Cedar Beach Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Other than getting kicked up a bit, swimming over a guy, and eating some salt water I felt good.

I was glad I stayed on course and passed people from prior heats - with a slightly better start I could have had a stronger overall swim.

My transitions blow.

Practice practice practice.

Hills kicked my ass - so unprepared for that.

Train hills - ride my TT bike and not my 1982 Univega.

Better than the last race but still need the laces that don't have to be tied.

Get those laces - take a drink on bike not wait again to transition.

Overall happy I had something left for the run after the bike - wish I had more juice for a better time but no complaints really.

Not much really - have a better transition leading into the run.

Walked around at the finish line ... I was too amped to do a proper warm down.


My transitions are seriously pathetic. Also I need to work in some hill work because I was not prepared for the small climbs on this bike portion. Next year use the FElt not the Univega.


What was cool about this event was that you could see who was registered prior to the race so I saw that there were thirty-one Clydesdales. I was also able to look at the last two years results and since I set 5 goals for myself regarding the race I used those to benchmark. My first goal was to finish in the top 10, I already proved to myself two weeks prior that I could do a triathalon – so what if this one was longer I was confident I would finish and I wanted to go top 10. Secondly I set times for each part based on the last two years. If I wanted top 10 I would need to finish in an hour and 40 minutes or less so that was goal number 2. The swim had to be done in under 20 minutes (goal number three), the bike in 45 (goal 4) and the run – I had no idea what I would have left but I set a modest 35 minutes (goal 5). Last minute I added another goal – the guy that came in third at TrIslip was racing here – he beat e there by 42 seconds – I would meet him or find out who he was and beat him.

Holy cow it was cold this morning – 50 degrees as I left my house at 5:30am for the long ride to Miller Place. Took a little over an hour and was still cold as I got my packet and began setting up the transition area. The other guys all seemed to have high end bikes and my competition (we all shared a bike rack) were no exception. I set up my old Univega and made small talk – discovered who my target was (bonus goal now initiated). Each wave here had 100 or so heads and I went in round three with the pink colored swim cap. The water was fairly calm and not cold but with the wetsuit on I was prepared. Rough start saw me get elbowed and face kicked and someone had the misfortune of being swum over by myself, but by the first turn it sort of opened up. The current was running against us and here people seemed to falter as I started passing people. The turn back to shore caught me in someones kick and I ingested some seawater which sucked but I passed him and came out to T1. My swim time of 14:31 put me in 5th – but as my transitions suck a few guys got out before me on the bike. I felt confident in my bike until I hit the first hill – my bike refused to shift – I could barely pedal and was struggling to stay up much less moving forward and that whole hill my bike would just not cooperate. When it finally did I had crested the hill and the veins in my neck were throbbing and my calves were on fire. The rest of the bike portion my shifter cooperated and I picked people to pace, then pass and that worked for me. Everytime I past a fancy bike I smiled to myself, felt good to pass their mondo expensive bikes on my $125 clunker. Surprisingly my 54:26 was good for 9th in my category – obviously the big guys struggled with the hills (there were 2 in the loop that we repeated twice). Once again the transition killed me, my time was nearly double everyone else’s … so any momentum I had from the bike and swim was now lost in two transitions. Off to the run. All bike I had followed my opponent from the TrIslip, and a woman from Team Sunrise Tri – My plan was to take them down in the run. I caught Roberta (we chatted post race) at the one mile marker and that is when a Clydesdale (who warned us about the brutal hills) flew by me at like mach speed – he said the run was his thing – there was no way I was catching that guy. I was on Robert’s ass (I spoke to him after as well) for the entire distance but at the 2.5 mile mark he seemed to be starting his kick and I was not ready. At about the same time a girl in her first loop was sprinting (obviously running was her strong point) and she flew by Robert. For some reason that seemed to slow him down so I made my move. With 200 meters left he was about 15 meters ahead of me, I started my kick and closed to him as we approached the finish turn as soon as we turned I sprinted hard and he did not come with me and I beat him by 6 seconds to finish 9th in my category. To say I am stoked is an understatement – my time of 1:40:41 was pretty much right on the money with what I wanted to do. My swim and run times were way faster than I had set as goals – my run was a 27:07 not bad after 15 miles of hill riding – but I know the run I could do faster I just set my pace to beat Robert and I knew I was on target for a 1:40 finish. The biggest weakness in my performance was transitions and the old bike. So now I have something to plan for … next year I will be back with some new goals!