Greater Cleveland Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

The waves for this tri were done by age group, not by gender, so I was starting with a bunch of (fast-looking) guys. The horn went off and I dolphin-dived my way out until it was deep enough to start swimming. I wanted to try and get a strong start on this swim before settling into a good pace, and I did that - except my strong swim kept pushing me right! I veered off a straight line about 4 or 5 times this race, which I have never done before.

We swam straight out, made a right-hand turn around the first buoy, then swam straight into the sun to the second buoy. It was impossible to sight! Made a left around the second buoy, then a quick 100 yards or so to the third buoy, left around that, and then a few hundred yards to the last turn back to shore. I had a hard time sighting overall, between the sun and my swimming off course. I didn't find feet to draft off of the whole race (probably because I wasn't going straight!) but it felt like a fairly decent swim for me. Had I stayed on course I probably would have been much faster.

Many in the 1/2 IM race felt that the swim course was about 400 yards too long, and some felt the sprint was overmeasured as well. My time was slower than normal, but it did include a 200-300 yard run up the beach and into the transition area. When I glanced at my watch coming out of the water I was at about 15:30 - much slower than my last sprint swim time.

Under the circumstances, not much. I was cold when I started and basically doing blind sighting to the first buoy, which I didn't have much control over. The rest of the swim was ok.

My legs were shaking and I had a hard time clipping in, for some reason. Probably took me 10-15 seconds to clip in, which I can normally do in my sleep! Other than that, not much to say - a fairly quick and easy transition.

The bike felt awesome. Because all the biking I have done includes hills, this course felt so easy. I almost missed the turnoff for the sprint course, which apparently happened to some other riders. I pedaled in the big ring almost the whole course, and kept cadence between 90 and 105. I felt smooth, fast, and relaxed. The only bad thing was that I lost the straw to my aerodrink bottle in one of the corners, so I had to stop pedaling and reach down to grab my extra water bottle (thank goodness I had it!). I passed a lot of people, but I'm sure many were in the 1/2 IM so I can't judge performance on that.

Nothing. It felt fantastic.

There were only 4 bikes on the rack when I got in!!! I dropped my bike while running with it, but otherwise transition went fast and just as planned.

Coming out of T2, the announcer said "The second overall female has left on the run!" and I almost had a heart attack right there!! Granted, I was in the first wave and had a quick bike, but I was SO excited to be in that position. I knew it wouldn't last long, but it was nice to hear anyway.

I set off on the run nice and easy, concentrating on breathing and slowly lengthening my stride and quickening my cadence. Got passed by some guys, but no girls yet. The first mile was uneventful, and I didn't feel terrible, but the sun on the road was a little hot. Hit the first aid station and checked my watch for a 9:30 first mile split. Ugh. I was NOT going to run a 30:00 5k again! Poured a cup of ice-cold water (thanks, Fleet Feet volunteers!) over my head and tried to up my pace a little bit. Got to the turnaround, headed up the tiny hill, and started back. That's when the cramp started to form. I concentrated on running light and fast, and timed my breathing to try and get rid of it. It didn't completely go away for almost the entire 2nd mile, but it never got terribly bad. During that second mile I got passed by a couple of women and a bunch of guys.

Once we hit the shady parts of the street I felt so much better and really picked it up. There were no aid stations after the one at mile 1, and no mile markers, so I couldn't tell how fast I did the second two miles. The last part of the course breezed by, and before I knew it I was back towards the park, and just had a big downhill run before heading on the grass and through the chutes. I finished very strong - even was able to wave and smile for the cameras!

I will be working on the run this winter!!

Drank lots of water, ate watermelon, walked around and stretched a bit.


I am a sucktastic runner. Everything else went wonderfully.


The organizers did a great job of pulling this event off after the flooding closed the original race site. They had to re-create a bike and run course 3 days before the event! The volunteers were fantastic. The only complaint I really had was the swim start, because they held us up about 10 minutes so we didn't run into the 1/2 IM swimmers coming into shore.