Springbrook Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

Wow, this was a rough swim. They started people really close together, and after the first length it got really crowded. Every wall there were 3 people there together, so getting a good push off was impossible. If you ever watch water polo in the Olympics and they show an underwater camera and they are pushing and grabbing and elbowing, that's what it was like. I don't think it was the casual "oops I bumped into you" either, it was aggressive. It was the roughest (not hardest, but contact roughest) swim that I've had.

What could you do? I felt like I did a pretty good job of just trying to swim my race, keep breathing, keep counting strokes. I was a little slower than I expected, but was actually surprised it was as fast as it was under the circumstances.

I think it was 3rd fastest in the field, not counting relays. I had to wait on a girl crossing one of the little bridges at the pool, but passed several people on the way, then grabbed my bike and took off. Decent job of getting up to speed and shoes on.

Nothing

This was a good bike. I had a little trouble about a mile in getting around a group of people, but nothing major. I had one guy that I passed back and forth a couple times, then I finally got away from him. It was a little frustrating because when he would pass me he would slow down, and by rule once the front wheel passes you, you have to drop back 3 lengths before attempting to re-pass. It was like he was using all his energy to get around me, then had to slow down to recover, so I would have to slow down more to let him get far enough ahead of me to go again. No big deal I guess, but a little bit frustrating for a little while before I finally got away from him.

I had a good bike dismount and was running to my rack, and one of the workers in transition was blocking me and trying to get me to go to the other side. I'm like, my rack is right there, get out of the way! What are you doing??

I don't know, I think I rode about as hard as I should, and felt decent for the run. Top 10% overall.

I realized before this race that I'm losing a couple seconds on T2 by putting my belt on while standing at the rack, so I decided I should grab it and put it on as I run to exit transition. That worked fine.

Truck the worker who was blocking me? just kidding! I didn't really waste any time.

My goal time was 22 min, which would be right at an 8 min mile pace. I knew the first mile was uphill, but some time can be made up the next half mile or so back to the start. I was at 8:14 at the first mile marker, a little behind pace but not bad considering it's uphill, grabbed some water at the aid station, and proceeded to get it up my nose trying to drink while running. Oh well. I'm into the downhill now and feeling pretty good, I've got the worst part licked, then about a minute into the downhill, here comes the feeling. . . I'm about to puke. I slow my pace a little bit, try to breathe through it, try to run through it, try to pray through it, but . . . no dice. I heave while I'm trying to keep running and think I'm about to puke all over myself, so I stop and get under a shade tree, heave a little more,, but nothing actually comes up. After about a minute I try to walk a little bit, then jog a little bit, then feel like I'm sort of ok, so I keep going. I stop to get a little water at the mile 2 aid station (none up my nose this time), and end up finishing ok. I never felt like I was going to puke again, but I never felt like I could push it either.

Disappointing, but what do you do? I tried fighting thru it, and still finished about 4 min faster than last year, but when the body doesn't cooperate you just do the best you can. I don't know what caused it, I felt about like I always do on the run, so I don't think I overdid the bike. Springbrook is the first tri I ever did, this is the 4th time I've done it, and I still haven't had a decent run here. I don't understand it.

Tried to cool down, get some water, and make sure I wasn't going to have another episode. I met up with a couple tri-friends and talked about our races.


The battle royale in the pool
The episode during the run

I guess it's good that I've improved enough to where 4 minutes better than last year is a disappointment, but . . .it's still a disappointment. I want to be at my best every race, and this wasn't it.


A good job by the Race Day Events crew. I wish they had spaced people more getting in the pool.