White Lake Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Water was barely wetsuit legal. A lot of people decided to go without and save time in transition. I'm a weaker swimmer, so I chose to wear one. The water was choppy from the wind. I've done a few choppy OWSs at Jordan Lake this year, so I was ready. Started out well. A few kicks and grabs. Got swam over by one guy, but I also swam over a couple of people. Settled into a good rhythm, and started making good time. Caught several guys from the 2nd wave. Found a draft or two in the water, but it was kind of unintentional. My breathing was comfortable, and I fealt great through the entire swim. When I reached the ladder, I climbed out and looked down at my watch. I was pretty happy to see the time. The timing mat wasn't at the swim exit, and since we had to run a pretty good ways to the transition area, that added over 30 seconds to the swim time. Really pleased with my performance.

Nothing, besides train more to increase speed.

As soon as I climbed the ladder out of the water, I began stripping my wetsuit. Got it down to my waist as I ran down the dock and pulled off my cap and goggles on the run as well. Passed a guy going into the transition area and was riding the high of a good swim. Stripped the bottom of the wetsuit, pulled on the shoes, helmet, and sunglasses and ran out to the dismount line. Had a little trouble getting clipped in, but I got in after a few seconds. Not a bad transition, but trouble came in the first 1/2 mile of the bike leg.

Just practice getting faster at transition.

As I was getting up to speed, I hit something in the road while down in my aerobars. I got a look at it while on the second lap and the run, and it appeared to be an aluminum can. When I hit,it sent me swerving, and couldn't recover from it. Went back and forth, clipping a cone,and eventually crashing into the grassy shoulder on the side of the road. A volunteer ran over, and I told him I was fine. My chain came off, my aerobars were knocked out of alignment, my aerodrink bottle came loose, and my front fork was knocked out whack. I was down, but not out. I put my chain back on, straightened my bottle, and got back on. I straighted my aerobars as I rode, but had to adjust my position to compensate for the front fork being off. In all, I probably lost 3 minutes due to this crash, which dropped me from 2nd to 6th in my age group by the end of the race. This was a setback, but I was determined not to let it kill my momentum. I rode hard and got back in front of a lot of the people who passed me while I was on the side of the road. Got back up to speed and kept a great pace during the rest of the bike leg. I was embarrassed about the crash, but my pace afterward was great. I know I would have placed higher without crashing, but there's no way I could have controlled it. Happy with the result.

Not Crash. Hit the bike a little harder in training and not neglect my weight training.

As I was dismounting, I lost a shoe. This happened last year, and White Lake is the only race where this has ever happened. Must be something about the course. I grabbed it and carried it to my rack. The rest of the transition went off without a hitch. Very routine, and passed someone in the run out chute.

Not lose a shoe

Awesome run for me. I wanted to hit right around 20:30, so this was right on target. I made a lot of passes, and kept a consistent pace throughout. Very pleased. Couldn't ask much more. After the rough start to the bike, this was just what I needed morale wise.

Not a thing. This was a great run split. It will only get better.

Not much. Hopped in the lake to clean the mud off from my crash.


Crashing on the bike course.


This will be a race that I will remember for a long time. After overcoming a crash on the bike to finish as well as I did, this may be my best performance yet.