DQ Triathlon at Marlton Lakes - TriathlonSprint

Overall Rank: 182/261
Age group Rank: 14/19

The water felt cold as I ran in at a half run half wade pace. There was an initial shock but I told myself that it would wear off. Before the horn sounded I prepared mentally by telling myself that the water is above 70 degrees and actually warmer than the air above it. There will be an initial shock but it'll wear off. I began with freestyle and bilateral breathing every third stroke. Unlike the disastrous horror of last week's ocean swim, I actually did very well with my stroke and had good progress. Mentally I was hoping for a sub 9:00 swim as I usually do 9:00 quarter miles in the pool. My goggles began to fog a little but I could see ok. After about 2 minutes I began to see less and less blue caps (my age group). I had the beach finishing point in my sights straight ahead of me so I was confused as to where everyone had gone. After about 5 more minutes I was out in the middle of the lake and finally looked up and to my right to realize everyone had followed the bank per the race instructors advice. Meanwhile I was out in the middle of the lake! Needless to say I probably added a 100 yards or so to my swim. I kept going towards the beach realizing there was nothing I could do about it, feeling somewhat demoralized that I had made such a blunder early on. Towards the end of the swim I could see pink caps to my right. Apparently I had been lapped by the next age groups best swimmers. GREAT! As I neared the beach I could sense the lake getting more and more shallow and told myself to keep swimming until there's absolutely no more room to swim as swimming is faster than wading. Finally I exited and man was it cold hitting that air! Ran over the transition carpet thing and went into the transition area. The rain felt like needles but my adrenaline was an adequate piece of armor. Now came the very interesting and sticky bike ride.

My swimming was good - it was the navigation that was so bad. After thinking about it, I realize what happened. I was in a group of about 2 or 3 swimmers, one person in front of me, one to my left and another behind me. I had been sighting well, looking up every 10 or so strokes and was following this guy at about 3 body lengths. The problem was the our whole pack of 4 people as a whole was off course and so without looking up at the whole course and what everyone else was doing I mistakenly believed I was going the right way. I'm confident I could have hit between 9 and 10 minutes if I'd swam along the bank like everyone else, but I really don't know how much it affected my performance. I think investing in a wetsuit is also a good idea. I can see now how useful it is not only for buoyancy but also for heat.

Overall rank: 224/261
Age group rank: 18/19

I ran to my bike and poured water from my water bottle onto my feet to wash off the sand. The person to my right had a small water basin with two feet-shaped molds at the bottom designed specifically for triathlon transitions. I thought, wow, someone actually manufactured this. They've thought of everything! Putting my bike socks and tri shirt on took forever because of the rain. I decided, unlike last week, to put on my bike gloves this time. I figured with the rain making my bike more slippery and with the greater chance for crashing on the wet roads, that it would be a good idea to wear them. I didn't, however, wear my sunglasses. It was already pretty dark and I figured the rain would just detract from my vision if it stayed on my shades. I didn't take any nutrition or gel packs which proved to be a mistake - which you'll find out in the run portion!

Upon looking at my race times and ranks, transition is, obviously, my biggest weakness. I spend a lot of time drying off my feet and putting bike socks and shoes on. Additionally, getting my tri top on in the wet rain proved to be a challenge. I think I need to practice riding in my bike shoes without socks and getting into them while clipped into my bike.

I need to keep my things dry in the future. I think I want to try bringing a large plastic box like the under the bed storage plastic bins. My brother finished the swim after I did and yet beat me out of transition by about 45 seconds. That shouldn't happen no matter who it is.

Overall rank: 73/261
Age group rank: 6/19

The bike was tough, I won't lie. I headed off wondering how long it would take me to catch up to my brother. My question was immediately answered as I heard a sliding crash up ahead of me. My brother had attemped a 90 degree turn in torrential rain at 20 mph. I stopped my bike and checked to see if he was alright and seeing that he was (though scraped up pretty badly) I headed off again. There was headwind this direction of the loop but the real difference was the rain on the road. I could feel it slowing me down but I pushed hard on the pedal trying to maintain 20 mph or more. I took a drink and began to worry that pushing so hard to maintain speed might translate into weakness later in the bike or more importantly in the run but I stubbornly pushed on and passed as many people as I could. Like last week, passing people left and right was a great feeling. After about 10 minutes or so there was no one left to pass and I was in a steady pack of about 3 people. There was one guy in front of me I passed but he passed me a couple minutes later. I immediately passed him again and he did the same. This went on for about 5 more minutes until about the 18 minute or so mark when we turned around. The way back was a little easier but I was getting tired. Slowing down on the turns and having to speed up and also riding in the friction filled rain was starting to make my legs tired. The bike gloves were a good idea as I felt no slipping whatsoever. The rain was hitting my face though and I wondered if the shades would have helped. I hit a few branches while riding and at least once I hit a huge pothole or crack in the road and I was sure I was going to have a flat but luckily my tires held up, thank goodness. I finished the bike in a pretty good time and almost averaged 20 mph. As I ran my bike to the rack, I could feel my legs were as heavy as a ship's anchor. My quads and calves were really tight.

I need to develop my leg endurance. I'm going to try to incorporate more hill training into my workouts as well as step climbing and leg weights. Also, there was a lot of inconsistency in my cadence which was partly nature's fault and partly my own. Of course the hills and rain and all caused peaks and troughs but overall I found myself doing spurts in order to pass people and then slowing down a little after that point. I don't have a cadence clock on my bike computer but I think I need to get into more of rhythm and pedal to a beat in my head or something to have some sort of consistency. I think I have so much room for improvement and I want to get as good as I can before I resort to the weaker measures such as aerobars and better bike parts.

Overall rank: 210/261
Age group rank: 19/19

I don't remember what I did so poorly that merited such a bad transition time. I remember running in with my bike and finding someone had taken my bike rack spot so I had to find another spot on the rack. Then I took off my bike shoes, bike gloves, and helmet. I decided to also take off my bike socks since they were soaked and thought a fresh pair of socks over dried feet would make a difference in this rain. I guess that must have been the culprit right there. I wonder how much better elastic shoe laces and running without socks would be? I'll have to try it.

Transition is obviously a major weak point for me. I think the bike to run transition has to be pretty quick.

Overall rank: 184/261
Age group rank: 11/19

Running is my weakest point though not for lack of training. It just happens that I'm better in the other disciplines. Right off the bat my legs felt horrible. Having done the Wildwood Triathlon beach run the week before I knew that it takes some time, at least a mile or so, for my legs make the adjustment and pick up. It felt like trying to pick up a water soaked bucket of sand off the ground on each stride. After only about 30 seconds of run my right calf started to feel very tight and extremely uncomfortable. Then, it started to spasm and I felt an immediate jolt of disappointment. I ran to a tree on the side of the road and tried to stretch it out as best I could. I saw Michelle of team triumph run by at that point offering some words of encouragement. Man, she was quick. So there I am stretching for about two minutes as people pass me left and right. I felt horrible. I really wanted to finish the run and I hadn't even started. After massaging and stretching it for two minutes I walked at a brisk pace for about 15 or 20 seconds trying to give it some warm up distance and then I began a very slow jog. It felt ok, so I began a quicker jog and then a very slow run pace, probably about 12 minute mile pace. It was uncomfortable but it was ok and I was making some distance. People were passing me the whole first half of the race. The rain was coming down still but at a steady drizzle instead of the torrent it was before the swim horn sounded. I tried to concentrate on my breathing - breathing all the way out before inhaling - and by trying to keep a pace by running to a beat in my head. People still passed me. Am I this bad at running? I can run a 10k on the treadmill at about a 6.5-7.0 mph pace, so why can't I do this? As I was closing in on the halfway point I saw Matt Willey of Team Triumph pass in the opposite direction at a blistering pace - how fast was he going!? He offered some words of encouragement but I couldn't understand him in all the rain and excitement of the moment. Then I saw John Latvenas pass by on his second half. Finally, I hit the halfway point and felt relieved that I only had 1.5 miles to go. My legs started to feel stronger and stronger and I picked up the pace, until during the last mile I know I was going at least a 7:30 per mile pace. Then in the last 1/4 mile I began doing a serious stride and in the last 100 yards I made an all out sprint for the finish line. There was this guy about 25 yards in front of me who was nearing the finish line and I was behind him at an all out sprint. The crowd went wild and started cheering like crazy. It felt great, like I was some Nigerian marathon record holder or something. As I was about to pass the guy and cross the finish line, he realized the crowd wasn't cheering for him but for the guy behind him about to beat him out so he quickly picked up the pace and crossed the finish line ahead of me. Looking at the race times, I was only 1/10th of a second behind him. Talk about close finish! I saw Kurt who congratulated me and then I saw my dad. That was pretty cool. I ended up with a time of 27:21 at 9:09 miles. It's entirely possible that I could have had a sub 8 minute time if I hadn't been stopped by that leg spasm. I started out pretty slow too so I must have turned on the juice on the second half.

This leg cramping thing is a problem for me. I ran the Baltimore Half Marathon last year and at mile 7 I had a series of crazy spasms in my hamstring, quads and calfs. I was literally on the ground rolling around. The rest of the race I had to alternate slight jog and walking to keep off the spasms which were always lurking. It must be the nutrition because I've put in a decent amount of miles on my legs. It must be lack of nutrition as well as the lack of endurance after doing swimming and biking. Not to mention I pushed really hard on the bike. Perhaps I'll take a gel pack as I finish the bike portion. Other than that what else can I do?

I didn't stretch out after the race which proved to be a mistake since the day after the race I found out the calf that has spasmed ended up being a pretty bad muscle pull that took 3 days to heal. After a full day of heat and ice packs as well as some yoga and massaging, it finally feels back up to 100%. Wawa pretzels... wow did they taste good after the run. I think I'm going to have those as a pre-race snack or meal next time I do a race.


1. Poor navigation in the water. Wetsuit might help.
2. Horrible transition times.
3. Wet road conditions on the bike portion.
4. Leg spasms.
5. Not getting my "running legs" back until the second half of the run.


I liked it. The rain didn't help at all but it gives you serious bragging rights afterwards doesn't it? Water stations were pretty good. Lake was good. The bike course wasn't closed but they did have a cop or two keeping things under control. Parking was a problem but I don't see what else they could do about it. Overall it was a pretty good race considering the weather. I'll definitely do it again next year!

Also, I thought I'd add here that my shoes (and everything else) were soaked afterwards. After some internet research I stuffed my bike and run shoes with newspaper and left them out in the sun for an afternoon. It did the trick wonderfully and dried them both out fully. Good tip in case anyone else wants to try it.