Portage Lakes Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

Haven't been thrilled with my swim times this season, but I haven't spent enough time working on that sport to really justify why I should be getting any faster. I had a rough start and got a couple of really big mouthfuls of lake water, some of which went down the wrong hatch. I actually stood up a one point and hacked for a good 10 seconds to try and clear it all out. Once that was sorted out, I got into a nice rhythym. Probably the best navigation and sighting I've ever done in a race.

I should have started more towards the front of the pack. I ended up behind a bunch of flailers and I think that's how I ended up swallowing so much water.

Super slow T1 because I had to fight my way into a long-sleeve cold gear shirt and a pair of gloves while dripping wet.

I probably should have bunched up the sleeves of the shirt before attempting to shove my soaking wet arm down the sleeve. Both sleeves got all kinds of stuck on my arms.

Holy hills Batman! I've done this race the past three years, and I still didn't remember how crazy hilly this is. There's one short, steep section with chip seal that is particularly nasty.

Not much. I went as hard as my lungs and legs would allow. The hips and glutes were pretty well toasted by the end of the ride.

I stayed pretty warm on the bike, all except for my feet. I don't have shoe covers and I seriously could not feel my toes at the end of the bike. I had a very hard time getting my running shoes on, despite the fact that I had the bungee/race laces in.

Not a whole lot to be done about frozen, numb toes. Perhaps I need to invest in some shoe covers.

Sigh... again, very obvious where I need to focus this off-season... run, run, run.

Bring different shoes. I had my minimalist shoes and not being accustomed to trail running, my feet took a beating.

Walked around a bit, chatted with some tri friends and grabbed a couple of cookies and a water. Then headed to the beginning of the finishing chute/turn around for the OLY and cheered for everyone until the last of my tri friends doing the OLY made the turn.


Lack of fresh legs (duh!) on a tough little course.


Kind of disappointed in the organization of this race. Typically this race company puts on a good race, and while things weren't horrible, they started very late and were desperately lacking volunteers. All that being said, I will likely do this race again next year, as this is an anomaly with this company.