Oktoberfest Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was my first open water swim. I swam very fast at the beginning to get in the front of the "newbie" wave and not get climbed over or kicked in the face. I think I was in about 5th of my wave (Note: the newbie wave had people from all age groups) when I went around the bouy. After going around the bouy I switched to breast stroke b/c that's what I used to swim on swim team and I figured it would be better to swim a little slower and straight than zig zag. I actually passed some people while swimming breast stroke towards the end.


Practice sighting while doing freestyle. Maybe get a wetsuit.

I did a flying mount and had a hard time getting the straps on my shoes to work. I didn't mess with putting on socks or having to take off a wetsuit. putting my watch on could have been faster.

Get triathlon cycling shoes so that I can get them on faster on the bike

I passed some people, got passed by some people. Had some trouble at the beginning getting my feet into my pedals and getting up to speed. Kept playing leap frog with a couple other racers.

Train more in the aero position so I am more comfortable

Realized that I wasn't going to get out of my shoes before the dismount line, so I just unclipped and ran with my cycling shoes on to my rack and took them off. I have the Zoot slip on shoes, so that was fast especially with no socks. Couldn't figure out how to change to run on my Garmin.

Get out of shoes earlier and figure out how to work my Garmin

My calves were pretty tight from the bike. Took me a little bit to settle into my run. I had no problems with breathing or heart rate, but my legs were really tight and hurt. I actually expected to be a little slower on the run because I have never done a brick before and this is about how long a 3 miler takes me.

Do at least one brick before my first tri to know how it will feel.

I had a bottle of water and put one of their cold towels on my head. Then went and had my race entry fee worth of beer samples.


Not training enough


The only thing that I saw that made people mad was that in the packet, the transition area was said to have designated spots. That wasn't the case. I didn't mind because I got there right when it opened and had a great spot.