Happy Valley Sprint Tri - Triathlon

Time is actual swim time - total time in the results (15:38) included the run to transition. Never really felt great during this swim, except for maybe the last 200 - started out hard and felt like I was redlining most of this, even when I tried to slow down a bit midway through. I had a vague headache before the race started and my head started pounding while swimming, probably because my HR was so high (thankfully it subsided later on the bike). After 150M or so I thought, "Hmm...either people are REALLY sweating heavy or this is a salt water pool." haha Fairly certain it was the latter. In any case, my goal for this swim was to be under 15:00...just snuck in under that.

Maybe not start quite so hard. Given my indifference to the pool lately, this is a fair performance given most of my training swims have been easy to moderate effort. I definitely prefer OWS in races. For one thing, I'd rather not know exactly how much further I have left to go - during OWS I usually think in terms of buoys, not how many laps I have left, and feel much more relaxed even when I'm swimming relatively hard.

This went smoothly, though I took a few extra seconds to wipe off my feet before putting on my socks. Our transition spot was at the bottom of a small hill, so it took a little extra time/effort to carry my bike up and to the opposite end of the small transition area to the bike out (gained that back in T2 though).

Not bother wiping off my feet.

I hadn't paid much attention to the elevation profile of the course beforehand, and apparently had forgotten how hilly PA country roads can be in the 5 years since we left PA. haha Absolutely beautiful scenery along the course (if you like wide open farmland and the green mountains of PA), but there were definitely a few climbs that took more work than I had anticipated. Tried to keep up a comfortably hard pace throughout most of it and really worked the downhills to make up some time. Only was passed by a few men, but that didn't tell me anything about how I was doing relative to other women since the waves were set up by expected swim and overall finish times (slowest to fastest; I started in wave 4 of 5 and there were only a few other women in that wave). Drank most of my 24 oz bottle of water and ate a Gu Roctane gel just after the turnaround.

Not much - honestly it felt like I was going a lot slower than the average pace indicates, so I'll take it. Do more hill repeats in training? I've included several decent climbs in almost every ride, but I think my legs just didn't have anything else to give today.

Thankfully, it was a short downhill run to my rack. Quickly switched shoes and took off.

Not much.

So. Hot. Not much of the run course was shaded and all the uphills seemed to be while running into the sun. Tried my best to keep my HR and breathing under control, but I definitely was suffering out there. Drank water on the way out and Gatorade on the way back (really wanted water, but the guy closest to me was handing out Gatorade and I didn't want to waste energy moving over to the girl with water!). Splits: 8:28, 8:08, 8:19

Nothing. As with the bike, it really felt like I was running slower than this. Quite pleased that my time was only 1 second more than the equally humid but not as hot standalone 5K I ran on Thursday! Can't say this run felt any better, but at least I can push harder than I think I can while feeling like crap. Good thing the run wasn't any longer, however.

Walked around in the shade for several minutes. Downed a bottle of water and eventually wandered over to the refreshment table and ate half a humongous orange.


The heat and humidity, first and foremost. Not enough hard swim training. Never enough bike training, though the fact that I had the 3rd fastest bike in my AG (matching my ranking for the run) was encouraging. I have put in more time on the bike in the last 2 months than usual, mostly because I've wanted to and am enjoying it far more than swimming for once. Nice to see some of that effort pay off.


Very well done for a small race. Nice course - just challenging enough for triathletes of all ability levels. Could have used a few more volunteers out on the bike course - a couple times I felt a little unsure if I was headed in the right direction b/c I was riding by myself for almost the entire race.