Made To Tri – Huntington Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Unlike the south shore, the North shore of Long Island is rocky. When the glaciers stopped moving south and began retreating they stopped right along Long Island and all the debri they brought was left on the north shore. Running and walking was a challenge, but the water was clear and calm.

There were only 4 waves so it was the most crowded start I have vere been in. Took advantage of the wade in to releive myself. The swimmers were all over the place and quite aggressive, sort of how they drive. I elbowed and kicked anyone that tried to swim over me.

Keeping my head from bobbing was my goal today and I think I was successful. I averaged 1:41/100 which is at least 10 seconds/100 faster than White Lake a couple of weeks ago. I swim better going clockwise as I breath to my right mostly and can see the bouys better, but I tried to use the other swimmers as a guide too. I know I can cut more time still as I bring together all of the technique my coach has been teaching me.

Not much

The run up to transition and then the run to the bike mount line were long. Fortunately they ran a carpet most of the way from the water to transition which helped with the rocks.

Run faster?

This course was extremely challenging! There were many hills and very few opportunities to get in aero and stay there for any length of time. All the down hills seemed to end in busy streets, hairpin turns, or both! The ground was still a little damp in places from the recent rains. That and the number of riders made this an adventure. I knew what to expect having riden it the night before.

I used every gear I had! At least three (more like 5) hills required my smallest gear, and in one section I hit 36 mph for a very short while. If I had to do this race again I would ride a road bike with better small gears.

The route was well marked with lots of orange arrows and the word "SLOW" all over the place. I think there was one bad crash as an ambulance took off through the run course when I was running to get to the bike route.

When I rode the course the night before the race director saw me finish and asked about the marking, I told her it was good, but there was a giant dead opossum in the middle of the first tough climb. She had had it cleaned up byefore race time!

I deliberately took it a little easy to be careful. Passed at least 100 people and was passed 5 times.

Bring a road bike.

Long run in again to transition. Made a stupid error in racking my bike one rack off. Once I figured out the gear lying at my feet wasn't mine, I moved to the correct rack. Probably should have been under a minute.

Watch Sesame Street and learn to count to 5.

While I had driven and then ridden the bike course I figured I did not need to ride the bike course as I had been over most of it many times. MISTAKE!

The run course and the bike course are the same for about 3/4 of a mile then the run course diverges right. After that it makes a left. I assumed the terrain would be about the same. Turns out I was very very wrong!

A soon as I made that left I saw a hill bigger than the hills on the bike course! I let out an involuntary f-bomb and began my ungainly slog up the hill! Damn that hurt! Then after turn around, we had to run down the hill and try not to trash our quads too much.

At mile 3 of this 3.3 mile course I had just passed this kid that was making all sorts of weird sounds and running in an awkward floppy style. We come to a sharp right turn that heads us to the finish and the people there start yelling "Go Josh!" Sudden Mr. Floppy runs by me! (I guess he is Josh) Once he was about 20 feet ahead of me I thought "No wy Mr. Floppy beats me" and I gave it all I had! I was probably running between a 5 and 6 minutes/mile for those last 0.1-0.2 miles and I beat him to the finish!

As I gasped for air I saw his calf. He is 22 years old and was the runner for a relay! I really need to pay more attention to these types of details.

Check out the entire course.

Pre-race food choices and bike choice.


It was good for a first time race. Defintely could use more than 2 port-a-potties. Needs better signs and They need to let racers back in to transition before the last runner leaves.