Arbor Schools' Issaquah Triathalon - TriathlonSprint

I am getting to be a pretty strong pool swimmer, but the night before was my first open water swim. I struggled in all aspects. I went from bi- lateral breathing in pool, to breathing every two strokes (to the right) which caused me to pull to the right. I got off course several times and had to stop, get sighted and swim back to the course at least 4 times. Also swimming in a group of people was something I had never done. I was just glad to finish. The water, course, temperature all were great. I was really disappointed with my swim portion, but looking at the times, I did not do that bad compared to the rest of the people.

Need to practice more open water swimming.

Gave away some time here. Plan was good, just had a hard time getting wetsuit off of feet. Put bike shoes and socks on right away, ran with bike shoes on, but the grass was wet and muddy so I wouldn't have wanted to do it any other way.

Practice getting wetsuit off, and practice biking without socks (maybe).

Pretty good ride for me. Course was easy with only one hill, had to slow down the last mile or so because of course layout. I was on my road bike without aerobars, so I am thinking that with some time on the tri bike I can be quite a bit faster.

Spend some time on tri bike and in aero position, so that I am not riding the road bike in a tri.

Had a ways to run from dismount to rack, but overall not a bad transition. Still gave away 15- 20 seconds, at least I know I can do better.

Strap forerunner to wrist while stopped in T2, instead of trying to do it while running.

Pretty good run. I had a goal of averaging sub 7 min/ miles, so I did well there. Have spent almost all of my run training on pavement, so wasn't used to the grass and mud running. Not that big of a deal, but I did slip a couple of times, and came close to rolling my ankle both times.

Put the forerunner on in T2, rather than try to do it while running. I had the multisport setting on, but ended up pushing a button inadvertantly while trying to run and get the strap on the wrist. I then had to proceed to reset the thing, change it to run setting and start it while trying to keep a pace. Not sure I lost any time, just took me a while to get it on and working. Wished I had the info now to look at.

Yeah right! Wife gave me a bag of kids stuff, then she ran off to do the 5k and left me with the kids. I saw her for maybe 20 seconds before she handed the parenting duties off to me. But I am glad she got to run the 5k, made it nice for both of us.


Hey it was my first tri, I am excited I got through it in such good shape. But I did learn quite a bit. I need to do more open water swimming. Pool swimming just doesn't prepare you for swimming in open water. My goal for next year is to take off 2 minutes per sport, and 1 minute from the transition. I think this is easily within my capabilities.


Had lots of events, both adults and kids were able to participate. Nice event, that I plan to do again.