Sunbelt/Cohutta Springs Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Beautiful mountain lake, Bouys were on the left and of course I breath on the right, followed a pair of feet out and discovered too late we were way off the line. Probablly added 100+ yards to my swim getting back on line. Got discouraged some and did some breaststroking to recover and get my mind back in the race.

Sight sooner and more often.

fairly long run from the water to bike included here. Running without glasses and fogged goggles made it difficult to find bike. Suit off and socks/shoes on as expected. I had forgotten to loosen the velcro on the bike shoes so that cost a few seconds. Took a few seconds to drink some water.

When I set up I did not see very many MTB's in the racks so I knew I would have a tough time competitively on the bike. I passed a few and got passed by many more, more as a result of slower equipment than performance. My lower back started hurting about mile 10-12, dont know why as it had not done that in training.

Get a faster bike. Like my previous race, I think I got about all I could out of the bike segment with my current equipment. 16+ mph on a hilly course with a walmart MTB is about all i've done in training.

Changed shoes, grabbed visor, drank some water and headed out. Back was hurting a lot at this time.

Nothing

My 10 yo daughter met me as I left transition and ran about a quarter mile with me until the course entered the main road. That was fun. My back was in pain with every step and it was all I could do to keep running. I slowed and walked a few times up the hills and through the 2 water stops to get my HR down. I had hoped to do the run in sub 11 min miles so that goal was not met. Claire met me on the way back in and ran with me to the finish line.

I think the back pain really hurt my run time. I was never breathing too hard but this limited my speed.

ate a bananna and had water.


One item that I think impacted my performance overall was the time of day of the race. I am a early morning person and by the time the race started at 12:30pm I had been up for 7 hours and was not really excited about racing. I train mostly in the early AM and I think my performance would have been better had I raced in the early AM. I had a good time and looking back at my races this year I have shown improvement. Actually at the first of the year even starting this distance would have not been posible.

I had hoped to finish this race in under 2:10 and I was really disappointed with my time and overall ranking on this rece until I realized there were about 50 relay teams mixed in with the individual participants. I dont guess I really should be expected to beat a 3 person team when competing individually. I did however have a better time than 4 of the relay teams.

My weight remains a limiter. I weighed in at about 210 at this race. They did not have a clyde division so I did not expect to rank high in my age group. In comparing this race to my first tri in June of 2006, this race was 2 times the distance in all sports and my overall time in June was 1:15 vs 2:18 at this longer distance.


Overall a good race. I would like to do again in a year to measure my improvement. Venue is close enough to my Moms mountain cabin to be convenient for overnight lodging.