Lake Stevens Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was a really disappointing swim for me. I'm not a strong swimmer by any means but I felt like I had made a lot of progress this season - and I still have, but it did not result in a good performance today. After about 150 yards for some reason, my form and technique fell apart to the point that I couldn't even keep my head in the water.

The only thing I can think of is that I didnt do my normal 10-15 mins of warmup in the water, so when we started that was the first time I put my face in and got hit with that initial shock. The sprint course sort of dissected the olympic loop and the oly swimmers had started about 20 mins earlier so they were in the middle of their swim, which made finding a spot to get in some practice strokes difficult or confusing at best. Being still very much a novice swimmer this is by no means ideal, my heart rate accelerated and I couldn't recover. After that, it was a matter of gutting it out just to get it done.

Find a spot to warmup no matter what the course. Also stash some kind of footwear to use pre and post swim for the run up the boat ramp to transition.

So glad to be out of the water. This was not actually too bad of a transition by my standards! Had my wife and son screaming at me to get moving. I was relaxed enough by now I was able to lighten up and crack a few jokes about taking breaks during transition! My transitions will improve with more experiences but I had no issues with this one. It was fun laughing and teasing my family and fellow competitors.

Like my son said, hurry up Dad!

An ok bike effort. I didn't push too hard. I should have pushed harder. My training has been very run focsed and it showed. Even though this course is literally in my back yard I was not prepared very well for the rolling countryside, and there is no excuse. Having said that, I enjoyed my bike ride. The one main hill though was a bitch period, but it was fun flying down the other side. I thought I handled my bike well and was a little surprised I wasn't a bit faster - I screwed up my multisport mode on my watch so was flying blind on pace so just went with effort. Think I might have taken it a bit too easy but by this point I was determined just to enjoy my last tri of the season...so I did!

More bike training. Dont screw up watch settings. Ride faster.

Another fun T2 singing out SpongeBob Squarepants to my son - I use my SpongeBob Squarepants beach towel in transition in honor of my son's favorite show. Heckled from the gallery from a kid yelling, "wow Dad, that sure took you a long while on the bike....!!" Will be consulting with my fan club director for future events!

Get changed faster.

Legs were shaky coming out of transition but found a comfortable pace and stuck with it. Watch was messed up and not giving my instant pace or splits and I couldnt be bothered to figure it out, so just went with what felt good. The hill was tough the first time but didn't bother me as much after the turnaround. Really enjoyed cruising the final mile to the finish line. Saw a couple of friends from Blue Fire Fitness and waved and high fived them along the way.

Could have run faster but I'm about a month into my marathon training and just was not willing to redline it all the way.

Found family. Bagel, quick stretch and walked around the park.


Not warming up during the swim was a big mistake - that cost me at least 4 minutes. Not enough bike training on the local course...shame on me. Relaxed on the run but no regrets.


This was my final triathlon of the season and it has been a fantastic rookie year. I'm overall happy with this race and my results this year. I'll race this sprint again next year and use it as a benchmark for improvement. Big time thanks to my wifey, Paula and son AJ for putting up with my training and supporting me through this first season. Also, a huge shoutout to my online Rookie teammates, Erin, Kate, Lisa, Mike, Bernard, and Roland....wow your advice and support this year was just fantastic and kept me going through the tough training sessions and instilled the belief in myself that I can be a triathlete. This is just the beginning of the journey. All y'alls rock Beasts!!

Now there is just the matter of my first full marathon to get through later this year!