Iron Nugget Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I'm not a good swimmer, but I've been working really hard on it this winter/spring. I hoped to do a lot better than this, but the age-group and overall rankings seem a lot better than the time does, so I'm thinking it may have been long. Seems like most of the swim times were pretty slow. Considering I was 85/92 in my first lake swim last June, 64/95 is not too terrible I guess. Also the longest lake swim I've done.

I don't know if it was the nerves, or the cold water, or the wetsuit, or all of the above, but I had a terrible time getting settled down in the water. I started back and on the far right edge to try to stay away from people, but still had someone veer into me several times. One man must have zigzagged in front of me 3 or 4 times. I'd let him go, then go around him, then here he'd come again. I know it wasn't intentional, but it didn't help any. Anyway, I just couldn't convince myself to calm down and swim. I did a little bit better the second half of the course, although I veered off pretty bad after the last turn.

All in all, slower than I expected, but better overall rank than I expected, and I wasn't spent when i got out of the water.

Swim in open water in the wetsuit beforehand.

Huge (slope and distance) broken asphalt hill from swim to transition. Don't know how long or how steep, but it was both long and steep. And rough. I walked at a pretty good pace and passed a couple people. Some people were walking very casually up the hill. I think a couple people may have checked their e-mail on the way :-) I tried to go around another guy once I got to transition on the way to my bike rack, but the asphalt was so rough other than the mat they had put down to run on, that I couldn't get around him, so I just waited on him.

As far as the wetsuit coming off, it was better than I expected. I had tried pretty hard to cover myself in at least 3 layers of body glide before putting on the wetsuit, I have very much struggled getting the wetsuit off in the past. The bodyglide def helped. I got my cap and goggles off, watch off, arms out, watch back on, and wetsuit down to my waist on the way up the hill. Once I got to my bike I managed to get the suit off the rest of the way without too much trouble. I put my timing chip back on (had to take off to get wetsuit off), helmet and goggles on, socks and shoes on, and headed out.

Hurry. On longer events (this is a longer one to me), I tend to fall into "survive and finish" mode rather than race mode. I've been working on the "jump on the bike mount" with the shoes already clipped in, but with the rough uneven transition surface and a pretty good uphill to start, I decided to take the time to put shoes on in transtion and not risk disaster. I plan to try to moving mount whenever possible.

I passed a bunch of people and didn't get passed. I was a little disappointed with 19th overall and 4th in age group. Not bad, but not where I want to be or expect to be. The bike is my strength, and I need to be better than top 20%.

Know the course if at all possible. Know better how to pace myself, and how much I can push. That will come with more experience.

Again due to the rough pavement, I didn't try the moving dismount. I took my feet out on the bike, and was actually debating whether to swing the leg over on the way in, but decided safe was better than sorry, so I braked and stepped off.

I started to run out the wrong way, but then remembered that the run out is away from the run course with a u-turn. I only lost a couple sec.

Not much with the surface the way it is. It's just not worth wipeout risk to try to save a few seconds. Much like T1, I need to get in a hurry and race more, not just survive.

I came out of T2 feeling surprisingly fresh. The first 1/4 mile or so is a pretty good uphill, and it was tough, but not brutal. I didn't have a good feel for how much I had left in the tank, so I tried to just maintain a decent pace and keep moving, and not walk any of the hills. I think I passed a couple people fairly early on, then passed a guy in the last 1/2 mile or so. I only got passed once, by a 28 year old who was absolutely flying. He must have had a terrible bike leg or something. My goal going in was 26 min, but I didn't know if I could do that or not on this course. I just made it, so I'm reasonably satisfied. I finished with too much left in the tank and felt like I should have pushed harder though.

Push more. I have to learn to convince myself to run faster. I don't enjoy the run, and it's harder to push myself to my limits.

Lack of course knowledge. No open water wetsuit swim prep. Knowing how much I can push on each leg.


Enjoyed the race and would do it again. Course was very well marked. If the transition area was paved it would be even that much better. I don't want to harp too much on that, but that's really the only negative.