TrIslip Super Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

I am a decent swimmer and by the first turn had caught the wave ahead of me (with one other guy from my wave) - I was in the last wave. At the second bouy he and I had caught stragglers from the prior wave. Then I made a mistake and barrelled down hard to swim - stopping my every 4th stoke and look technique. I went way way off course and cursed myself loudly and the kayak lifeguard that questioned what I was doing (sorry guy) ...


Stay on the course :-(

For a first ever transition from swim to bike I think I did ok ... obviously room for a lot of improvement.

I need to practice - I was pretty much stripped by the time I hit my bike. Rather than take a drink in transition I should have just jumped on the bike - the course was so short.

I had never raced with a bike before - I was concerned using my 1982 Univega as the majority of guys and girls had much better and much more modern rides. I went balls out and sort of surprised myself that my old ride could crank.

I have a Felt TT bike but lack of practice on it led to me to leave it home - perhaps I would have been faster on it.

I had one of the worst transitions in the field for T2. Part of the problem was I could not tie my shoes. Three days prior to the race I got 8 stitches in my left pointer finger - I just struggled mightily tying my shoes and even had to sit on my ass to get it done.

Don't slice my fingers prior to a race - but seriously this race made me come to the realization that I need those zip laces those fast guys have.

I felt good on the run but made the mistake of kicking too late - I sprinted hard and passed guys in my category in the chute but they had crossed the timing recorder before I did. Oh well - I could have kicked at the 1/2 mile mark still felt strong but self doubt got the better of me.

Kick at the 1/2 mile point - believe in myself more.

I went to first aid and asked them to rewrap my stitcjed up finger. had some orange slices and a sports drink. After walking a bit came back and had a bagel.


Self doubt - mistakes ...


I want to use this race again to introduce my brother to triathalons.

This was from my post race blog:
To say I was nervous leading up to the TrIslip Super Sprint is an understatement. The majority of my bike training had all been on mountain bikes as my first taste was supposed to be an off road race. I have a high end time trial bike (a Felt) but not being very confident in clips and with nowhere safe to ride, my time on the bike had been almost non-existent. Both times I took the bike out I blew tires so either I am a lard ass or there is just too much crap in our local roads. With five days leading up to the race I bought a 1982 Univega Gran Premio. The bike is old but it is fast. I rode the thing for five days leading up to the race, getting used to the clips, getting used to a road bike. I just hoped to not embarrass myself.

Lydia and I rode out to Islip the day before the race to pick up my packet. We rode the bike course and that helped alleviate some of my race day jitters. Waking up at 5:30am to drive an hour to Islip sorta sucked, but it gave me plenty of time to set up my transition area and check out everyone’s gear. My bike was by far the oldest so the jitters were back. This being a super-sprint the distances were very short – a 400 meter ocean swim, 10k on the bike, and a 4k run. I saw in the last heat and was surprised to catch the majority of the heat before me at the 200 meter mark, unfortunately the second bouy, the turning one confused me and I went off course. Despite losing time adjusting myself (I would think I lost a good minute and a half or more) I still finished decent and was 101st overall in the swim and seventh in my category. My 1st transition was solid and I surprised myself on the old bike and blew past a lot of people from early heats but had no idea where I was in my division, by some miracle my bike time was 58th best overall and by some miracle 2nd in my category – take that Trek, Obeta and other fancy bikes. My run helped me to a 5th place finish in my category and I can say I was pleased and felt really good when it was done.