Warrenton Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I was not a fan of this format. It was nice to not worry about siting, but it was near impossible to pass. The first 50 was ok, but I knew I was in trouble because I could see a line of people in front of me. The 2nd 50 involved me tagging the feet in front of me, and attempting to figure out how I would get around the 4 people immediately in front of me. When I hit the wall I pushed off under the person in front of me and got next to the next person in line. I swam the middle of the lane (there was not much room for this) and got in front of that person. At this point I had one person in front of me, but I underestimated the effort to make this move. I had to take a breath every other stroke to get my air back. The 3rd 50 involved catching my breath and nearly swimming over the person in front of me, while the person behind my kept knocking my legs down, only making matters worse. 4th 50 was a bit better, I decided to back off, let the person in front of me pass me at the wall and hopefully get my air back. 5th 50 I realized how much effort I had put forth from 50-150yards. Last 50, I was DONE, and happy to get out of the pool.

Needless to say I was WAY more exhausted then I ever thought I would be after swimming 300 yards in a pool.

Not sure what I'll do differently for another one of these pool swims. I suppose I'll make sure I'm further up in the swim start rotation so I don't get stuck behind swimmers who are in the wrong pace section. I'll definitely not overexert myself in the first half of the race like I did in this one.

This transition was not very good. Going into it I knew I had way to much to do and that it was going to be a bad transition. Clearly that should have been the time to figure out new options but it didn't work out that way.

The first challenge was my new garmin 310. I had a bike mount for my old 305, however I don't for the new one. Typically I would have left it running on my bike. I went back and forth on swimming with it, but in the end decided to leave it in transition which meant putting it on in T1. It wasn't horrible, but definitely wasted time putting it on.

I laid out arm warms, however after 5 seconds of fumbling around with the first one I immediately gave up on it.

Everything else was smooth. Shoes went on easy, as did helmet/sunglasses. Ran out to mount area and off I went.

The bike start was uphill so I decided to put my shoes on while in transition.

Get the bike mount for the watch so I don't have to mess with it, and practice getting my arm warmers on while I'm on the bike so I don't have to do it in transition.

As usual, the swim really hurt me. My HR was way to high, and I had a hard time getting composed in the first 2 miles, especially since there was a decent climb at the beginning of the bike.

Once I got settled down, the bike went fairly well. I'm not happy with my results though. My goal was to finish in the 34-36 minute mark. I was expecting to average 18.5 - 19.5 mph however I ended up at 17.5.

Another issue I ran into during the race, (I struggle calling this an issue, it was more like a travesty) involved my "junx" (Going to call it junx to stay somewhat age appropriate here on BT). It was somewhat cool out during the race. I'm guessing 55 degrees. Obviously I was pretty wet after the pool swim. After the first downhill I noticed my "junx" getting pretty cold. At about mile 4 the discomfort settled in. At mile 6-7 the discomfort turned into all out pain as my "junx" went numb due to the cold. Had this been an Olympic distance race (or longer) I'm not sure what I would have done. I can't stress how HORRIBLE this was. I'm going to invest in a "junx" warmer ;-) for the bike if such a thing exists. Definitely need to get it figured out since I have another race in 2 weeks.

I need to focus on hill work. My climbing is definitely a problem area that needs to be addressed.

No issues here. Went like clock work. I may have waited a bit too long to get my feet out of my shoes, but the transition sneaked up on me. Otherwise, everything went well.

Work on getting my shoes on a bit more cleanly, but I'm nit picking here.

This was my first sprint distance race. I wasn't sure how hard to push initially. My first mile pace reflects that. After the first mile I realized I needed to pick it up. I probably could have dropped a minute or two off my overall time had I not been so conservative.


Push a little harder from the beginning. Focus on "fast feet" small steps, maintain technique.

Given the location and what they have to work with, this is a great little race. I'll definitely do it again.