Terrapin Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

First triathlon, so little idea of what to expect. I swam in the second wave, which left 15 mins after the first. Rather disoriented at the start. After less than a lap I was feeling like I would struggle to finish, had water in the goggles, form and breathing was hopeless. Realized that if I swam like a novice, I'd get tired like a novice. Settled down after 2-3 laps, and didn't have too much difficulty with traffic. Generally swimming fairly wide. In the second half I started to get relaxed enough to start paying attention to some of those aspects of swim form that I had spent the winter working on. Some I completely forgot about. I had no idea of my position, except that I could tell that some lapped me, and I lapped a couple myself. The horn for wave 3 sounded as I was climbing out of the pool, so the total must have been close to 15 minutes. Slower than I'd want, but very good experience.

Warm-up in the water. Try to get relaxed earlier in the swim - this is probably the most important part. Pay attention to form aspects that I completely forgot about today.

Having forgotten my helmet in my first duathlon, I was sure to attach everything to the bike this time, so that I couldn't forget it. The transition didn't feel fast, but the job got done reasonably efficiently. I'd be faster if I wasn't fiddling with socks, but I'm not at that point yet.

Nothing.

Happy to be out of the pool and on to something that I am more comfortable doing. The twists and turns of the course suited me well, as they favored acceleration, climbing etc. over a super aero position, which I don't have on my roadie. Some of the turns were a bit tricky, and I almost came off a couple of times. I was passing people all the way, but no way of telling whether they were on the same lap as me, which wave they were from, etc. Good to have people to chase. Pleasantly surprised to keep an average just over 20 mph on this course. I became slightly slower as the laps progressed, but overall felt better after the bike than after the swim.

Not much. Practice in taking corners at speed could go a long way in this race, which had 18 sharp corners *per lap*.

Worked fairly well. Practice could shave off a few seconds, but not much.

Legs felt heavy at the start, but not too concerned, based on all the swim/run and bike/run training I've been doing lately. But I didn't loosen up as quickly/easily as I had hoped. Felt progressively better over the course of the run. 9:37 at halfway, so pretty close to even pacing. Again catching people all the way -- I guess that's one of the perks of being such a poor swimmer -- as usual with no way of telling which wave they were from. Steep climb in the last half mile was tough, but it really helped to have somebody from Wave 1 to chase. Pleased to maintain around 6:20/mile, and it certainly didn't feel as fast as that, which I guess is encouraging.

Nothing.

Minimal warm down.


Confidence in the water in a race setting. Swim form more generally. I was 12 minutes behind the overall winner, and I probably lost 7 or more of those minutes on the swim.


Not a big event by any means. But a good one for a first triathlon. Especially for me, since the pool and the bike/run courses are so familiar to me, and it was just a couple of minutes from home. Useful that it's right at the start of the season, too. I met a lot of fellow newbies. Low key atmosphere. This year's event was double the size of last year's one, and hopefully it will continue to grow. I would certainly do it again. It would be nice to have official time splits, quick results, etc. but that is probably not such a priority for a low-key race like this.