Carmel Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I seeded myself too high (bib number 37) so I dropped to the back of the first 100 in line. It was definitely more contact going on this year than past years. I was a passed a few times, but also remember passing three. This is the third time that I’ve done this race, and I just can’t seem to get under seven minutes! The swimmer in me had to swim all the way to the last wall and touch – seems like everyone was getting out at the ladder which is probably five feet from the end.

Not much – the previous day’s swim made this a whole bunch easier. My brain usually takes over and tells me I’m tired in the first 25 meters, but I was surprised how quickly the swim seemed to go. I had practiced flip turns under the lane lines, but didn’t bother with the traffic – I thought it best for everyone’s safety!

It was actually warm this year, so I didn’t waste time fumbling with extra clothes. I thought my time would be a little quicker than this – I had practiced shoes and socks, but didn’t practice with being wet. Either way, I’m okay with this!

Nothing jumps out at me- maybe practice running with the bike.

I have a relatively new tri bike, and this was my first race using it. My big surprise the first mile or was how high my heart rate was. I tried to keep my cadence high which probably helped. Once I finally settled down, I realized how windy it was! My brain was on high alert telling me that this was hard and we needed to pull over and take a break. Uh, shut up brain. At one point I looked at my speed and was only running 11-12 mph directly into the wind. I’m still getting used to going into aero, but the wind was blowing me all over the place. When the wind was finally at my back, I should have been pushing harder, but I was also trying to rest a bit until the next headwind. About half way through, I received some nutrition – a bug flew directly into my mouth and fought long and hard to live in the back of my throat. I don’t believe I got rid of him, so does that mean I won? I was happy to see the end, and felt sorry for the folks on the fat tire high profile bikes just heading out into that wind as it was getting stronger as the day went on. There’s a pretty good climb to get to the timing mat – it’s pretty cool with all of the spectators lining the entrance – can’t give up in front of them! They shortened the bike course a couple of days before the race due to road construction – I still ended up with 9.74 miles on my bike computer.

Keep training on the bike. I’ve done a ton of trainer work over the winter, but my fitness just wasn’t there for the winds. Weather Service had them at 18-25, gusting to 35 mph.

I’ve read lots of these race reports, but never read about this before – I blew up due to my shoelaces! A few days before, I put on Lock Laces. I’m a firm believer in “nothing new on race day”, so I had a practice run, wore the shoes a lot, and even practiced going from bike shoes to running shoes. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to REALLY open up my shoes in T2. So much so that I pulled the laces through the lock! At some point, I even got the lace out of the first shoe eyelet, and was having to lick the (now) frayed end of the lace to get it through the eyelet again. Left shoe on (finally) and onto the right shoe – yep, you guessed it – I did it again. I had moments of calling it a day, but I needed something more dramatic than shoelaces to stop me! I thought my T2 time would be >8 minutes, so I was surprised to see that I was ONLY 4:14 – sure felt like an eternity!

Yes, I’m a very slow runner, but I have been really working on it. There is a significant hill out of T2 to start the run. My legs felt pretty awful, and I was still dwelling on my shoelaces (!) so I walked the hill. And across the street. And for most of the first mile. I desperately wanted to break 1:30 in this race, and realized with some quick math that I might be able to do it, so I picked up the pace. I’ve been using the Galloway run/walk method which has really helped me. I’m very certain I didn’t pass anybody on the run, but I was getting passed a lot less. Finally the finish – I must have had a lot left in the tank because it felt like I was moving pretty quickly those last few hundred yards.



I'm slowly improving, so I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing!

Powerade, banana, and some awesome Noodles and Company! I waited a bit for the results to come out – I saw my time and thought that there was no way that was correct – I dropped eleven minutes from last year’s time, or twenty minutes from two years ago! I was in disbelief, but happy. I’ll call it a wash with the slightly shorter course and my ridiculous shoelace issue! By the time we starting packing up, the wind was so strong that it was blowing down the bike racks - my daughter caught mine just in time!


I’m training for an Ironman 70.3 in July, and this race was my eighth consecutive day of training – a day off would have helped right before this. I also forgot / discounted how tough it is to string together all three parts plus the transitions.


Tons of volunteers, and this is a 'home game' of sorts for me!