Santa Barbara Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

Placed myself right at the front of the start line for my wave. Goal was to be first out of the swim for my wave. A little stressed for the 100-150 yards - nerves. Great navitgation to first bouy! Actually touched the bouy while stroking I was so close. Cut-off several competitors to gain lead. Only bad part of swim was catching up to many from the previous 2 waves. Had to swim around/over about 15 competitors.

Met goal of finishing first from my wave!

Nothing. Most folks wore wetsuits even though it was such a short race. Glad I did as then I didn't get chilled for the bike portion.

Transition was large and spread out. Although bike was on end of rack, I set up in the dark and thought I was setting up near the bike exit when it was actually at the other end of the parking lot. Additionally, exit from beach to transition crossed the run finish from the co-ed sprint and swimmers had to wait to cross in between runners, so I figure I lost about 15-20 sec.in transition due to waiting for runners.

Make sure I know where the run and bike exits are located BEFORE I set up my gear.

Very fast, but it is still my weakest segment. Lots of newbies on course that didn't know to stay to right and had no clue what "on your left" meant. Lots of mountain bikes! Plus, many competitors wearing earphones! Difficult to pass in many instances when riders were 4 abreast and bunched together. Forced to pass on right in some cases where slower cyclists wouldn't move over.

Forced to slow down in a nice straightaway when a car refused to go more than 10 mph! Couldn't pass due to cyclists coming the opposite direction and didn't want to pass on right. Competitors and race officials yelling at driver to pull off and let riders pass!
Dismounted before line due to a very small dismount area and large number of riders getting off at the same time.

Do the co-ed race next year with hopefully more experienced riders. Set up closer to the bike and run exits.

Arrrgh! Felt fast, but evidently the shear size of the parking lot and my proximity to the run exit contributed to a horrible transition. The top 2 finishers in my age group were almost a minute faster - WTF. As with other exits/entrances on the course, the run exit was small. Found myself having to manuever around much slower competitors in order to exit transition.

Set up closer to entrances and exits!

Felt very strong. Very good run for me! Had to due a lot of manuevering in and out of other runners. Course was just a ped walkway with race traffic in both directions. Lots of runners insisting on running on far left of lane even though they were very slow. Combine this with the groups of runners that ran as a giant pack and wouldn't let faster runners pass and of course the non-race participants that insisted in strolling along the walkway even though it was perfectly clear there was a race going on. And racers with earphones that were unable to hear runners trying to pass them - obey the rules leave your Ipods at home!

I love that tri clubs participate as a team and support each other, but in tight quarters the Moms in Motion and other teams need to run single file or 2 abreast (not as a giant pack) and stop moving over to the left to High 5 every teammate that runs past them. Makes it mighty difficult for faster runners to pass. Had to pass on the right off of the sidewalk several times.



Nothing

Not much. Find friends and family. Eat and drink.


Good race. Would do it again in the future, but would probably opt for the coed race instead of the womens race. Lots of fun since it was so short! Didn't have to worry about holding anything back.