5430 Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The swim time includes about a minute for the run up the beach to the timing mats on the way to transition. The swim start was probably the most brutal one I've experienced so far, even though I started in about the second row. I thought I had a decent swim, but after looking at the time and having it be exactly the same (to the second) as last year's time, I am pretty disappointed. The boat exhaust fumes were really bad on this swim - probably from the jet skis patrolling the swim. Air is rarefied as it is when you can only breathe every so often, but when it's tainted with choking fumes - that's not too much fun.

Have more confidence that I was swimming in a straight line to the buoy instead of stressing out that I couldn't see the buoy because of the sun. I know I swim straight, so I just have to have faith in that. I stood up when my hand touched sand, but it was still a bit of a wade/run to get out of the water. That ate up some time.

The run up the beach to transition never looks bad before the race, but it's difficult in a race. Several people got in my way and I had to run around them. Found my bike in transition easily and had no problems taking off my wetsuit (love the sleeveless). I must have forgotten to velcro my left shoe when I put them on because it was flopping around when I was running with my bike to the bike start.

Pay attention to make sure my shoes are BOTH fastened! I had the 4th fastest T1 time in my age group, so I can't be too disappointed in that.

I know I can go faster than this on this course. Immediately out of transition, my hips were very sore in the aero position, and the harder I pushed, the more they hurt. I think I need to stretch more before a race (or stretch, period!!!). And I think I was afraid of going to hard in the first 5 miles that were uphill and blowing up. Later, when the course was downhill or flat, I found myself not pushing the speed where I should have. I was kind of out of it and not completely there mentally.

Hurt myself more - it's only 17 miles. I tend to stress out about losing it on the run, so I think I am too conservative on the bike segment.

It took me a little longer than I would have liked to get my running shoes on (yes, I have yankz). I took a couple of seconds to get a drink of water from the bottle on my towel - probably should have skipped that, but my hands were full with my race belt and visor when I passed the water table exiting transition, so I wouldnt have been able to grab water there either.

Practice putting my shoes on faster. I was 15th in my AG in this transition, so T2 seems to be what I need to work on.

I took 3:18 off my run time from last year's race, so that's a definite improvement. But I was the only person in the top 20 of my age group that ran over a 8 minute mile pace. Everyone else ran sub 8s (or sub 7s). My legs felt really slow for about the first mile, and even though I tried to push it harder, that signal was getting lost somewhere before it reached my legs. This was a hard run for me and I never felt very good.

Who knows? Running is my weakness (physically and mentally). I'll continue to work on my speed, but I need to work more on the mental aspect of my run so I'm not so self-defeating.

Got ice water dumped over my head by the finish line volunteers, walked around, ate pancakes and hung out with the BT crew.


I don't think I brought my mental A-Game to this race. That being said, I took 5:35 off of my time from last year, so I guess that's not too terrible.


5430 Sports puts on a great race. Very organized, even with 1,200 participants.