Heart and Sole Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

First Tri, so I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite a battle for position in the swim lanes as I was trying to make my way around slower swimmers.

I was asked to estimate my swim time for 400 yards for seeding purposes in the wave start. I made the mistake of selecting 10:00 for 400 yards. I didn't choose 8:00 minutes for 400 yards, because I usually average about 8:15-8:30 for that distance. Then I realized that I swim in a meters pool, not yards. So for 400 yards I would be at about 7 minutes. This put me in the middle of a big traffic jam, and my heart rate was way out of control until I was able to get past some of the slower swimmers. I'm still happy with my performance overall, and maintained composure, and came out with a good time.

I was happy to be ranked 4th in age group for T1, and I felt like it went pretty smoothly for my first ever transition.

I was so excited to pass a couple of people, my competitive juices kicked in, and I started pushing it harder on the bike than I had planned. Based on the hills and the wind, my time should have been much slower considering my training experience. But I dug deep and really started 'racing' rather than just enjoying the event. I am paying for it the day after by being pretty sore.

More conservative approach on the bike.

Was not prepared well enough for the weird sensation of getting off of bike and trying to get into the swing of running.

Practice more bricks.

I still ran what for me is a decent pace (9:12/mi) considering the swim and bike beforehand. But it took about 1-1.5 miles to get the weird feeling out of my legs from the bike.

Practice more bricks.

Walked around, gathered belongings, grabbed an apple and a slice of pizza.


Inexperience, poor seeding in the swim, lack of hill training on the bike, lack of brick practice.


A nice local event. Well organized. Results were online within a few hours. Good sportsmanship.

Overall, a great experience for my first triathlon!!