Lake Norman YMCA Sprint - TriathlonSprint

Lined up to the front and inside, seemed like a lot of the guys were staying in the shallow water before the start, and there were fewer of us further out in the water. Got a decent start. There were about 3 guys that were around me and I quickly got in behind them. Stayed in the draft for the first half of the swim. Shortly before the first buoy there was some from the previous wave. Between the first buoy and second buoy it got really crazy with lots of slower swimmers to work through. By then the draft was gone, not sure where I was in relation to them. Just started going around people as quickly as possible, avoiding those breaststoke kickers!

Not too much, maybe I could have swum a little faster, but given the hot water, and traffic I felt like I swam a pretty strong race.

Pretty decent run from the swim exit to TA. Put shoes on then helmet and glasses on and that's it. I found a stick of body glide in my bike shoes that must have gotten in there, took me a second to get that out of there after surprisingly finding it, probably cost me a couple of seconds. I didn't really have an ideal rack position as they were assigned, so I had to go clear across the length of the TA to get out. (8/22 in AG)

check my shoes before the race.

I did ok here. I was stronger on the first half of the course than the second. I think I faded a bit towards the end. The packs were pretty thick in the first sections of the course. Tried to stay out of them as best I could. My average speed continue to improve, so I can't complain, just gotta keep on training. Had about 1/2 a bottle of gu20 out there.

I tried to get out of my shoes before the mount line. Was kind of messy and didn't really work out so well. I had one shoe out, but not the other, so I hopped off the bike and took off the one shoe and ran with it into transition. Things were pretty quick there, put on my running shoes (no socks) and grabbed me belt and took off. It was pretty messy, but relatively quick (6/22 in AG)

practice a flying dismount before the race...realize that my shoes will drag on the ground if I don't do it correctly!

Immediately into the run I felt pretty good. I slowly kicked up the pace until it was really tough and just tried to keep it there. The hill in the middle mile was pretty tough but the downhill in the 3rd mile was nice. Dumped water on my head at the aid stations as it was getting pretty sunny/warm out and there was no shade. Tried to drink a sip at one spot but realized that I'd have to slow down to get it down the hatch, so didn't try that. Got past by a couple of guys in my age group, but past a few others. Definitely my best run in a tri so far.

Not too much, just keep on improving my fitness. Maybe try to mark a guy who passes me earlier on and try to stick with him and see how much it hurts.

walked around, met up with my brother and sister in law. stretched out.


Really good organization. Well run race. Bike was a little crowded and there was some packs so maybe there needs to be some more rules enfocement, but there were some motorbikes out there to watch things. Didn't stick around for post-race stuff.