Cocoa Beach Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

When I was mixed in with the wave before me I initially thought that I had missed a buoy. It turns out that I has a great swim. I started in deep water while many others ran along the beach. I think that the running and pack made it more chaotic than helpful in the end.

I felt great in the water and even though I had to make some spotting adjustments on the way out it was a great swim.

I could have shaved some time off T1 if I had tried to put the helmet on as I pulled off my wetsuit. But under one minute isn't too bad.

The rack space was very tight. I had to fight a bit to get my bike off the rack. It was all much tighter at T1 than when I initially set up my area.

Helmet on/wetsuit off.

I had my head down for a lot of the ride. Though this is my local area, I was too focused on speed than my surroundings. If there wasn't a police car at the turn around, I probably would have missed the turn around. Not good judgement on my side. Even though I know the streets like the back of my hand, I should still be more aware of where I'm riding. Even on a semi-closed course.

Luckily I arrived early on so there was more space to rack my bike.

I was leading my age group into the first mile. Then, I saw the first racer pass me by. I let him know that he was now 1st and kept my pace behind him. Then, a runner behind me said that he saw some guys cutting through the grass. When we no longer saw any signs we realized that we too were supposed to cut through the grass. I lost about 20-25 seconds. The runner that finished 3rd in my AG won by 15 seconds.

I should have kept my head up and looked at signs rather than the runner ahead of me. This error cost me a podium spot. Lesson learned.

Watched dolphins and manatees in the river while stretching and eating some fruit.


Poor judgment in the run.


Some volunteers on the golf course portion of the run would have helped. Not only because of the small signage and abrupt run off the cart path and onto the grass, but many runners could have easily cut through sections to shorten their run.