Loggerhead Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I started off to the right to let the crowds fight themselves and find clear water, unfortunately a few others had that same idea and one lady on each side of me decided at the same time to swim across me. I can almost understand the outside swimmer doing that as she wanted to angle to the buoy (she should have started in a different place), but the inside person was just going way off course with that move. I had a hard time getting started because of criss-crossing swimmers, plus my heart rate was really high (i should have done more warming up), so it took me well passed the first buoy to get myself in any sort of groove. I thought i found someone to draft off, but almost as soon as I thought that she started breast stroking and I had to go around her.

The water was not as choppy as i thought it was going to be - especially with the storm not to far off over the water - but i think the tide was going out b/c when I made the turn for the shore, I was able to catch some waves, but then could feel myself being sucked back out a bit; so that was a bit of a bummer.

I'm a bit disappointed with the time, but i say that after every race.

warm up more and stay away from the crazy swimmers.

It was a pretty long way from the swim exit to my rack and i am always slow in T1, so i'm not surprised by this time. Still, I did fumble around more then usual.

stop fumbling around.

I reject this time! Somehow the timing got screwed up b/c there is no T2 time and this time was obviously rolled into the bike. Everytime I checked the speed I was just a tick below 21mph, so this is not accurate. Of course it also shows that my T2 was slow :)

more time on the bike would help.

Like I said above, they did not provide a T2 time, but my rack was at the farthest end from bike in and i did have a small hiccup getting one of my running shoes on, so i know this was slower then it should have been.

move more quickly

So, I had my Garmin on and had it in multisport mode and had it working properly on the bike, but somehow i messed things up and it didn't switch over to the run, so i had no idea what my pace was the entire run. I did know, however, that i could never get really comfortable or as comfortable as i should have been able to get while doing this run. Last year I was in much better run shape (and bike shape) and would have averaged 8 min miles, so this was a bit disappointing.

Another thing that was both disappointing and inspiring at the same time was that about the 2 mile mark I was passed by a 70 yr old man! He looked great. I stayed somewhat close to him - about 20 seconds behind, but he really kicked my azz since he started in at least 1 and probably 2 waves behind me! I take solace in the fact that he beat a lot of other people too!
Coming into the last 1/4 mile I passed a woman in my age group. She noticed that i passed her and caught up with me; running just behind me. I slowed down a bit to let her pass, so I could run right off her shoulder - which she did and I did. Right before the finish line we both picked it up, but I could not pass her (another indication my run is not very good right now), but managed to keep with her and we ended with the same time. I almost tossed my cookies during that last sprint - maybe that would have slowed her down a bit.
We ended up tied for 8th place in our division. looking at our individual events, she beat me by a about 1:30 on the swim and almost a minute in T1; I beat her by 10 seconds on the bike and 2:15 on the run. Other then pointing out how slow my transitions are I'm not sure what that means, but i find it interesting :)

Nothing, I ran the best I could given my current fitness.

just walking bikes back to car and then back to the site. We also had breakfast in the beachside restaurant.


Not being very good.


This was a nice race. I always enjoy swimming in the ocean, so anytime i can get an ocean swim and not a lake swim I'm happy. A1A was completely closed to traffic, so that was a real plus and not something that I've had in any other race (other then the ones at Disney).
Once again, Peter beat me without doing any training other then the occasional run and while using a too small for him bike. If he ever prepared for one of these races he would vie for first place in his AG all the time. As it is, he usually comes in middle of the pact.
Mark took second place in the fat tire division despite having a less then stellar race. Since he had dental surgery last night, I guess he is allowed a subpar performance. Of course, I only beat his time by 2 minutes; so I think he was outstanding :)