Rattlesnake Triathlon - Sprint - TriathlonSprint

Awful swim performance (swim time includes run up to T1). This was worse than last year when I was a worse swimmer. My goal was to be out of the water in 9', but I got out in 10'05". After rounding the first buoy, I looked up to site and started swimming to the next buoy I saw. Turns out I was going for the buoy for the return part of the swim and wasted a ton of time going off course. I was probably 20-25 meters away from it before one of the kayakers casually pointed to the correct one. I take full responsibility for messing this up, but it would have been nice if the kayaker, after seeing me swimming waaayyyy off course, would have come over and helped me out a little sooner. I don't think I would have hit my goal time anyway, but I probably lost about 45" on this. For the rest of the swim, after about 200 meters, I could feel the residual fatigue in my arms from the previous weekend. I was trying to maintain a fast turnover, but it was more of a medium paced turnover with a weak pull. Also gagged on some boat fuel a couple times, so needless to say, I was glad to get out of the water.

Stay on course!

I wasn't going to use the wetsuit strippers this year, but saw Julia there and figured why the hell not. This was 100% no non-sense, which was appreciated since seconds in transition matter. However, once I got to my bike, the guy who I racked next to (same rack) had his bike on my towel, leaning against my bike. WTF?!! Needless to say I was a bit perturbed. After untangling the handlebars, I put his bike on the ground, got into my shoes and took off. Probably wasted 10-15" messing around with that, which annoyed me greatly.

Not rack next to idiots. This wasn't a beginner mistake because I talked to him beforehand, and he ended up placing for the duathlon.

Bike started out okay, even on the first couple hills. About midway in it became apparent that my legs were suffering the same fate as my arms did, and I had a tough time pushing hard. Wondering if some of it's due to lack of doing a sprint or TT recently and not remembering how to get into that all out suffer mode, or also because of some fatigue still. I'm guessing a combination of both. Either way, I did what I could, but knew I was going to be off my expected bike split time. I saw Josh on the ride and he yelled encouragement as I went by. Unfortunately I ha no idea who it was at the time, and figured it out about 20" afterwards. Sorry Josh! The rain was starting to pick up about 3/4 of the way through, but fortunately I knew the course and was able to get back without it getting to me too much.

I think I did what I could with what I had left in my tank.

It became apparent that noone wanted me to transition well. There was a guy unclipping in the middle of the cones, right in front of the gates to enter transition that was in everyone's way. Then when I got into T2, someone was in my spot. Are you kidding me? After playing with that, I re-racked and got out of there. This was probably only 5", but it didn't help my overall annoyance with the people I racked with.

Not rack next to idiots. Again, this was a more experienced athlete and not a first-timers mistake.

Started out with the intentions of collecting myself and then picking it up. Saw Yvonne and Pete on the way out and Pete's comment was "this is the last 5k of your season!" I kept thinking about that when I needed to pick it up. After about the first 1/2 mile I could feel the tightness in my hamstrings, but kept focusing on a forward lean, high cadence driving elbows back, and staying relaxed. Saw several people, including Dan (velocomp) who had already hit the turn around and was well in front of me. His comment was to come and catch him. Was able to relax a little bit after the turn around and after mile 2, I knew I was pretty much in the clear. I saw Dan and started thinking I might be able to catch him. Once I hit the area that I had pre-determined would be where my kick started, I opened up and went by Dan in the chute. Sorry Dan, I had to!

Turns out that this 5k was a PR, besting my previous of 20'25", which was done in an open 5k. I have no idea where the legs came from, because they felt heavy. Maybe the new running form is finally starting to pay its dividends?! This was probably the highlight of my day.

Nothing.

Grabbed some food and a beer and hung out with Mark, Adam, Stacie, Julia, Yvonne, Pete, and Drew (did I miss anyone) and watched the awards.

Compared to last year, my swim was 4" slower, my bike speed was about 0.2mph faster (and I came in fresh the previous year), my transitions were better, and my run was 3'08" faster. I ran a 7'27"/mile as compared to a 6'33"/mile this year.


1. Having done the 1/2 IM 5 days prior. On the swim and the bike I didn't feel like I could give much more than 80-85% of what I was capable of doing.

2. The other thing was that I wasn't fully there mentally (insert joke here) and let some of the little things get to me.

3. Racking next to idiots!


Hopefully I don't come across as too negative on this race since some of that was due to me not being able to get too pumped up for it. However, it didn't start on time (possibly due to the rain) and the start wasn't as organized as last year. Last year you had to line up according to numbers in your AG. This year it was very scattered. Also, coming into T2 they had a dismount line last year rather than people dismounting right in front of the gates/all over the place. There were a couple other small things as well but it could just be me being picky so I won't mention it.