Desert Grande Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Simple to line up in your expected time. I was in the 7 min line. The pool was dirty but nice and warm, with the rain and wind there were tons of dirt in the pool. I sure felt I swam stronger than 8 mins but it is what it is. It's a serpentine loop. Stay to the right, pass on the left. My chip was tight enough and I had to stop a few times to make sure it wasn't coming off. Once again, I didn't tighten it enough at the beginning of the race so I didn't kick that hard.

Make sure that chip is tight!!!

T1 and T2 time are included in the bike leg...I felt good coming out of the swim and warm enough so I just put on arm warmers. Had some difficulty getting on my trip top (Desoto loose tri top) then the run to bike mount. Transition area is an open area so I had to dodge multiple spectators - I'll discuss that later...

Felt good on the bike. It sure was cold and there was some wind but the course was fairly flat. The roads were pretty rough though. Passed quite a few duathletes - most of them newbies rocking the ipods as they pedal their huge mountain bikes. Good for them for getting out there. Coming in towards bike dismount I had to yell at a lady that was walking in a crosswalk right in front of me. I would have hit here. Even though there was a volunteer there she obviously wasn't keeping the lane clear...

Stronger legs will come with more miles in the saddle. Did the best I could since I began road riding Aug 6th.

Dodged a few spectators in transition and changed into run mode as fast as I could, had to again ask a nice lady to kindly get her stroller and 2 young children out of the way as they were blocking the entire run path.

Felt great on the run. Ended up pacing with a nice lady that is doing IMAZ in a few weeks.

First of all, let me say that this is a great race for new folks to the sport. It is short and fun. It's rad to see a lot of people there for their first tri or du and you can see their excitement. That being said, this race would be so much better if there was a closed transition area and USAT rules were in effect. For the newbies to go from this race to a USAT race would be difficult. Some of the easiest rules (ipod, help from others, closed transition area) were being broken left and right and it became frustrating sometimes to look like that bad guy asking people to get out of the way. All that to the side, it is a great grassroots tri. 20 years strong and I'll keep doing it for 20 years more.