Sullivan Civic Center Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Swim was pretty uneventful. I was not used to this pool and kept coming to the wall before I expected to be there so my first few push offs the wall were really a mess. As in - Oh, here is the wall! Stop, turn around, push off. I was getting pretty ticked at myself but I got it together about half way through. Swim was 5" slower than last year.

Practice pushing off under the lane lines.

This was slow and I knew it was slow. It was cold and windy out so I put a shirt on and of course my shirt was sticking to my wet arms. I couldn't get my hands out. I knew this would happen, I knew it was taking a long time, I would still put the shirt on again.

Not much, try to find a shirt that goes on easier or dry off the bottom of my arms. Either way I lose seconds.

This is where I beat myself up while I try to accept who I am at the same time. This was a mental struggle for me. The course really emphasized my cycling weaknesses which are cornering and crosswinds. The course takes you around a rectangle 2x so I had 8 turns. I still hit my brakes on turns, I can't even help it, it's like a reflex. I knew I was doing it, I wanted to stop but the fear of wiping out is very real to me. We had crosswinds with gusts on the long sections of the rectangle course and on the way out we are on a busy road with traffic backed up - this is a caution for me also so I sat up out of aero frequently here. A couple of gusts made me feel like my bike was coming out from under me. Please understand these are not excuses, everyone raced the same course. I know I have these weaknesses with cycling which is one of the reasons I don't love this bike course.
I felt like I could have been riding harder as my legs were not feeling much discomfort but I had trouble getting to the gears with the crosswinds when I was sitting up. One more mistake, I had the straw in the wrong hole on my Profile areo bottle. It was directly under my chin so I didn't have very much to drink during the race.
I was so happy to have that shirt on though. My feet and legs were freezing! I kept thinking "I want to get off this bike" and my answer was "Then ride faster!!!!!".

I guess I need to work on my confidence cornering!

I'm not sure what took me so long here. I had the quicky laces on my Saucony Mirage trainers, I did not wear socks. I felt like this transition went fine but this time is slow. Had a little trouble with one shoe but I just ignored it and moved on. I did take a second to get my Garmin off of my bike.

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I was so relieved to be running! I like this course as I love running on trails. My BT friends know my run fitness is a struggle as I was laid up with injuries all winter. All in all I am really very pleased with this run.
I felt good coming off the bike, my legs were not even tired (which tells me again how weak my bike performance was) but I was happy nothing hurt. I just don't have speed right now (not that I ever did) as I've only been back on the running bandwagon since March. About half way through I wanted to push the pace but my lungs and HR would not cooperate. I kept looking at my Garmin and seeing 9:09 pace and I knew my legs felt great but I couldn't get my breath. As we turned to head for the park things settled down, my Garmin quit but I must have made up some time on the pavement.

Not fuss with the Garmin and IPod (allowed on this course as it is in a park and not a USTA event). Both quit during the run.

Hung out chatting with all my tri friends. Have not visited with most of them since last summer so it was fun to catch up.
My ankle that I had been worried about felt fine but my back was pretty sore.
Ate a sub and chips (expcet the wind kept blowing the chips off my plate) and drank a soda.
DID NOT have enough water to drink before, during and after the race and ended up with a bad headache later in the evening.


Myself :)


Sullivan always puts on a great race. Very organized, great volunteers at every corner of the bike, well marked trail on the run, lots of awards, nice grub. Now if they could just control the weather......