Sportspectrum River Cities Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

My plan for the swim was to take it easy. I am not a strong swimmer so I didn't want to waste unnecessary energy on such a short part of the swim.

There was a lot of contact and bumping. Nothing major but I was constantly getting bumped and touched. I have been swam over in other races so the minor contact was just noticably frequent but not interfering with my swim very much.

Not much different. I like the idea of taking my time in the swim. I also did very well with sighting. The water was warm and good at the start but at the end it was just a tad to hot.

This was my longest transition ever. I had planned to take my time here but not this much. Basically I got everything done as per normal but when I was just about out of transition I realised I forgot my sun glasses.

I went back to get and couldn't find them at my transition spot. I had them in my hand when I put my helmet on so I knew they were somewhere. So I spent a lot of that 4.5 minutes going up and down the transition area looking for them. I finaly realised I had gone to the wrong transition spot and found them on my transition bag.

I woudn't have spent so much time looking but they were expensive perscription sun glasses and I didn't want to lose them.

Other than that I was good.

My new transition backpack looks like many others. Maybe I will put some sort of bright ribbon on it or something.

I had heard this was a fast course so my plan was to go easy on the swim and hammer the bike like I didn't have to run afterwards. Basically I was going to go for a PR on the bike.

My bike computer stopped working at 2.7 miles into the ride. This messed up my plan. I had no clue how fast I was going it was all just according to effort. So, I changed my plan to just trying to have a solid bike and run.

I must admit that I handled the hilly areas the best I have ever done. I recovered after climbs fairly quickly and I did much better out of the saddle climbing than trying to spin up them.

I was having some bathroom issues right before the race so I didn't test ride my bike, I didn't check to be sure my brakes weren't rubbing, and I didn't see if my computer was working. I'm sure all that was needed was to check the magnet.

I am surprised that my bike average was close to 20. I definately had more in the tank.... I would push slightly harder next time.

Also, I hadn't eaten anything up to this point so I decided to drink just Gatorade on the bike to get some calories in. I drank a little to much and got that sloshy feeling. I would probably water down the Gatorade next time half/half.

I walked through transition this time. It was a long transistion area and part of one of my cleats is broken off so I didn't want to risk any falling/tripping.

hmmmm I would probably learn to leave the shoes on the pedals so I can run confidently.

Even though I only managed a 10 min pace I was pretty happy that I could run up the hilly areas. I did walk through two water stations and I walked one other time for about 30 seconds but that wasn't to bad for me.

Thank goodness it was shaded because I got really hot on the last half.

Hmmmm, I need to learn to just suck it up and get uncomfortable. I do these races for fun but I also really enjoy moving up in both the standings and relative to my personal previous times. I need to decided which one I like more.... and I think it will be the latter. Steve Prefontaine I am not.

Drank some nasty tasting amino-sumfin-or-other. Ate a chicken sandwhich and a king don.


Ultimately my limiters were my comfort level, long T1, and my computer problem.


I am giving this race a high rating. It did start a few minutes late but that is forgivable. I have never seen so many volunteers. The swim was easy to sight, the bike was on good roads (once out of the park area), and the run was shaded for 95%.

The swag bag was the best I have ever seen. While I don't do races for swag, this may be the exception.

Overall I could have done a good 2-3 minutes faster if I hadn't forgot my sun glasses and the fiasco following.

I had a good effort and a decent time for me , for a sprint. One of these days I'm going to be able to push myself out of my comfort level for the entire time and knock off 15 minutes.