New Millenium Fitness Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was my first race, and swimming was still new to me. I learned to swim as a child, but had never really gotten into it. Starting to swim seriously as an adult is difficult, and I still had a lot to learn about body position, proper stroke technique, and how to propel myself with my kick. For where I was as a swimmer at this time, I think I did fairly well, but I have improved a ton. In the months following this race, I began swimming with a Masters team, which was the first time I had ever worked with a swim coach. I have made vast improvements in stroke, body positioning and kicking. Most of my Masters group claim that I "kick their ass" in the pool. It's amazing how you can improve with just a little hard work and dedication. I can't wait for the swim leg of my next race.

A LOT! As I mentioned above, I was still learning a lot about the mechanics of swimming and have made a lot of improvements since this race.

This transition went pretty well, I transitioned quicker than a lot of the people who exited the pool before I did. Putting on a shirt took a while, but everything else went well. I don't have triathlon specific shoes, so I put my bike shoes on before getting on the bike, and clipped in as I rode out of transition.

Skip the shirt. It took too long to put on, and I honestly think I can get back another 30 seconds by going shitless. Eventually I would like to invest in some tri specific shoes so I can already have them on the bike and ready to go, but putting the shoes on before hand worked well too.

I loved this course. I ride a lot of hills, and had riden this particular course a couple of times before race day, so I knew where to push and where to back off and save energy. I passed a ton of people, but I did not get passed at all. This was not a closed course, and I did have to slow down for a car or two which really upset me since I know my time would have been faster otherwise. Overall, I was very pleased with my ride, and it turned out to be the 5th fastest on the day!

Drink more on the bike. I ended up having to drink in transition, which took up some time that I could have used to run.

Pulled my feet out and rode with them on top of my shoes for the last bit before transition. I dismounted the bike well and ran right over to my rack. My heltmet was off and my shoes went on quickly, but I didn't drink enough on the bike, so I spent time in transition doing that.

Finish drinking on the bike and skip the drinks in transition.

I felt a little slow, and I know I could have pushed harder. I got passed by a guy I had passed in T1 and thought I had left behind on the bike. I came to find out he's a high school cross country runner and he ended up running a 19 min 5k off the bike! You get him faster in the water and on the bike, and he'll be a force to be reckoned with. That was the only time I got passed on the run, but it still felt very slow, and I didn't really feel tired at the end, so I know I could have pushed harder. My 5k PR (11/23/10) is a 19:13, so this performance was definately not my best effort.

More bike to run bricks. Push harder when your body doesn't say no. If you've still got something left at the end, you didn't race hard enough. Leave it all out there on the course.

Just walked around the race site talking to friends, family, and other racers. A little stretching but nothing too serious. Decided to skip the long line at the massage table.


A lack of swim experience. My work with the Master group has definately helped in that area though. I think I was too much in my head during the run. On the bike, I just go. The bike is where I live. If I have time off I'm riding, I teach a spin class, and I'm always finding an excuse to make the 2 hour drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a long ride. I don't even have to think on the bike, because it's like second nature to me, but that was not the case with the run. I have since made great improvements to my run and can say similar things about how my run is not a mental challenge and I can go without even thinking about the effort I put out, and hopefully that will be the case in my next race.


This was a very well organized race, and it's great to have events like this locally. I would definately recommend this to someone who is new to the sport and looking for a fun race to cut their teeth with.