Sodus Point Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The lake was a pleasant surprise as Lake Ontario can be choppy and not the greatest water but other than a thick carpet of sea weed in the first 8 feet or so off the beach, the lake couldn't have been any smoother or clearer.
My swim is getting better, but still MOP so I seeded my self in the middle towards the back. The waves were simple, woman first, men 5 minutes later, so it was a pretty good sized wave. The first leg was crowded and people were all over each other. After the first bouy I found some clean water and started focusing more on the stroke and swimming properly.

After last bouy turned toward the beach and tried to pick up the pace. Upon returning to the beach walked through the mucky sea weed and ran across the sand towards T1.

The swim lessons are helping so I just need to keep doing the drills and building the swim endurance. But for me, it was a much better swim result than my last 2 tris so I am happy with it.

Not a bad T1, I used the full sleeved wetsuit which always is a bit more of a challenge to get off the ankles for some reason.

Leaving transition the first section is short and flat but a bit narrow so I just got into a good position and spun to get the legs warmed up. After that it was time to hammer. Decided before the race to push harder than I ever have and keep the watts up over 200 and see how the run went. Having done mostly longer stuff I am still having fun seeing what I can do on the bike and still be able to run.

After the first 5 miles I was a bit concerned about the pace, the watts were good, about 211 but the pace was around 17 but the rolling hills and slight headwind were more of a factor than I realized.

After turning back north with a flat section, some downhills I kept pushing the effort and the pace took care of itself. I passed plenty from the womans wave on hybrids and men on all sorts of bikes. Didn't get passed too many times.

After 10 miles I started to look for Dud, hoping to catch him before the bike was over. I was looking for my swim coach Stephanie too, but didn't catch either. Only thing really exciting on the bike was once I got back into town, the police were trying to manage traffic and one of the intersections was kind of congested. The police officer waved a car through and she took her time and stopped at one point in the intersection. 3 of us had to sneak between her and another car waiting. Otherwise, an uneventful ride, which is good.

Not a lot for this race, hadn't been focusing on the bike since Musselman so I was happy with my performance. I think with some hard work in the office season I still have a lot of upside on the bike.

My transition was set up near swim in, run out but on the opposite side from the bike in and out. I had my shoes unstrapped but when I went to pull the feet out they unclipped so I had loose bike shoes so I couldn't push the run through. Other wise I got the rest of the switch done pretty quickly. Could have maybe saved another 10 or 15 seconds without the bike shoe issue.

Coming down the lane to my spot I see that Dudley is just ahead of me so I give him a shot about getting going!

I don't practice the in and out of bike shoe on the bike enough and it showed.

Took off chasing Dud as he was probably 30 seconds ahead of me. He had been having calf issues the last couple of weeks so not sure how he would be running. Unfortunately it was acting up so he wasn't running as fast as he would normally. It was interesting coming up behind him as he had his Old Fart jersey on and the comments from the spectators were humorous!

Pushed up the first hill to see how the legs were going to do after the bike and they felt a little heavy but moving pretty good. Dumped some water over my head at the first aid station and kept moving.

The more the run went along the better I felt. Finished the first lap and the course was getting a bit more crowded, but there was plenty of room. Got to the top of the hill again, sipped some water at the aid station and again dumped the rest over my head.

Pushed the last mile hard. Finished with a fairly solid run. Faster by a few seconds than the 5K I did the previous day so all in all I was pleased.

Pushed the early miles a bit harder.

Walked around and waited for Dud to finish. Had a hot dog, chatted with some other folks from Canandaigua and headed for home.


This wasn't an A race as I want to focus on a good result at Finger Lakes and the marathon in October.


Yellow Jacket does a good job.