24th Annual Tri For Fun #1 - TriathlonSprint

This swim was notably better than my first triathlon swim two weeks ago. At least I did not panic this time, though I could feel my breathing was shallow. Overall, I felt more relaxed. With that said, this race was still a huge learning experience for me. Unfortunately, I overestimated the swim abilities of some swimmers in my wave - a very large wave! When the gun went off, I paused to let other, seemingly better swimmers, get out in front since I am a slow swimmer. About 50-100m into the swim, it seemed there was a huge bottle neck of swimmers who may have paniced, and the bottle neck continued around the 1st bouy. It was difficult to swim past most swimmers partly because the wave was so big I found myself boxed in, and partly because swimmers where using modified backstroke/sculling action or the breaststroke, so I got kicked, hit and/or grabbed a lot. It seemed like there simply wasn't a window of opportunity to get around swimmers. I am still do not feel terribly confident as a swimmer, so the size of the wave and commotion threw me off a little. I now realize that my swim skills are better than some swimmers. Time to give myself some credit there. Next time I do this race, I will likely take off quickly to avoid the 1st time OW swimmers. By the time I reached the 2nd bouy, I began to feel frustrated over not finding a rhythm. Overall, I am happy with today's performance.

Give myself a little more credit for my swim ability, and try to seed myself in front of others.

Removed goggles and swim cap immediately upon exiting the water, and managed to quickly get my wetsuit down around my waist, which made it really easy to remove entirely when I arrived at my bike. I did a better job of setting up my transition area for this race. Now, I need to find a way to mount my Garmin 305 to my P-1 handlebars. Unfortunately, the Garmin mount I purchased is too large to fit.

Nothing. Transitions just keep getting better and better.

Pretty easy bike course. Other than one small roller, I swear most of this course was a slight decline. The course was advertised as 11 miles, but today's course was definitely 1.5 miles short.

I will be participating in Tri For Fun #3 in August, and I will be riding a lot harder on this course.

Very good transition. I'm happy with it.

Maybe look into some Yanks laces. Tying shoes takes too much time!

Started to get a mild calf cramp at the beginning of the run, but it worked itself out nicely. At two points during the run I began to experience an immediate, and quite pressing need to "go"...you know, go as in "evacuate". So, I slowed down both times in hopes the feeling would go away - it did! Overall, a nice improvement from my first triathlon, but still believe I could have completed this in well under 8:00/mi

Grabbed a sports drink. Walked around, stretched a little and then packed up the car. Then, we watched others as they crossed the finish line.


Great raffle prizes. I won a nice Voler cycling windbreaker!