Playtri Triathlon - Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The water was so cold that steady, bilateral breathing was near impossible. I had to back stroke for a good 25-35 meters on 2 different occasions to catch my breath...fortunately I was not alone. A lot of people were experiencing similar issues. My time was about a minute & a half longer than my average 500m time in the pool.

Swim my own race!!! The cold water and nerves got the best of me. In future cold water swims, I would focus more on breathing and less on my position in the pack. My warm up swim was great...but unfortunately that didn't translate to a great swim.

No problem putting on tri shirt & socks during transition because of the pre-race baby powder prep. I still have cages on my bike, so I just had to throw on my running shoes. I bought Yankz! speedlaces prior to the race, and they worked great.

I'd put my Gu bottle in my pocket in my shorts rather than in the my back pocket of my shirt. I had issues "finding" it during the ride.

The bike is my weakest event in the Tri...partly because of my 20 year old Schwinn road bike. That being said, I thought this bike was tougher than it looked based on the strong wind coming off of the dam and the hills at each turnaround point. I also was also overly hydrated and needed to pee, which made for a very uncomfortable ride.

Get a new bike, train more hills, and adjust pre-race hydration routine.

I have cages on my bike, so I ride with my running shoes. After running out of T2, I had to stop at the port-o-pottie and pee. This was unfortunately an absolute necessity, because I wouldn't have been able to make it another couple of minutes on the run. This resulted in a good minute or two of wasted time on my run.

Adjust pre-race hydration routine.

Still sloshy in the beginning because of too much hydration. Running is my best event, and those days of running hilly courses paid off. I made up a lot of ground during the run, and passed a lot of people. Not my best time, but considering my 2 minute pee, my actual run time was better than it looks.

Once again, adjust hydration routine. Having a sloshy gut, made the first part of my run no fun.

walking, calf stretches, and the free chiropractic cool down


Hydration issues, nerves, cold water, lack of focus on breathing, old/heavy bike, and stopping to pee.


This was my first tri to compete in, but I've been to about 6 or 7 to support my wife. Overall, well organized by people who seem very supportive of the sport. The course was challenging, but not impossible. Would I do this tri again...probably not, mainly because of the 3 looped bike course and cold/early season swim.