FUNtastic Nantasket Beach Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Wow, this was rough! Dove under the breaking waves, but even after making it past that, the swells were fairly high, to the point that they blocked my view of the turn buoy at times. I ditched my usual bilateral breathing for breathing on my right side, since I was getting a lot of mouthfuls of saltwater, and felt that I needed all the air I could get. The way back in didn't pass as quickly as I'd hoped, but I didn't get too battered by the breaking waves that were coming up from behind. While this wasn't a fast swim, as is the case with all of my swims, I think my ability to slog through whatever is thrown at me helped me out here. Still, I was thrilled to get back on the beach.

I could learn to swim in rough ocean waters, but given that I'm not a strong swimmer, and don't really enjoy swimming in the ocean, that's not likely to happen. I was actually thrilled to see that I came out in the top 50% in my AG. I'm usually in the bottom 10-15%! So, while it was a slow time, I think I dealt with the harsh conditions better than a lot of other people.

I was definitely more shaken coming out of the swim than normal. My wetsuit got snagged on my chip (they stuck out a lot more than others I've dealt with), but it didn't slow me down too much. I was at the far end from the bike out, so my time includes wheeling my bike to the opposite end of transition.

Nothing, considering how far I was from the bike out, this was a good time.

I've been doing long course tris for the past couple of months, and my IM was just two weeks prior, so I wasn't sure what to expect for this. I knew it was going to be windy, so I swapped out my 808 front wheel for a 303. I was glad I did, since there were several times I felt gusts blow by, but wasn't bothered by it with the revised setup. Otherwise, the bike was pretty uneventful. I passed a lot of people, although most were men from earlier swim waves. I did get hung up a bit coming in, because I thought the volunteers were indicating that I'd hit the dismount line, but it was actually a bit further up. I felt bad for the people behind me, since I slowed almost to a stop before realizing that it was further up. Got back up to speed and cruised in to the actual dismount line from there.

Not stop before the dismount line, but otherwise nothing.

For my longer races, I had been putting on socks at this point, and my shoes always slid over them easily. For shorter races, I skip the socks, but was almost regretting it, since I had issues getting both of my shoes on. They kept getting snagged up on my feet. It wasn't terrible, but I should have been under a minute here...

I've heard people put talcum powder in their shoes, perhaps I should give that a try, or lube them up somehow.

At this point, I had no idea who was ahead of me for my AG, so I hoped to pass as many women as possible in the hopes of placing. Passed a few on the run out and felt okay, and coming into the turn around, I saw two women who I could likely catch, and two others that were further up. Unfortunately, no one had AG markings for this race, so there was no way of knowing who was in what group. I picked up the pace and passed the first two women relatively soon after the turn around, but the other two appeared to be pretty far up. I kept pushing and hit a point where I felt that I could catch them, but was worried that even if I did, I wouldn't have anything left and that they may just repass me. Decided to give it a go, and was able to hold them off through the finish. Definitely felt like I was going to puke, but that passed after I stopped running. Of course after the fact, I found out that those last two women I passed were on relay teams, and definitely not in my AG, but they still helped motivate me to push the final segment.

Nothing, I felt this went well. Not sure about my pace, since the website says it was 3M, but the results list it as a 5K run. If it was the latter, my pace was 7:28, which isn't too bad, considering it was on sand.

Hung out with Mike for the awards, since I found out I got 3rd in my AG. Great way to finish out the season!


I could probably have been faster if I wasn't two weeks out from my IM, but there's not exactly a lot more races in New England to choose from at this time of year, so I took what I could get...


This race wasn't bad, although I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner if they're not comfortable with the swim, given the choppy conditions.