Monster Triathlon – Keller - TriathlonSprint

This was my first indoor pool start so I was a little unsure how things went on plus; I forgot my watch so I was sort of freaking out about that but I told myself this was a blessing in disguise. This way I can just concentrate on the task at hand and not worry about time. We waiting in line by bib number so as my turn came up to jump in; the volunteer punched in my number and said ok "your turn!" Since you can't dive in, I jumped in feet first slowly and did a good push off to get me started. I ended up passing the person in front of me and nearly had a head on collison with the other person coming the other way but I was able to navigate myself to miss him and still make the pass. The middle 100m, I took it pretty easy because I knew I'd be sprinting the last 100m to get to the ladder to get out of the pool. I made the turn at the 250m with another guy who decided to put the burners on too early and like in the movie Fast and the Furious, I held back for a couple more seconds before I started sprinting and actually passed him so fast that it made it look like he was frozen in the water! Gave me some great confidence getting out of the water. I don't think the times recorded for me were accurate but I felt good about the swim so I'll accept them. Althought if 2:02/100m was my time; then it was a PR for me on the swim.

Nothing.

It was so cold coming out of the pool, all I remember was "GEES"! I remember my teammates yelling out my name but all I could think about was getting to my bike to get out of transition to warm up! My rack was on the OTHER side of the transition (similar to Stonebridge last year) so I had to run across the parking lot to get out.

Practice mounting bike with shoes snapped in already.

I was not happy with my overall time. My heart rate was pounding when I got on the bike so I had to calm that down before I could do anything. My strategy was to ride in the little chain for the first mile or two to get my HR and leg muscles in check and then switch to the big chain and finish the ride hard - BUT - that wasn't the case with this course. There were lots of hills, more than what I was prepared for. I was only expecting two hills and one of those hills being a big climb; it was a big climb alright! Saw Jen and my dad on the first loop so I tried to hide the fact that I was freezing and bonked out. The second loop went a lot easier. I was able to work the big chain more and actually made up some time on the second loop.

Get a tri bike for starters! Increase the mileage; practice riding bigger hills and speed up my cadence.

Coming in to T2 I saw Jen and dad there cheering me on so it immediately lifted me up with good thoughts to start the run. Got in, got my stuff on and got out. I knew the longer I stood there I would get colder and stiff so I took off still getting my shoes on.

Nothing. Felt pretty smooth.

My time was 9:54/mile and this was a PR for me in a tri race so I was content with completing that objective. My legs were throbbing pretty hard off the bike so I figured I would start off slower than I usually do on my runs. I ran up on my coach who was racing for the first time this year after battling cancer in the brain so I figured since I'm already behind on my race time; I'd run along him and help get him started since he said he hadn't run all year. Like I was the person to pace off of right!! haha About .75 into the run he had to go off the path to take care of some "business" and I was on my own after that the rest of the way. I sped it up a little but there were some hills that kept me from building up speed. I was a little familiar with the run course as I'd hiked it back in May to prepare for the Grand Canyon with Jen's uncle so; I was a little prepared mentally for when to expect hills and the turnaround. I was negative splitting the way back and felt pretty good coming back.

Run more hills.

Walked around with Jen and dad to help stretch out the quads. Ate some pancakes that were provided.


The temperature and terrain. If I had been prepared for the hills, I would have probably done better but I wasn't expecting this since I was trying to PR. Probably picked a flatter race to PR next time. Oh well, positive way to end the season for me.


Body marking process could use some fine tuning. My half ironman with over 2500 racers went smoother than this race with only 800 racers. Volunteers were great though.