Elkhart Lake Triathlon - Sprint Course - TriathlonSprint

Had a nice easy swim. It was a time trial start, two people every three seconds. I just waded out until it was deep enough to swim. I wasn't being very aggressive at all, just going through the motions. Got a into a nice rhythm for freestyle, and generally tried to avoid people. I kept running into people that were backstroking or treading water, however, from what I kept hearing there were A LOT of people doing it. I just moved a little and swam on.

Now that I've got the hang of it, I'll be a little more aggressive and go for speed, and maybe try and get more out front. Additionally, I noticed that my sighting technique seemed to stop me completely at times, so I need to practice in open water more. Plenty of opportunities to do that over the summer.

Got to knee high water and waded out. Got out of my wetsuit with little trouble. My cap and goggles actually made it into my wetsuit sleeve this time. Transition entrance was a bit of a jog from the beach, but I took it easy to keep the heart rate down. Got my legs out of the suit pretty easily. Thank you BodyGlide. I wasn't going to try any cool-guy flying mounts my first go around, so I just ran with my shoes on and mounted "the old-fashioned way" after the mount line.

Also, as I was running into transition I had noticed the rack over from me had collapsed, causing a good number of bikes to be in a pile. I hope they have that fixed next year.

I was really trying to take my time and make sure that everything was good to go (chin-strap buckled, shoes on right feet, helmet not on backwards, among other embarrassing things that I've heard about happening to people). Next time I'll probably be a little faster getting out of transition now that I believe I've got the hang of it.

I think I performed pretty well here. I was passing quite a few people and the rolling hills of the course were pretty easily handled.

I did have one embarrassing incident about 30 minutes into the bike. As an afterthought I hastily duct taped a gel to the top tube of my bike thinking I could use the extra nutrition at about that time. However, I hastily taped the **** out of it, causing me to have to coast for a good 3 minutes trying to wrestle my gol-darn clif shot off of my top tube. When I finally got it loose, I had applied such force that it shot off the bike and landed behind me, with a race marshal staring me down menacingly. I ended up getting off the bike to go back and get it. (I like to think I would have gotten it whether anybody saw me or not... integrity, right?)

Don't abuse the power of duct tape to adhere gels to top tube. Use electrical, taped more lightly, or maybe just throw it in the back of my jersey at transition. I suppose race day is not the time to experiment. Lesson learned.

Additionally, I was being a little cautious here too. I probably could have passed some people but chose to stay behind them for a while anyway. I think I could have pushed it a little harder and still been okay.

Got to the mount-line, unclipped and ran with my shoes on back to transition. Re-racked my bike, got my bike shoes off and managed to get my pre-rolled socks on pretty easily despite the sweat. Got my hat and race number on, and off I went.

Again, I was being really careful to make sure I had everything squared away before taking off. Race belt, bike was racked right, etc. Once I get the hang of things and transitions are second nature I think I can shave some time off.

I felt like I still had some gas left over from the swim and bike so the run felt pretty good. I was putting a lot of thought into cadence and pace. The course had a really big hill right in the middle of it, and a lot of people were walking but thankfully I never felt the need. As soon as I rounded the corner towards the finish and heard the crowd and music, I got pretty motivated and turned up the heat. What a great feeling to cross the finish!

Pick up the pace a little. I think I could have pushed it a little harder throughout.

Walked around, had some light stretching, half a banana, a bagel, and waited for the rest of my group to finish.


Lack of experience. I think with some more transition practice and some swim coaching (as well as continuing training) I could rock this.


For my first race I think I did pretty good. I was actually surprised that I managed to finish 3rd out of 10 in my age group, but sure enough they called me up for an award. Looking at the results online it looks like I actually finished 4th out of 11, but the guy who got 1st overall was in my age group so I guess they dropped it down to the next three guys. I'll take it. :)

Big thanks to all the Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team who help newbies like me make it to the start and finish line. Awesome group of folks.