Waterman's Sprint - Triathlon

Given my time, I have to believe this swim was mis-measured short...I exited the water in around 20:45, which would seem physically impossible for a true 750 meters. My Garmin reflected 894 yards, which I assume also included the run to Transition, probably a 100 or so yards, 75 at least. That said, it did feel like a good swim, really good execution of my typical plan, staying nicely on track, all of it. The first turn buoy came up really quickly, surprisingly so. Enjoyed this swim, wish they could all be like this. Very salty, though, don't remember that from the Rock Hall event from June 2016. Weird memory: every time I'd roll to my left to breathe, I saw an arcing cascade of water droplets, apparently thrown up from my kick; intersting that it was so repeatable.

Nothing, great swim for me even if it was short.

Pretty good transition given my expectations for the day. Actually faster than I'd have expected.

Nothing, good with this.

Felt good on the bike, might've started out a little hard, but overall was a solid ride and slightly better than expected. After about seven-eight minutes, I did three 8-minute hard intervals with three minutes of brisk but backed off riding. Didn't measure them with the lap button but tried to push it going by feel. When complete, I kept up a slightly harder than brisk pace until the finish. Nice ride through pretty country, typical Eastern Shore farmland.

Solid ride..

This is where I knew things would get slow, but it was expected. Not having ever gone sockless with the Hoka Conquests, I didn't want to try today, particularly with the ankle brace I wore throughout the race. So I actually sat on the ground here and pulled on socks, then walked easy out of transition. I guess that got noticed since the announcer actually singled me out. He said, "Looks like Kent is just out for a stroll today."

Given what I'd expected and planned, I fully thought this transition would go beyond, maybe well beyond, three minutes. To beat three minutes was pure gravy.

If T2 was pure gravy, this run was the ice cream and cake dessert. No way, NO WAY, I expected to beat a 10:00 pace on my ankle, but I managed to pull it off and I'm left to wonder if I could've done better.

Given expectations coming in, I fully expected to do no better than 33-35 minutes here. Accordingly, my actual result is freakin' amazing. Less than a week ago I wasn't even sure I could do this this race. Five days ago I grimaced out a mile run with a fair amount of discomfort, but decided it was do-able. To cap this off by beating a 10:00 pace on what I thought would be about half shuffling and half walking...well, it was a triumph..

Volunteers handed out wet towels along with our medals and a bottle of water. That was awesome. Beyond that, I just walked around and partook of the snacks to be had.


Injured ankle, but I managed to do better than anticipated.


Tremendous job by VTS/MTS. It was a great day to tri, but the atmosphere they create is really a lot of fun. Already looking forward to next year