Hammonton Recreation Department Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Was in the 1st Wave. Spent a lot of time pre-race attempting to get the zipper on my tri-suit straightened out and lost a ton of time that I could have been using to get ready for the swim. By the time I reached the water's edge, everyone from my wave was already in the water. I had to forego using the wetsuit because I would not have enough time to get the wetsuit on and get into the water with my wave. I tossed the wetsuit and I would later grab it on the run from the water to transition. I jumped in the water (it was warm - probably 74 degrees or close to it) and attempted to get some sprints in just before the start. I lined up on the left side, 2nd row and got ready. My strategy was to go full out sprint for the first 100 yards and then get into a smooth manageable rhythm - it didn't work - I blew up. KABOOM! I went anaerobic and lost my breath, I couldn't navigate, I was way off course and I had to stop for 20 seconds and breaststroke to catch my breath. Once I had gotten my oxygen use under control I went to bilateral breathing and focused on staying long in the water and getting a good pull. After the first 200 yards the swim was half decent and I swam until I could feel sand/muck with my hands.

Settle into a nice rhythm much faster and stop worrying about racing everyone else. I'm sure if I didn't get too full of myself this swim time would have been closer to my typical swim time for this distance - 6:45 to 7 minutes.

I'll fix this...

Not a bad transition...a little long. I'd like to push my run a little bit harder. Still trying to figure out what they had two timing mats for. Maybe one was for T1 from the water and the one directly outside of the transition area was for T2 and the run start.

Run a little harder.

Well I rode on top of my shoes for almost the entire first mile and attempted to get my feet strapped in going about 17mph. I went pretty hard the entire way. I only passed 2 or 3 Wave 1 people that finished the swim earlier than me and later on I was passed by 2 others that came out of nowhere. Coming up on the 6 Mile mark and the turnaround I was roughly 2 to 3 minutes behind the lead pack - most of them #1 through #21 or #22 were just heading back and past me just before I reached the turnaround - I was counting how many were ahead of me.

All in all - my finest ride. I should only improve from here...

DQ timing screwed my bike, T2 and run splits up so I can only go by what I have on my Garmin 310XT.

Check my cadence sensor. I must have moved it inadvertently and spent the entire ride listening to the "thup, thup, thup, thup" of the sensor hitting each and every spoke. Good god.

Got my feet out of my shoes early enough - but could not - did not - have enough energy to lift my right leg over to the left so I could do a running dismount. Not good. What is even worse is what happened next...I could not for the life of me; find my spot in transition. I counted my spot as three trees away from the swim in/run out. The problem was I ran to the third tree from the bike in...i screwed myself royally. I was running back and forth between racks until I dropped my bike in someone else's spot and continued to run around like a chicken with its head cut off until I located my shoes.

Worst experience in transition ever. These typically do not take me any longer than 2 minutes - but this time it easily could have been 2x that long. Just think 1:12 instead of 1:14!

Don't make dumb mistakes!

Not bad for one of my runs. Took the 1st mile to shake the bike out of my legs. Tried to focus on cadence and turnover - 10 min/mile for that 1st mile is good for me. Tried to take a GU but I ended up spitting 90% of it out and I dropped the other one.

The rest of the run I ran sub 10 min/mile pace and finished just under 30 minutes. My Garmin said it was waaaay less than a 5K and even less than 3 miles - so which is it. I guess I'll never know.

Seemed - as usual - I still had a lot left in the tank at the end. I need to push past the point it begins to hurt.

Nothing. Minimal stretching and looking for my wife and boys. Gathered up gear from transition, returned my timing chip and walked back to the car.


Busted Zoot tri suit zipper, not being able to get the wetsuit on in time for the swim, going ballistic during the first 100 yards of the swim, not being able to get any cadence feedback during the bike, losing my sport in transition and not pushing myself harder during the run.

Thank God I went into this with the mindset that I needed an early season race to do a dry run and set benchmarks. With that in mind, I'm not too upset. You live, you learn - right?


Started about 5 minutes late and everybody was dumped into only three waves, timing chip did not give splits on my bike, T2 or run (as well as a number of other participants) but it seemed like it was well organized as DQ events normally are, nice fan participation at the Bike In and Finish Line and a terrific post-race food spread. Second best one yet (Stone Harbor takes the cake)- maybe better than the Tri/Du the Wildwoods too (although they are pretty good too). Overall a nice feel to the day. A perfect race because of the location to the Shore on Memorial Day weekend. Our family spent an entire day down the Shore after starting the day with this race. Just a terrific beginning to an awesome day! Kudos DQ!