Cedars of Lebanon Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I strongly dislike pool swims - too chaotic! They started us off, one at a time, lined up by projected swim time. My breathing was way out of control from the beginning - I think I felt panicked and stressed about having to keep my pace or being a bother to the people behind me. My form was horrible (which Kirk confirmed, watching from the pool deck) and I just couldn't get a rhythm going.

I much prefer an open water swim, where I can do my own thing. (did I just say that?!?)

Practice in a 50 meter pool and calm down.

Run to T1 was a little wierd, you had to run through this cement drain thing from the pool to the transition area. Was pretty quick getting there and getting on shoes and unracking bike. It was raining and everything was slick, so I was slower taking the bike out of transition.

I need to get better at running from the water to the transition, I'm usually catching my breath from the swim.

The course was much hillier than I expected. We were constantly cranking up a hill and getting a short rest to recover while flying down the other side. The roads were wet (rained during the first 1/2), which was a little scary. All the turns were taken VERY slowly, so I wouldn't crash. I was a lot stronger on the hills than I expected though (yeah!) and I was going much faster down the hills than I expected (yeah, again!). I really tried to push this leg hard and I felt very good about my performance. At the start of the last 3 miles, there's a sign that says rough road. Okay - that was advertised and expected. NO - this was ROUGH road - and I mean ROUGH!! I think we turned from a road race into an off-road race, but didn't get a chance to change bikes. It was extremely scary (remember, it was wet, too!) and I slowed down a lot here. I don't even know how to explain these roads, it was almost like it was paved a LONG time ago and then paved over in patches across the road and then (while still wet cement/asphalt) driven over with a tractor and other vehicles. Very wierd... I think I would have been at least another 2-3 minutes faster if the last 3 miles hadn't been like it was.

Get comforable going aero on the steep downhills.

Again - slow running with the bike (slippery pavement) and had some trouble reracking my bike (other people reracked differently and I had to use the other side of the rack. Had covered my running transition area with a plastic bag (smart idea i read somewhere on the web), so my stuff was nice and dry. Wiped off my wet feet quickly, pulled on socks and shoes, grabbed race belt and gel and was off.

Slower than normal, but I think it was okay for conditions.

My goal for the run was to, well, RUN! Since this leg has been such a disaster recently, I just wanted to run the whole distance - and I did! I did it slowly and deliberately - I wanted to make sure I had the energy to finish the whole thing. I stopped shortly at the water stops to grab a sip of water, but other than than I ran the whole thing. Had plenty left at the end and sprinted a little to the finish line.

Run a little faster, I had plenty of energy left at the end.

Walked around, packed up transition, grabbed some food


Swim - what was with that? - and rough road conditions at end of bike.


Great race overall - I would definately recommend a race put on by this group. Everything was well organized and they had a ton of instructions for beginners, so that everyone felt comfortable. Post-race food was yummy (hot dogs, chips, cookies, PBJ sandwiches, smoothie king, granola bars, oranges, bananas, coke, water). I think they could have posted results a little faster though. The bike splits weren't posted about 20 minutes after my finish. In my previous races, this has been faster, but it's just a small thing - no biggie! :)