North Carolina Triathlon Series Race #9 - Triangle - TriathlonSprint

The swim was good to me. Since my practice swim 2 weeks ago, I decided to take it nice and easy most of the time.

I was pretty nervous going up to the swim, but just because it was a race not really because I was worried about the distance.

I can't stress enough how much my open water swim practice helped me. Here is a link to my report on that.
I totally freaked out for my swim practice, but after it, I was so confident I could complete the distance without stopping that I just settled into a nice pace.

Speaking of pace. I started off slow ... During the first half of the swim, my right goggle kept filling up with water. It didn't trouble me too much, but I did try to adjust it to no avail. To deal with it, I just closed both my eyes. This hurt my sighting a little and I ended up a tad bit left -- which probably added I would say a minute to my time. Thi sis just a guess.

At about the halfway point, I was gaining confidence and suddenly my goggles stopped taking on water. This let me kick it into a higher gear. I started reaching farther with my stroke and working a little harder. My muscles started warming up more and more, and I was feeling really good.

Overall I was swimming pretty much by myself most of the time so I didn't have any trouble with getting kicked or anything.

The water in Lake Crabtree is awful. (No swimming normally) Nasty brown and you have about 4 inches of visibility. But I completely expected this so I wasn't freaked out at all.


Push it harder before the halfway point.

Awful! I think packed a lunch here I took so long...
I had the worst time getting my socks on. I think a minute or so of this time is just spent on socks. I read someone here who said putting powder in your socks would help get them on while your feet were wet, but this wasn't true.

I guess when you don't practice transitions, this is kinda what happens.

1 - Not walk in transition - jog instead.
2 - Don't wear socks on bike
3 - Have things laid out a little better

Practice transitions before the race.

I think the bike was the best part of my race.
Felt fairly good the whole time. I was worried about hammering too hard and then getting crushed on the run.

Let me just say, that on the bike I was smiling ear to ear almost the whole time. Why? I knew I would finish!!

I tell you what, that is the greatest feeling in the world to realize that you can finish a race like this.

During some of the uphills I was going like 8 MPH, but I would kick it at 31 MPH in some of the downhills.



More long rides. "Ride lots"

I was still fairly slow here, but better than the last transition.

Here is the funniest story you have ever heard. I go into transition. Rack bike. Take off shoes. Take a couple of swigs of gatorade, and jog on out.

See anything missing here?? I didn't take off my helmet!! DOH!

So before I hit the timing mat, I realize this, but it's about 20 yards back to the transition area. My brain is thinking "I really don't feel like turning around and going all the way back to the transition area." Yet, I'm still running WITH MY HELMET ON.

What luck! I see a friend of mine who came by and supported us for the race, so I take off the helmet and chuck it to him! Perfect!!

He later gave it off to 2 more people who got it back to me safe and sound! Is that cool or what? I mean, kind of embarassing, but I had to laugh about it and it lightened up the day a little.

I didn't jog coming into the transition. That hurt my time a little because it was a long transition area.

Take off the helmet.

The first mile of the run was tough because my muscles were pretty tight. I guess that's why they call it a brick, huh?

They weren't cramped or anything so I think it was fine, they just didn't want to run too fast.

Overall, I felt like I was going pretty slow, but 10.5 minutes/mile is about my best pace. In a 5k a month or so ago, that was pretty close to my pace all by itself.

To me, that means I'm getting a lot faster on the run.

I didn't walk at all on the run except for a couple of steps at each water station. I took a cup of water for each station and walked a few steps to gulp it down. I never poured any water on my head because I was never that tired or heated.

Push it harder. I have to improve my base substantially to get faster on the run. Given that I've only been running for about 3-4 months, I think I'm doing well. Again, I've never been an athlete.

Not much. I wasn't really winded. I paced myself the whole race.
We left pretty much immediately after the race.


I think my goals limited me, but in a good way. It was mirst race. I was just checking it out. I wanted to finish, and not stop and walk anywhere.

I think that more bricks would help me.


ONE WORD: INCREDIBLE. I had the absolute best time in this race the whole time, it was so unbelievable.

This is my only race, so it's hard to rate. There were tons of volunteers and there was tons of water, etc.

The bike course was not closed but traffic cops did a great job helping out the riders. A++

I have two more races planned this year.

Check out my pictures of the race on Flickr. I'm in all the ones tagged "rick".