TrySports Mayo Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I swam out pretty quick and I knew I was going too hard when I looked up and I was in the lead group. So I turned it down and began to drop back as I knew I wouldn't last. I caught up to a bottleneck of people at the only turn buoy. There was a wall of about 5 swimmers across and 2-3 deep. They were all wading to get around the buoy. I decided not to wade with them and began to push through. Just then the guys in front of me drop down to swim and I got kicked in the face knocking my goggles to the side of my head and almost off! I paniced and gathered myself and got situated again. I began my swim back in and felt a lack of energy (missing my sugar high from my gel) and just dealt with it. I soon began to catch up to other swimmers about 400yrds out. The water was about 3ft low and people were trying to wade to the finish and I passed many by continuing to swim til the hands hit.

Swim Out was one big wet grassy, muddy hill. I popped out of the water and struggled to trot uphill. My legs felt cramped as I made my way into the rack. I saw Alan on his way out, so apparently he beat me out of the water! ugh.

I again passed 2 people at the mount line and flying mounted. My legs were stiff and I was winded from the swim/T-run. I got a good cadence going and began to lay down some legs. There was light traffic out on the main road and bikes and cars were everywhere! I found Alan out in the distance and knew he was experiencing the same traffic congestion. Then the skies opened and opened hard. Rain sheeted down hard. It hurt on the face because these were ginormous drops. Alan had pulled away some on the hills and I couldn't make out his jersey anymore. I got to the back stretch off the main road and the roads opened up. I thought...Alan's mine and laid down one hell of a hammer. I knew that this was my last sprint tri until florida so I wanted to really push here. Speed increased and I was in the 27s..solid! I was passing lots of riders. I only remember getting passed twice. At one point there was a huge downhill section, rain was sheeting and there was a slight cross wind. I tucked and again pressed harder. I got 38mph out of it and as it flattened out...I gave a "yeehaw" as I passed Alan. and began the rollers back in. Unfortunately, he caught me on the last uphill and I tailed him into T2. I rolled way too hard into the dismount and over shot my run off the bike into the gravel. That felt horrible on my bare feet!

I had a good trot in and I had to knee down to get my shoes on as they had to 1st be emptied and then slipped on sans socks. I grabbed some gels and took off on Alan's heels.

I've always hated this run course, but add the flowing mud river and puddles on the trail and it was quite fun. I had to run on the sides of the trail to avoid busting my ass. As my Kinvaras had no grip on the mud and roots. I saw Alan rounding a aid station in the field loop section and I knew then that I was not gaining. My ankles and calves were tense the whole run from all the inclined running. I got to mile 2 and Meg was there telling me that Alan was just ahead of me. It didn't matter, I knew I was done. There were a few uphill steep sections that I had to walk because my knee really started to hurt from all the lateral torquing. I made it to the pinestaw and knew I was on the final stretch and just dug in hard for sprint into the uphill finish chute. I crossed feeling fairly zonked but knew the rain really killed my run time.

I was not overheated, just waterlogged as the rain never let up. I ran down to T to bag up my stuff as it was pretty much soaked!!


weather, bad swim.


Mayo is a great course. The bike got really fast with the new pavement. FS Series does this race right! Even in the rain!