Four States Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I lined up towards the front but towards the left. I took off with minimal banging which was a nice change. I have been working on breathing every third stroke but after the first marker I just couldn't get enough of a breath. After I switched to breathing every stroke I was able to get plenty of air. I looked up one time and I was actually swimming out to the open water. I quickly turned and headed back into the group. After the last turn I felt pretty good and tried to pick up the pace some. I got out of the water and decided to get my wetsuit off myself. I quickly realized there were more bikes still in transition than normal which made me think I must have had a good swim. I am excited about this swim time becuase I am usually around that 2 minute per 100 average. I will continue doing what Eric says and working on my swim.

Since this is my best swim ever I wouldn't say much except learn how to sight better. I didn't sight much becuase I thought I was on line but realized I swam a little extra distance.

A little slow getting my wetsuit off and shoes on. After that I was out of there.

I hit the road and quickly passed about 5 people. After I hit the damn road I passed Daniel and a pack of about 3 other guys and then I was pretty much by myself until closer to the turn around. The leaders started passing me so I decided to count and see where I was at. To my suprise I was 13 overall. This gave me a little extra motivation because I couldn't believe I was that close to the leaders. After the turn around I passed a guy and realized it was Pat. Again more motivation because he could kick my butt on a bike any day he wanted. After that it was pretty uneventfull until we got towards the end of the damn again. I went through a period of either laziness of something because I felt my pace drop some and sure enough Pat comes around me. I caught and passed him again on the hill and hammered the downhill trying to put some distance on him. Didn't work because as soon as we hit the lake road he came back around me.

I think I could have kept my focus and shave a few seconds off but other than that I am happy with my bike. I have to say that this years bike felt tougher than last year. I felt the wind but didn't think it was too bad. I guess it was worse than I thought.

This sucked. I took one foot out of my shoes early and then tried to pull my other foot out and I accidently unclipped. Here I am trying to run with one shoe on and the other shoe banging the ground on the bike. I stopped and took my shoe off and ripped the other one off the bike. After that I just got my shoes on and race belt and took off.

Not have one shoe on and one off. I have to work on a routine here. I feel like I give some time up on the transitions. I must admit I don't practice them at all.

I left transition knowing that I was 12th overall at the moment and knowing that I had to have the run of my life to hold anyone off. I left trasition right behind Pat and thinking to myself "just stay with Pat no matter how much it hurts and you will have a good race". Worked well until a little before the T. At that point Pat took off and I just decided to keep a good steady pace because I knew I could hold what I was doing. After the first turn around I could see Arron and Brian running together. I didn't think I had enough of a gap on them to hold them off. Arron yells at me "CARL I AM COMING FOR YOU". My race belt flyes off so I just pick it up and run with it in my hand the rest of the race. At the second turn around Arron has gained some ground on my but Brian really hadn't. I tried to stay steady and not do anything stupid. I felt my foot start to hurt pretty good about half way through due to a rock hitting me in the ball of my foot. I thought that I had worked too hard to stop at this point and the pain wasn't too bad. After the last turn I tried to pick up the pace a little to make sure that I didn't get caught with 100 yards to go like Brian did last year. I crossed the line and realized Arron had caught me and finished only about 2 seconds behind me.

Nothing really. I think I could have pushed a little harder but not sure that I would have been able to finish the way that I did.

This race is always fun and this year was no exception. I was super pumped with my effort and improvement in my swim and run. I actually placed 3rd in my age and got hardware for the first time ever. This actually makes me want to train even harder.