New Jersey Devilman Festival - Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Swim (0.6mi): This sucked a lot. The start happened so fast. I didn't realize that I was supposed to go to the front of the pack of swimmers since I was in the first wave. The gun went off and I stuck my face in the water and saw darkness. The muck--probably sewage sludge--was so thick that it looked like I was in a darkroom. Luckily, I didn't really panic, but I was caught a little off-guard. I started swimming with my head down and, when I stuck my head out to check my line, I realized I had turned 100 degrees to the right--I was going backwards. It's pretty important to swim a straight course! Anyways, after a long struggle through sludge and shallow weed-slime, I finally made it around some buoys. The last buoy threw me off because I had to swim around the left side of it. This teaches me that I really need to look at the course map before ever starting a tri. I got out of the water, feeling relatively comfortable but a little winded from the experience. I think I was out in around 19 minutes. Not bad for my first open water swim in blackness over a course that probably ended up being 1100 meters or so. Wetsuits really do help.

I would make sure to know what the course looks like before swimming in it. I would make sure to put defogger on the goggles so I can find the next buoy. I would slow down, take some deep breaths, relax--anything to prevent me from tensing up and wasting energy.

T1: I stumbled into T1 with my wetsuit ready to be stripped off. I think I ran a little bit too fast out of the water to the transition area because my HR was above 180 at this point. I need to take it easy. The biggest problem I had in T1 was that i had set all of my stuff up on a towel that I needed to use to dry my feet. Good thinking Wookie. I had to act like a magician and pull the towel out from underneath my other gear (it didn't work), and dry my feet after using a water bottle to rinse them off. Socks were a pain to get on. Shoes were easy. Helmet and glasses and I was off. Running to the mount area was annoying in my Look Keo cleats. Should I have kept the cleat covers on? After mounting, I was ready to rip up the bike course.

I would set up the transition area a little better, especially with the towel. I would make sure to have an effective way to clean my foot from grime and dry it quickly. I would generally speed up the transition a little bit more.

Bike: (22mi--is it 23mi?): This was the sweetest segment of the race. I took it out at a relatively easy pace, just so I could get comfortable. Pretty soon, I was going pretty hard. Riding my bike was perhaps the best part of the tri--minus the winds. I know that I am a lightweight rider so I need to be as aero as I can so that the wind does not hold me back or toss me around. Once I get my Carbon Strykes this week, I need to test them out a lot. At one point during the leg, I found that I was cruising at a steady 25mph. I met this one woman (#223) who I rode and chatted with for a bit. She was really nice--and really fast. I ended up cruising past her though. In the end, I made it back to Cedarville in about 1:06 at a very very fast 20.4mph pace. This was 2 mph faster than I had hoped or expected for. I was not looking forward to the run at this point.

I would be a little bit more aero. I would make sure to keep my head up so I can spot road debris. I would work a little harder.

T2: the bike dismount was fine and I ran into the transition area with ease. Switching into running shoes was not a problem. I exited the other side after taking a quick swing of some water and dousing my head a little bit too.

Not much. I had a good transition. Maybe I would try to do a faster dismount. I don't think it's that important though.

Run (4mi): I was anticipating brick-like legs but I realized that maybe I wasn't that fatigued. Perhaps I had gone too conservatively on the bike (HR averaged around 160). My legs felt heavy for the first 800 meters but after that I was on a roll. I made it to the 2mi turnaround on the flat course in 12:34. That's decently fast. At this point, I realized that I could make it back to the finish in under 2 hours if I could push the last 2 miles. Considering that I run the first half of road races conservatively, pick up the pace in the second half, and really start to pick it up in the last 1/4, I knew I could easily reach 1:59:59. So that was my goal--until I messed up really bad. Instead of taking the turn to the finish, I took a right one street early and ended up back at the bike dismount area. What an idiot I am. I had to backtrack out to the main road and out around the school to the finish line. I lost a good 2 minutes of real time, plus a good minute of "motivation" time; at this point, there was no reason for me to kill myself by sprinting. Nonetheless, as soon as I saw the finish chute, I really started to turn my legs over faster (I regret this now, because my shins are pretty sore; the sprint probably wasn't worth it and only shaved off 15-30 seconds or so). I made it across the finish line and released a big shout of relief. I was done! My first triathlon completed in approximately 2 hours and 3 minutes.

I would familiarize myself with the course a lot more! I missed getting sub-2 hours because I made a turn prematurely and went to the bike dismount area instead of the finish line!

Post: I met up with Austin Whitman and Victoria Arrigoni (both SOM students) and we talked about tris and stuff in general. At this point, my shins were killing me. Perhaps it was a bad idea to race in running flats, especially after a long bike segment. Anyways, Austin offered a ride so I grabbed my gear from the Markesich's van and we took off. No stretching was involved--I was just too tired.


Lack of planning and mental preparation messed me up. I really really should have looked at the course map and visualized each and every step of the race.


he day was truly an awesome day. I had an awesome race and an awesome time. THe whole atmosphere of the triathlon was stunning. Everyone is so friendly and it is so easy to relate to any stranger that one talks to. I received so much help this weekend in terms of logistics and moral support. The Yale Triathlon Team is truly awesome.

Dinner on Saturday night was at Lucia's with Josh Hunsberger, Jeff (Shoreline Sharks buddy), Tom Petersen, Lisa, Roland (Shoreline Sharks), Sherry, and the Markesichs.