Jacksonville Sprint Triathlon Series #2 - TriathlonSprint

This was more difficult than I anticipated even though I started way to right to account for the current. Dan and I had both spent a lot of time in the ocean while on vacation leading up to the race and thought we had a good feel for getting through the waves - not so much.

For a couple minutes it didn't seem like the first buoy was getting any closer. I was happy to reach it because I expected to catch the current going over to the 2nd and 3rd buoys but it wasn't as strong as it had been, not strong enough to make a difference. It was disappointing but not so bad because everyone had a similar swim.

I swam until I started to hit bottom with my hands. My feet hit the beach at 9:59 and then it was a long run up the beach to T1. There was a freshwater shower leading in to T1 which was nice.

I'm not sure, this went as well as it could have. I have good swim base but I didn't try to push the pace, it was comfortably hard. Almost everyone had a swim time between 8:00-12:00.

This felt faster, time flies in transition.

I ran in T1 and actually ran past my rack. Oops. You'd think the green bike would stick out more but I ran right past it.

I found my stuff and got moving. Helmet on, glasses on, shoes on and I was off.

Not run past my stuff? I only missed it by about 3 racks but it cost me time.

This is my strength and I knew I could catch people. I passed a lot of women right from the start and caught some men from the earlier waves. I kept an eye on the men coming back to watch for Dan and was relieved to see he made it out of the water okay.

Dan and I had ridden the course the day before and on that ride there was a headwind on the way out but not on race day. There was very little wind to speak of, maybe a bit of tailwind on the way back.

This ride went very well and I averaged higher than I expected. I felt strong throughout and actually felt like I held back some so I didn't burn all my remaining matches.

Drafting is rampant but hard to avoid on this course. It's tight and there are people all over the place. The road was open to cars so we were supposed to stay to the right.

With about 1/3 of a mile left I got out of my shoes and came in ready for the flying dismount. I've practiced the dismount but this was my first time doing it in a race. I got out of my shoes without a problem and off my bike but I misjudged the bottleneck at the entrance to T2 and came in hot and had to slow down quickly. When I came off the bike I slammed the brakes and the bike almost did an endo (ass over teakettle) next to me hitting my hip and the spectators made a collective Oooooh but I tried to ignore them.

Nothing. I am very happy with this ride.

I was running with my bike to my rack for some reason I couldn't decide what side to rack it on. I ended up racking it on one side while my stuff was on the other side. I'm not sure why, my brain just wasn't working. So, that meant I racked my bike by the brake levers and had to run around to get my shoes. D'oh.

Rack my bike on the side where my stuff is located.

Move faster. This felt faster but again, time flies.

I tried to start slower to keep my HR down. I ran out of T2 and my watch said 1:01 so I knew my time frame to hit my goal.

We ran on a short road and sidewalk before turning in to Fort Clinch. This run course is one of the shadiest courses I've ever done, I really liked it. There were false flats with inclines and declines but coming from a hilly area it was barely noticeable.

Coach said to try and pick up the pace in the middle of the run and I tried but it was not happening. My breathing felt okay but my legs just did not want to go any faster. There were faster runners who caught me but this was a decent run for me. I felt good and never felt like I needed to walk, definitely an improvement.

For this race, probably nothing. I was as well trained for the run as I could have been up to this point.

Walked around and drank some water.


Nothing specific limited me - I feel like this went as well as I could have hoped with the amount of training so far this season.


I've done other DRC Sports races and they are always well organized even if they don't always start on time. I probably would have rated this race a "5" if it had started on time.

I liked this course and would definitely do this race again.