Triangle Orthopaedic Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Started 5 at a time according to swim times. Water was chilly but felt fine in the wetsuit. My goggles did not keep ANY water out so I stopped about 5 times to drain them. Should have just ripped them off because they actually stopped me from being able to sight! I peed 3X on this little swim...actually slowed at the end to make sure I was empty before the bike! Guess I was well hydrated! OK swim, nothing special. Pity about the goggles because they cost me a little time and a lot of mental energy!
Anyway, ok swim apart from the goggle issues. Nice lake and a pretty setting. Steep run up to T1.

Better goggles or none at all! These are fine in the pool but not in cold water. Not sure why that is but it is annoying. I have not been swimming more than 2X/week (and often just once) so I could do more training, but happy with this swim given the training, etc.

Someone knocked over my bike so I had to pick it up. That wasted a few seconds. Wetsuit was tough to get off as usual and it turns out I ripped off my timing chip (only noticed that when I was on the bike). I left my shoes on the bike this time and got my feet in quickly when I started. No socks this race.

Not rip off my timing chip. Not have my bike knocked over!

Tried to go hard and managed to a certain degree. I still need to learn to push harder on short courses like this. I slowed a lot for the turns- don't trust the new race wheels yet and don't really want to end out on the pavement. I passed quite a few people but also got passed a few times. It is hard to really settle down on such a short bike course. I realized a little ways into the bike that I didnt have a timing chip anymore so worried about that a little.
360 ft of elevation gain according to Garmin.

Push harder? Be more aggressive on the hills and overall? I really wasn't slacking off so just need to learn to tolerate the discomfort more.

First time my bike position relative to the field has been better than my swim!

My helmet got stuck - couldnt get the buckle loose for some reason. Then I had to scratch around to find my timing chip and wasted 10-15 seconds, which is too bad. Normally my T2s are very fast and this one was mediocre. Anyway, these things happen. Got my shoes on (no socks) and took off. Joked with Casey on the way out (she was manning the exit).

Again, not lose the stupid timing chip in T1. And not fuss around with the helmet. Normally my T2s are very fast. Pity this one was not. It cost me a position in the standings but more than that, it was just annoying :-)

Didn't drink anything- it was about 60 so no real need. I started out comfortable and quickly caught a guy in my age group and hung with him for a bit. Then I went by him and at mile 1.2 or so caught another guy in my AG. He seemed to be struggling a little (well, obviously, if I caught him he had to have been struggling because I wasn't really going that fast). Then came the long downhill. I LOVED it and felt strong. I heard a guy closing on my for about 0.75 of a mile and at 2.5 miles he eased by. I gave him a "looking strong, finish strong" and then hung about 10 feet behind him. Finally I decided to try to pass him back and pushed very hard up that last little hill. I went by him easily and caught the kid in front of him too. It felt really good to finish hard like that. Last minute was at 5:00 pace according to Garmin estimates. Fun times. HR was up above 160 for the last mile+, so solid effort there. Very happy to get into the low 6:xx range for the last mile, but that was mainly downhill too. Nice to pass a few people on the run and not really get passed.

Push harder from the beginning because the first mile was quite slow compared to the other two? Not sure really...it was a solid run for me. I liked the course and it was cool (temp wise). I felt good.

Milled about. Talked to the race officials about my lack of timing chip for the bike. They were not concerned since I finished with it. Talked to CAsey and Jess, and then Alan, Scottie, Jen and her sister. We resolved the "how do you pronounce your name" issue for Scottie (grin). Waited to see the results. Winner was 54 mins! Thys Wind was in 57 and he is ridiculously fast. I was 6th in my AG and beat two guys who's names I recognized and one of them I thought was much faster than me, so either he has gotten slower or I have gotten faster. Fun little race.


Overall fitness. A few things cost me time that have nothing to do with fitness:
- emptying goggles from water about 5X
- losing timing chip and having to find it
- having to retrieve knocked over bike (thanks person who did it. You didn't think to pick it up again? Classy move there).


Really liked this race- the ease of getting there and how simple these little local races are. I am frustrated by the time-wasting issues listed above but that is what you get sometimes. I am very happy with the effort on the run to finish fast. Swim was OK, bike was OK and run was good. Nice to see some familar faces out there.