Jackson County Triathlon - TriathlonLong Course

Yep, I knew the swim course was short. There's no way I could swim two 500 yard loops with a run on the beach in 7:41. The swim may have only been half that. At a pace of 1:32/100 yards a 500 yard swim would take about 7:41 so my guess is the swim distance was between 500 and 600 yards. The two swimmers from the relay teams are much faster than me in the pool. I was expecting to be minutes behind them. I came out of the water at the same exact time as Steve and Bob was only 11 secnods ahead of me. Neither had wetsuits so looks like my DeSoto bottoms gave me an edge.

The water was smooth, virtually no chop, a pretty good swim for me. I was right on with the turn bouys. There was a little incidental contact but par for the course.

Nothing really. I should have gone out a little faster given the short distance but I wasn't sure as it just looked short.

Typical T1 for me. A little extra time getting the wetsuit off due to the bulky timing chip holder.

Not sure, haven't taken T1 101 yet.

Great bike ride for me. I went out fast, off the saddle as I left the park entering traffice on the main road. Settled into an aero position and just rode. Nothing fancy, just friggin' rode. There were about 600 or so in the race so lots on the bike course. Roads were blocked off to traffic so lots of space to pass.

There were a few mountain bikes out there doing the long course, tough going up those two clmbs with big knobby tires.

I passed Frank, relay team 1 5 minutes into toe bike. Passed Kaylee, relay team 2, about 5 minutes later. Going in I thought it would be close between myself and the relay teams because in a 1,000 yard pool swim, Bob and Steve would beat me by at least 3-4 minutes. With my DeSoto bottoms and the swim being excessively short there was virtually no ground to make up other than T1 time.

My favorite moment was on a flat, maybe sightly downhill section where I coasted past a TT carbon bike with wheel covers. I pedaled hard while catching up to him, then took a breather in an aero position and moved past him while he was till pedaling. Lovin' the aerobars.

Last year I did the sprint on the same exact course, just one lap instead of two and I averaged 20.3 mph. This year I do TWO laps averaging almost 23 mph, so yeah, bike has improved a bit :)

Nothing really. I rode to the best of my ability.

My transition spot was right by the T2 entrance. Helmet off, shoes on, took a drink of water. I forgot my aero bottle so only had one in the cage but it wasn't too hot so I was O.K. on hydration. I did forget gels for the bike ride so I made sure and took 2 with me for the run. Since my bike was right at the transition bike entrance I had to run the entire length to the run exit. Much easier with running shoes than bike shoes.

Oh yeah, forgot to put on my race belt with bib.

Put race belt on to follow the "rules". Not sure what I'd do differently, maybe when I take T2 101 I'll find out.

Coming out of transition there was a water station which was nice. I felt as though I was going out too fast so I slowed down a little because my last race was tough the last half and I didn't want that to happen again. I really wanted to run sub 8 minutes miles this time. Last time was like 8:22 pace.

On two water stations I took some gatorade and water and dumped half the water over my head as it was getting warm. I really paced myself, not going out too fast. Got the the turnaround feeling pretty good. Saw our two relay runners, Brandon and Pete. Finally it sank in that there was no way they would run me down so I knew I was having a good race. I knew Pete would run sub 7's and I knew I would need a 5 minute cushion starting the run.

I ended up averaging 7:47 so I was pretty happy with my time, especially with the effort put forth on the bike.

Not much. With the added focus on the bike this year my run has suffered. I need to run more than 2-3 times a week. Also need to add in some speedwork.

Not really a warm down. After they took my timing chip I grabbed a bottle of water and went back near the run course finish to meet up with 4 of the relay members so we could cheer on our two runners.


My weakness used to be cycling. Now it's running. I think I'll sign up for another April marathon, that will keep me running. This time I'll make sure and do some speed work.


I enjoy these races regardless of the amount of "fluff". KLM races don't have awards ceremonies, finishers medals etc. but I only paid $140 for 3 races. I was a little dissapointed in how short the swim distance was. Looking at the results I figure this cost me 4 to 5 places overall, one in age group.