Crescent Moon Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Not very good. Tough swim. First 200 started out ok, then it just seemed like there was a hitch in my giddy up. It wasn't till a day later that I realized my shoulders were fatigued from the suit. Anyway, I kept plugging away. About 450-500 in I started to cramp on the lower right abdomen. I was almost certain from the beginning that it was due to water temp instead of nutition. That was confirmed upon exiting the water. It was a long uphill climb to transition. As my body warmed the cramps disappeared. Either way, I had to push through which didn't help for time purposes.

Limit myself to event temps of 69-70F or higher. Keep re-learning to swim. I stopped rescue diving for a reason. In certain conditions, my body began to shut down. I knew there was no way to avoid those conditions during certain seasons of the year, so I quit. I need to hold to those limits. At 20 it was ok, but I want to walk at 70. So, I will limit by temp till I move back to TX. On the upside, my water survival skills are very well ingrained. I was able to strech for several minutes while breathing and bobbing in the water. I don't think the volunteers even noticed.

Had a hitch geting suit unzipped, but otherwise super. Good idea to remove tank before race. I would have really froze on the first part of the bike. Suit came off fairly quick. Looking at final splits the .25 mile climb from the shore was included in the swim time. So my swim was better than I had originally thought. I wasn't in a hurry here, I was quite relaxed at that moment. Focus would have brought the T1 time down, but over not bad for a suit involved. I also socked up for the rest of the race.

hold my motivation a little better after just one bad leg. I managed to get it together on the run out of T1, but I should have gotten to that mental state on the run to T1, not out of it. T1 exit was very narrow, which ment no room for a flying mount, or dismount on entry either. I was very dissapointed in this. 600 racers, supposedly, and one narrow bicycle path for the first 100 yds, then a right onto a main road. Not very well thougth out, especially when the run ends on a nice wide two lane road. Once I made the turn onto the first part of road, I was back in the game mentally. OK, so I didn't make my swim time, no biggy, go have a good bike and run. That will still show improvement. So I pedal on.

First mile was tough. My legs nearly froze. Make HR management tricky. Then things were going good, nice pace, high cadence, good shifting and cornering. Smart passing, and prime HR zone management. Then about 5 miles in I rounded a corner, downshifted for the climb, and boom. Chain dropped all the way to the inside. No biggy, upshift and everything will be ok, no stop needed. Nope, what a stroke of luck. In 36 years of riding a bike this has happened at least 2 dozen times, and never has the chain jammed between the bottom bracket and the small ring. Today was my day, and it wasn't coming out by manual force alone. I pulled and pulled, no avail. So I walked .25 mile back to the corner where there were volunteers. One of them had a screw driver large enough to give me some leverage. All I had was a small tweaker, no leverage allowed. I pried the chain loose got it back on and mounted up. Now after at least 10 minutes of fiddling with the chain, my mind is in twilight zone. With a couple of hills to start me back off with, I couldn't make myslef charge, it was just spin up. At the half way turn around I was supposed to start a fluid and fuel regiment, but my mind was gone. This wasn't a race any more, it was just about finishing. Too many people would have made this a DNF. I chose to just keep the HR above 130 and just enjoy the views. I tried several times to get my mind back it the game, but it wasn't happening. Just make it a good workout, and it has been a great way to start a day. So what if it wasn't a good race.

Learn to take it on the chin a little better. I have to be able to have an issue and then get back into race mode. At least after one issue.

narrow entrance, and issues in previous two events made for mental fatigue. I couldn't push myself to hurry through T2. As a result I think this is my slowest T2 of the season.

keep my head in the game better, everything else I had dealt with as well as anyone else could have.

Horrible. My mind was not in it. All I could make myself do was .25 at a time, then I would walk a bit. Purely motivation related.

Not sure, either learn to get back in the game by this point, or to totally enjoy my normal pacing as a fun long workout.

****Overall****
In retrospect this was still a good race. In fact I would have to say this was the best, worst race I could ever hope to have. I still did ok for a cold swim that casued my to review my water limits. Subtract 10 minutes from my bike split, and I still was faster than a much easier course earlier in the season. Keep my head in the game and remove the walk breaks, and I would have been close to the 11:00 pace. All while rolling along at a fairly high cadence. Each event of the race showed signs of improvement, but the race didn't come together as a whole. I still accomplished a lot, but need to learn so much more about controling myself. It was still fun, and I started the day off in a good way. There were some very pretty views, and I reconfimed some of my old survival training. The best, worst race anyone could hope for. Now maybe the next 8-10 races will be flawless.

1 bottle of water


cold water, bike machanical issues, my mind not wanting to push after having to overcome cold water and mechanical issues on the bike.


ok bike and run transistion entry/exits were backwards. Who starts a bike on a sidwalk, and the run on a two lane road? Who tries to feed 600 athletes with only one line to one food table. Maybe 6 vendor booths, no organization between volunteers. I, along with a multitude of others, didn't even get the race goody bag. We were just given the race shirt registration packet. Overall a bunch of small petty things, but together 1+2+3= a questionable race for next year. I also didn't like having to share 100% of the road with cars. Most races at least give us a lane to be in, even half of a normal lane would be good, but I saw several riders who were in situation that would have steamed me good. I was lucky and was alone most of the ride. Easy to stay out of thier way, but one time I saw 4 bikers trying to pass each other at the same time a van and a large RV were trying to pass 4 riders abreast on a two lane road. As bad as I have made it sound, I must not be too unpleased. I am about to click pay on a winter duathlon race series using the same course and race director. Guess I will get 3 more chances to see how I feel about these things.