Patriot's Sprint - TriathlonSprint

I was extremely nervous about the swim as I had tried one open water triathlon in the past and was unable to finish it and I wanted to do this to prove to myself that I could swim in an open water tri. The swim is certainly my weakest of the 3 sports. I did pretty well until the first bouy and then lost momentum. I took a quick break at one of the kayaks before moving on. The second part of the swim was by far the worst as I was being caught by other waves and this distracted me greatly but this is something I will overcome as time goes on. My supposedly fog proof goggles did not help so I pulled them off about half way and left them on the top of my head and I could see much better. The swim took a lot longer than I had hoped but I was able to complete it and that was a huge acheivement for me.

Train in the open water. Pool swimming is better than nothing but really can't prepare you as well as being out in the open water where there are no walls or floors to rest/stand on. My plan is to spend more time in the pool to build up stamina and log more time in the open water to get more used to this setting.

The transition area was a little over 1/4 mile from the swim exit. I was exhausted after the swim so I walked the first little bit until I recovered a little bit. They had an area where you could leave your sandals to run this part but I chose to run barefoot and it worked out well. I was able to jog the last 2/3rds of the way to the transition area and did ok getting ready for the bike. I skipped the socks for the bike as my feet were still pretty wet and figured it would be easier to put them on in T2 where they would be drier. That worked out really well.

Everything went pretty well. I am still learning how to speed things up and that will come with time and practice.

The bike is by far my favorite and strongest part of the race. I don't have a road/tri bike so it holds me back some but I can still pass quite a few people on my hybrid. It was a nice course that was mostly flat and was closed to traffic for about half of the course. There were a few spots where people were 2-3 abreast and not passing quickly enough but this was probably due to the fact that there were a lot of newbies out there who may not know the drafting/passing rules. This slowed me up a little but not worth worrying about as I was not in contention to win or place. I went fairly strong for the majority of the race as my biking legs are strong but let off a little for the last mile so I had something left for the run.

Train a little more in the rural areas so I get more used to riding at race pace for longer periods. But I was very happy with my performance on this part of the race.

T2 was pretty good. I had a little trouble racking the bike as I was the last one of my group in and I have a taller bike, so it took a few extra seconds to get it in place. Changing shoes and putting socks on went pretty well (Usually I put socks on in T1 and this was the first time trying it in T2 and it worked much better as my feet were much drier) Overall it was a good transition for me.

Work on racking the bike more quickly. Practicing it a few times before each race would be a great benefit.

The run went pretty well. I had to walk periodically but this was expected as I had not trained in running very much over the summer. Slowing down on the last mile of the bike worked well as it gave my legs a chance to recover and not feel like jelly at the start of the run. I finished the run in approx the same time as my last sprint tri which was impressive due to the lack of training.

Spend more time on the streets running and get my milage up. Doing some more brick training outside would also be benefical.

Grabbed some water and slowly drank it. Then went over to the food tent and got some candy pieces to raise sugar levels and pizza to replace lost carbs.


Lack of open water swimming practice. Definetely need to spend more time in the water, both in the pool and even more so in the open water.

Lack of running practice also impeded my overall time.


The event was well run and had plenty of volunteers and Police Officers to keep us going in the right direction. The bike mount/dismount area and the first part of the bike course is very cramped but there is little that can be done to improve this due to the location of the race. I loved the race and look forward to running the event next year, hopefully in the Half Iron distance.