Bulldog Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

I ate it on this swim. This is my 5th race and I've never had a problem with the swim but I had a total panic attack today. I don't know what happened - it wasn't crowded, water was a decent temp, I knew the course, etc. Couldn't catch my breath and very nearly jumped on board with the lifeguards. I spent a lot of time pausing to catch my breath and get my heart rate under control early in the swim before finishing up. Too bad, since I was planning to swim around 17:30 for this distance.

Mind over matter... don't let it get to me next time.

Rolled into bike time... I wasn't really hustling in transition anymore after my pitiful swim. That really took the wind out of my sails for the rest of the race.

Not let the sight of all the empty bike racks get me down so much! Also, I didn't have the elastic laces in my shoes today, which was just dumb.

Total time including T1 + T2 was 42:51, but Garmin for bike said 39:10. This is a short course, probably 18.8 km. It was raining by the time I got on the bike and it rained pretty good the whole time. I took the corners slow as a result but was otherwise happy with pace. Wasn't hammering too hard after the swim brought me down.

Quick transition - happy overall. Time included in bike leg.

Took this nice and slow since it was my first 5k in about 8 weeks and we are leaving on vacation tomorrow - the last thing I wanted to do was re-trigger my back injury. Was hoping to finish under 30:00 and met that goal so at least something went right today!

Chatted with various friends at the race. Not hungry at all until we got home.


This race really caught me by surprise. I've been fighting an injury all summer and was totally focused on how my bad back was going to impact my run (no running since early July). It never occurred to me that I would have a problem on the swim leg. Oh well - chalk it up to experience and now I've got incentive to perform next year!