Hueston Woods Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

I have been going to the pool 5-6 days a week since May. Like a lot of people swimming is my weak spot. I was not prepared for how cold this water was. Adrenaline got me chest deep, but once I tried to go horizontal, some primitive, WTF I'M GOING TO DIE brain took over. I never regained control after that. My muscles stiffened up immediately and I had to face up breast stroke the whole way. Some people had wetsuits and others not, either way it was too cold for me. I thought once about stopping as I rounded the first buoy, but I knew if I did I wouldn't continue so I decided that I just couldn't quit. It was one of the most miserable experiences I've ever endured. While I'm disappointed my training and willpower wasn't enough to overcome the water temp, I am glad I gutted it out.

more training in coldwater/wetsuit

I don't have clipless yet so I was just pulling on socks and running shoes. No wetsuit so I just yanked my shorts up over my jammers.

Hopefully I'll be changing into bike shoes next time so not much at this time.

I ride an early 80s Lotus challenger 10 speed, so I knew I was already behind when it came to gear. My smallest ring still has 14 teeth, which I think actually helped due to the hills. I passed a lot of people on the hills going up, only to get zoomed by on the way down. Cresting the 2nd hill out of T1 I threw my chain, and from then on out had really noisy gear changes and unexpected ones as well. I must have put it on wonky or something but I was still a little groggy from the swim so I just went with it.

Get a little better bike. Nothing fancy, but reasonably comparable to what's around at this level of race.

I just dropped my bike and helmet here and grabbed my bottle in case there wasn't a station on the run. Luckily there were two.

Hopefully have different gear next time so we'll see.

The course changed at the last minute to be a lot flatter. This was fine except I had really wanted to fly down the hill path on the way back.

Walked around. This was my first race so my parents came. Luckily I was slower than I had planned/hoped because they got there about two minutes before I finished and would have come all that way for nothing if I was just a tad faster.


1. training
I spent so much time getting my swim up to the base distance that I really slacked on the run and bike. Not so next year. This was really my downfall, but my primary goal was to finish, which I did, and I felt good enough after to hit Kings Island for eight hours.


2. water temp
I hate to even remember how horrible it felt.
3. bike trouble
Throwing my chain really threw my focus.
4. bike equipment level



This was my first race. It was OK but not as well organized or full of swag and goodies as my gf's first race earlier this year. This course is really nice for the sprint distance, the lake is calm, the bike has decent hills and flats, with the exception of one really short really rough patch, and the new run course was nice, though as above I preferred the old one.