Pantanella's Flat As A Pancake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This swim was tough. I went out really fast, which was part of the plan, then found some room and settled into a pace, but for whatever reason, I really didn't feel smooth at all. Water was a little choppy. Also drifted off course a little a couple of times.

Time isn't terrible--an improvement on my last OWS time, but room for improvement. Better sighting, focus more on form, and practice bilat breathing.

Much better than my last T1, but not great. I was really loopy from the swim, and almost fell over trying to get my suit off, but I got it off fast, got into my shoes, and headed out pretty quickly. Had a little trouble clipping in.

Practice more.

Having cadence on my computer was a huge help. I really focused on staying in the 85-90 range, and the speed kind of took care of itself. I pushed, but never felt like I was hammering a too difficult gear or straining. Speed was consistently in the 20-22 range, and I passed a lot more people than passed me, including lots of guys in my AG.
My left aerobar came loose (!) and started sagging downward about 4 miles in, so I spent the entire ride in the drops. Weird. NEVER happened before. Never even occurred to me to check it before the race. Won't make that mistake again. That coulda been A LOT worse.
Aerodrink was a great addition. I love it--I'll never race a sprint with bottles again. If the race had been longer, though, I would have needed more fluid.



Check my arobars before the race.

The turnoff came up quicker than I expected so I a) didn't have my feet all the way out of my shoes b) missed the turnoff. So I didn't get to perform the "jump off the bike w/shoes still attached" maneuver. But I coulda. Honest.
Tried to rack my bike bars-in and couldn't. Duh...aerodrink. Got my shoes on, grabbed a gel and some water, and headed out.

Not miss the turnoff. Drink more.

Hot and humid. Saw at least one guy get carted off the course on a stretcher from heat exhaustion. Just tried to keep a consistent pace, picking it up a little at each mile beep from my garmin. Had a swig of gatorade and dumped a cup of water on my head at each aid station.
I was doing a good job of picking targets and running them down, but, with about 3/4 of a mile to go, I just kind of ran out of rabbits. Everyone was either too far ahead and too fast, and no one else passed me. I wonder if I would have run faster if I'd had more people to chase.
Managed to sprint the last 50-75 yeards or so, saw my boy just past the finish and gave him a big hug---soaking him with water and sweat. Sorry mom.

Either slow down and drink more, or learn to drink while running at a faster pace. I could have used more gatorade. Pace is a little slower than Lonestar, but still pretty good for me. I felt like I was going much more slowly.

Drank some water, stood under the showers. Ate a few grapes, but couldn't stomach the idea of eating any pancakes. Gathered my stuff, and headed home.
Ate lots of barbecue!


I think functioning aerobars would have helped a little. Better hydration--more water at T2, and taking in more water on the course, probably would have helped too. More practice.
I beat the time from my last race by almost 8 minutes, and my goal by 2 minutes, so no complaints.


A pretty good no-frills local race. Making the people in the sprint get there 3 hours before the start was silly and could have been planned better. Still, it's convenient, cheap and a good course, so I'd probably do it again.