Tri the Parks - Fort Yargo State Park - TriathlonSprint

The swim time includes running back up to the transition area. The air was cool, and I didn't have a wetsuit, but once we got in the water, it wasn't bad at all. I did some bilateral breathing, but running into people made it hard to get a good rhythm, so I switched. I'm naturally a left-side breather, so I was looking away from the buoys. All-in-all, I enjoyed the swim.

Place myself closer to the front of the pack. I think my time would have been a bit better had I done this. I kept running into people's feet as I tried to get around them. I also drifted a bit off course in the beginning. I'm a relatively strong swimmer, and I really need to take advantage of that, since I'm really weak on the bike.

Didn't wear a wetsuit. The bike shorts were a bit hard to pull on. It may be time to spring for a tri suit.

Buy a tri suit. Bring a bigger towel to stand on. Unbuckle my helmet strap (duh!).

I LOVE GOING DOWN HILLS! That feeling is worth all the climbing in the world. Other than that, I was way slow on the bike.

PRACTICE. For real, I need to put in so much time on the bike. This is the event where I'll see the greatest gains if I would just get on the darn bike!

Did pretty good for a T2. Did even better on T3 (1 minute exactly) and T4 (42 seconds).

My biggest problem was going to the wrong bike rack. Did this both times. I need to hang something on the rack, or concentrate more during transitions.

The run went really well. I negative split (since we had two goes at the run) - 16:41 and 14:40. I wasn't sure how much to put into it on the first run. And I got off the trail the first time - got confused as to which way to go on a fork. Noticed on the second run that they put more cones up blocking that wrong turn. A little after this, Amanda caught me and we ran up on Abear2. She had a BT tattoo on the back of her leg and her name. That was way cool. Also on the first run, I tripped on a landscape timber - the kind they put on hiking trails to keep the dirt from washing away. Caught myself. It would have been funny had I actually bit dirt.

More bricks. Really, to do a race like this, more double bricks. And run trails. This was my first trail-running experience.

Walked around, ate a banana and most of an orange. Drank water. Dug dirt out of Amanda's toe after hunting for a first aid kit and iodine wipes (this took a while to find), took bike back to car, stretched during the awards ceremony.


Not enough time on the bike. This is a big problem. I did learn how to change gears for this, my second tri. At my first tri last year, I basically stayed in the same gear the whole race. On the swim, start out in front. On the run, more bricks, more speed work at the end of a longer run.


The best part of the race was having Renee cheer us on! Having somebody there rocked! (I left Justin in bed all snug and warm, until the dogs woke him up. We've done a lot of traveling lately, and he needed rest).
The biggest problem at this race was there wasn't a designated first aid spot/station. The EMTs didn't have band aids, and the very sweet volunteer who helped me find one had to hunt through two kits to find cleaning wipes. Other than that, the venue was good, the race had lots of shade, the volunteers were really nice and the course was pretty well marked. Oh, and some guys in a boat cheered us on towards the end of the second run. That was kind of cool.
I know blue sky is a good organization, I just missed the laid back atmosphere of my first tri. Plus, at the Georgia Vet's Tri, they grilled sausage (the awesome, downhome fresh kind) for after the race. Kinda missed that. It was nice to tri a new venue, though!