Pumpkinman Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

I improved my swim time by about 5 minutes from my last tri that I did so I was happy with that.

Usuaully I will do my swim start towards the back of the group to avoid getting clobbered and ran over by the crowds. This time I decided to try front and center...and I got clobbered. An elbow to the head and a kick to the chest didn't help my swim at all, not to mention getting swam over the top of my back numerous times.

The racers didn't get spread out as they usually do at other tri's that I have done. There seemed to be the commotion from start to finish.

If I decide to start at the front next time it will not be at the center but off to one of the sides.

Having only learned to swim this past summer I have a lot to improve speed wise.

From this point in the race and on I was very disappointed in BBSC Tri. Out of the swim I ran to get my bike. I was fighting the next wave athletes heading to the water as well as spectators, coaches, and family members of athletes. They did not close T1 prior to the first wave of athletes as they do in any other tri I have ever seen or done nor did they monitor it very well to keep non athletes out. That made it very slow for me to get my bike out of T1. I was suprised I didn't see a mother pushing a stroller in there.




Nothing. Just wish I wouldn't have had to fight the crowd to get out of T1.

My brain stopped functioning for the first 10 minutes of the ride. I knew that the bike start was uphill so I put the bike into the easiest gear (or so I thought). I had it in the hardest gear, not the easiest. When I jumped on my bike and tried pedaling in that hard gear all I thought was "it's going to be a long ride if this is my easiest gear". I really thought I was in the easiest gear and not (unfortunately) because my legs were super human strong, but because my brain was not thinking straight.

I hadn't done any rides for 2 weeks prior to the race because of an injury. I couldn't believe my legs had lost that much strength in those 2 weeks off.

Then, my brain started working. I realized I was not in the easy gear but the hardest. It was like eating chocolate cake once I switched to the high gear. By that time I had already lost a lot of time on the first climb.

Another disappointment in BBSC.
On the climb up to Boulder City there is a spot where the path "Y's" you either cross under highway 93 or stay on the west side of 93. When I got to that point (along with maybe 7 other bikers) the course hadn't been marked which way to go. We took the wrong course as, I later learned, did many others. Once we realized we were going the wrong way and got turned around we had lost about 15 minutes. We knew we had taken the wrong way because the path just ended. Learning that we went the wrong way took all of the wind out of my sails. I wanted to jump off my bike and throw it off the path and be done. I knew my time was shot. Once we got back to where the "Y" was it was now marked with a cone and a volunteer sitting there directing everyone. "Where the #%!! was she and the cone 15 minutes ago?" Was it the volunteer's fault or did BBSC not think they needed to mark the course right there? Either way it killed my time as well as a lot of other's.

I would say that I would know the course better so in the event that it isn't marked I would know where to go, but I probably still would have missed it. I get into that "bike mode" and all I look for are the markings on the road to navigate, not street signs or other landmarks.

To start, T2 was much better as far as the transition area itself. No crowd to fight. With that said, it was frustrating that Friday night (night before race day) we had to drop our run gear off there. That alone isn't bad, however, the packet pickup was 45 minutes away in Henderson. What? That didn't make any sense to have to go to a hotel of all places to pickup a packet and then drive 45 minutes to drop off the run equipment. I'm not sure why they didn't do packet pickup at T2.

Nothing.

The run is my strongest part of a tri. I was able to make up a little bit of time that I had lost on the bike. Not nearly enough though.

Speed up!

For this being the 8th anniversary of the Pumpkinman tri I would think that their orginization would have been a lot better. Maybe they just didn't get the volunteer support this year.