Manitou Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I asked the race director before the start where the turn buoys were since I couldn't see them. She said they were beyond the sighting buoys and I would see them when I got to them. Very shallow start, but I switched from walking to swimming as soon as I could. After passing the sprint buoys, the water started to get choppy. I paused to clear my new goggles that were fogging up. Once I got past the sighting buoys I still struggled to see them, I finally saw one which seemed too far to the right, but the RD did say the buoys were drifting this morning. Many people were swimming to this turn buoy, but right before I got to it, the person in front of me popped up to say that we needed to go back because we missed the first turn buoy which were a dirty yellow raincoat color. I really didn't want to swim extra since the water was really rough and I was struggling, but I did it. Was I turned around the last buoy, the waves just pummeled me, crash against the front of me. I was swallowing a lot of water and and started burping a lot. I paused a few times to collect myself, cough and start again. Since the rest of the buoys were just for sighting, I took the most direct route back to the start. I was sort of a relief to finally get past the sprint buoy where the water calmed down some. I was going harder than usually mostly because I just wanted to get it over with. I got up and walked a little early because I thought that would be helpful in calming down before exiting the water. Finally to the sweet sweet shore and so glad that swim was over. There were definitely several people who cut the swim course short. Glad I wasn't one of them.

Do a swim warm up closer to the start so I could get my goggles situated and not need to stop to fix fogging issues. They were new goggles I had worn once. They were amber ones which may have made it harder to see the color of the turn buoys. So next time use different goggles. Pause longer to really confirm which buoy I should be swimming to. NEVER trust the people in front of me. Swim as long as I can because it's still less taxing than walking through water.

overall 8/36
female 3/10

Not much. Stayed calm and moved out quickly. Chatted just a bit with folks at my rack. Thanked the person who gave me a heads up about the wrong buoy and learned from others they cut the swim course short.

After turning on the big loop, I only passed two people total, so I assumed I was behind everyone. It was quiet out there. Really windy with gusty periods. Made it challenging to stay relaxed in aero. Tried to be in aero on bumpy Manning as much as I could. Did a good job eating and drinking. Switched to Nuun in my aero bottle and water on my frame. Had Bloks in my front bento but lost a few on the bumps. Effort was steady but never hard. Wanted to save something for the run. Really glad to have the Varia to watch the traffic for me. Completely open course with a couple tricky moments with trucks not stopping for the traffic controllers. Left turn crossing course wasn't smart. Should have biked the loop in the opposite direction maybe. Eat/drink alarms worked out great. No socks, tri kit worked out fine. Regular helmet and sunglasses

Put small nutrition in frame bento and gels in front bento so I don't lose stuff. Keep up practicing technical stuff on my Tri bike to continue to get comfortable feeling stable.

2/8 female
8/36 overall

Not much. Went pretty smoothly. Kept calm.

Kept it strong and steady. Didn't go all out at the start. Feet went numb, but just ignored that. Stopped for the 3 aid stations to drink. Ate a gel at the first one which didn't feel great. For the second gel, ate it over a mile and that felt better, but the salted Carmel gel was kind of thick and sticky to do that. When I was getting close to the turnaround, someone told me I was second female which was hard to believe. But once I got to the turnaround I confirmed this to be true. Nobody else was close to me, so just continued at the same effort. But 1.5 miles before the finish, I saw the 1st female in front of me and noticed I was catching up. So I picked up the effort just a bit and slowly caught up 1 mile from the finish. Kept an eye over my shoulder to make sure she didn't catch back up. Finished first!

Continue to practice eating this many carbs during training so I can take gels in without feeling oogy. Otherwise executed this well. Encouraging to stop for the aid stations and still run a faster avg pace. The cooler weather probably helped that.

PH 1500; recovery shake, water


The swim execution. OK not going harder on the bike because that meant I had a strong run.


https://www.frontrunnerusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/manitoutri...
Because of Manning Trail, I probably wouldn't do this race again, but I would do other races from this company.