so I decided to take my time in transition and settle down a bit. Put my socks on then bike shoes, then glasses, garmin and helmet. Fought with my garmin a bit because I left done up instead of having the wrist strap undone... DUH

Make sure my Garmin Wrist strap is undone

I decided I wanted to just settle in and enjoy my bike ride.. I know I can go hard on the bike but running is not my strength so I wanted to get my heart rate down to 150 and hold it there and ensure I could complete the run. I truely did enjoy the bike ride and seeing everyone and cheering on other people as I passed them and as they passed me. I got caught up a few times in groups and had to hang back until I could pass. But I truely just settled into the bike. Delt with the winds and tried to enjoy my time on the bike. I didn't drink enough I thought I emptied my 500ml bottle of infinit and drank it all. Turns out end of the day I had almost half of it left.

Drink More on the bike. I needed more fluids or so I think. I also wouldn't take a hammer gel at the end. I did it and felt I should do it to make sure I had energy for the run. It may or may not have caused my issue on the run.

see comments above

About 1 km into the run I got the worst side stitch I have ever had. I have only ever had one on a run before in my life. I started off running a 6:30 min/km my goal was to just take the first lap easy see how I felt and then pick it up to 5:50/km for the second lap or faster if I could. At about 1 km I had to slow down to a 7:30 pace and I had my fist pushed into my diaphram trying to get my side stitch to go away. I looked at my HRM and it was about 151 BPM and I wasn't breathing too hard.. Slowing down didn't really make the pain let up. I ran 7:30 for about 2 km then couldn't take the pain anymore and had to walk for a bit. After the pain reduced I started to run again very slow at first and finally it started to go away with about 750 meters left in the run and I was able to keep picking up my pace and get back down to about 6 min/km. Helen then passed me and I wanted to try and keep up with her but I was afriad the pain would come back. It was not just about finishing my first sprint and finishing strong over the line

Not sure. I am going to have to do some bricks. One of two things happened. I was not hydrated enough or the hammer gel didn't sit well with my gut and cause some issue. My side stitch hurt so bad that today the day after I am still really sore in that area. Maybe I should have stopped sooner instead of pushing through the pain. I am going to have to experiment a bit and see what really happen. Based on how much fluid intake I had after the race before I finally went to the washroom. That might have been the key. I did hydrate the night before. But maybe not enough.

Crossed the line with friends cheering... Hugged Tina and my mom and a few others.. and went straight to the tent to grab pizza and diet coke.

Then realized I was eating pizza at 9:30 in the morning. It didn't sit well in my gut but hey... I wanted it.


Inexperiance. This was my first sprint and I learned a hell of a lot from it. I beat myself up a lot mid swim and should have just stopped and got my head on my shoulders instead of getting upset with myself.

For my first Sprint Triathlon I am very pleased that I pushed through both mental and physical barriers to get the job done.

I think the fact that both my butt cheeks cramped on the run and made me laugh lightened my mood.. I was completely giggling about it on my run when I started out on my run.


They do a great job of putting this event on. It all started in my wife's Boss's back yard years ago and grew into an event that became a qualifier for the world Sprint distance this year.

And to be on this course and get a High Five from Richard who ran it himself and put on an impressive performace for a 62 year old man. The rest of his family did a great job in the race as well taking tops spots in age groups and overall female. It is impressive to see how it is such a family event for them and where it has grown. His Encouragement to others is amazing.

Overall I had a great time and I am going to do another sprint. I put a lot of hard work into loosing 60+ lbs in a year and getting here. Many hours away from family and hours training. I owe a lot to Tina for putting up with me through it. My good friend and training partner Stef for helping me along the way, encouraging me all the time and for setting great examples in the sport. She is always cheering everyone on even during her own race she takes the time to cheer everyone on. She has become a great training partner, mentor, challanger and a GREAT FRIEND....