Culpeper Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

My swim was several minutes slower than normal. No idea why. I felt tired and thought I must be swimming fast, but apparently not. No reason for a slow swim - smooth water and the field was pretty open and not crowded. No problems sighting. Even going around the buoys was pretty easy. Maybe I just suck at swimming. The pond is gross, though - the bottom is mucky and squishy and the water is very warm and murky and filled with sediment. No weeds, though. Overall not much different than Lake Anna, but warmer and yuckier on the feet. No wetsuits.

Not suck at swimming.

The swim to bike transition involves a very long run with the bike up a grassy hill. And I mean LONG, and the grass was kind of dewy and wet and freshly cut. I was worried about getting it stuck in my clips, plus I didn't want to have to run that far, up hill, in bike shoes, so I came up with the idea to put my bike shoes on my handle bars (I slid the aerobars through the opening in the shoe) and run up the hill barefoot and then put then on at the bike start. This actually worked great - I was number one T1 - woohoo I'm number 1! So I highly recommend this for those who can't master the art of getting onto the bike with shoes already clipped on. I had a small rag with me that I used to wipe off my feet a little before putting them on, and then I stuck it in my race belt. There's no sand or anything, so a big wash-off like at a beach is not necessary. Also, just fyi, thank god this race actually lets you start on a downhill, so no danger of falling over due to not clipping in fast enough.

Nothing. I'm number one!!

I almost always ride on a trainer, so this course was hard for me. The hairpin turns caused me to slow too much, and I hadn't really prepared enough for the amount of steep hills. My bike segment wasn't awful - I think it was average - but the course was longer, slower and harder than others I've done. The extra mile is reflected in the race results - everyone's times were a bit slower than usual. Aerobars really helped - getting as much speed as possible on the downhills here is crucial. I passed a lot of people without them on the downhills.

Ride my bike on an actual road once in a while. Practice hills.

I took my shoes off at the top and put them on my handlebars for the jog down to the transition area. I wasn't number one this time, but I still think it was better than wearing them down the hill.

Nothing. I think transitions are my best event:)

My run was OK, a little slow, which I attribute to the huge uphill at the beginning and the fact that I was seriously drained from the bike course. I made up a lot of time on the last mile, which is all downhill. Weirdly, my Garmin disagrees by 30 seconds with the official race time, although we have the same overall time.

Nothing.

I ate Mike and Ikes and drove home.


I don't know why my swim was so slow. Bike handling skills are poor, and I lost a minute or so because of some serious blocking on the bike course - some guy riding with his girlfriend maybe, or just unsuccessfully trying to pass her for miles, I don't know. I finally yelled at him to move over, and he did. My run was limited only by my slow running.


Not a bad race, not a great race. I'll probably do it again. Overall negatives for me are the technical bike course, poor directions on the course, and the gross water in the pond. Positives are the easy, uncrowded swim (even though I sucked in it), a challenging bike course (something to work on), and a pretty nice run. Good organization (minus the bike course turns) and overall setup, as always.