Playtri Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was my first race in a wetsuit, and I learned a couple things. The biggest lesson is that my breathing is a little constricted in the suit, so going my usual olympic/sprint speed makes me out of breath pretty quickly. The fact that the water was cold didn't help much, and I ended up swimming on my back a few times to catch my breath. I also let the rest of the wave go ahead of me so I wouldn't have to deal with the 'washing machine'. This was a good idea, as I was able to work my way through the other swimmers without worrying about others crawling over me.

Slow down my pace, learn to sight better

The transition went pretty well overall, considering I was pulling off a full wetsuit. I had a hard time getting the suit off over the chip on my ankle, but overall I'm pleased with how this one went. I think my time would have been under 4 minutes if the run from the lake to the transition wasn't so long and the run from my rack to the bike wasn't so long. I was running like a gazelle on those Speedplay clips, it was hilarious but it got me past probably 5 people just in the run out to the bike portion.

Take the chip off before taking the suit off.

This part went really well. I was passing people from start to finish, this was easily my strongest area. I think only 3-4 people passed me the whole ride, and I passed at least 25-30 people. I dropped my bottle a bit more than halfway through the ride, but it fell far enough behind that I figured it would take me more than the 2 minute penalty(if they saw me) to retrieve it. It was my favorite bottle though, dammit. Anyway, I was pushing the whole way and felt pretty good for the whole ride.

Not drop my bottle(d'oh!)

I got one shoe off in the saddle before the dismount line, but the second one I had to stop at the line and take off so it could have gone better. The racking and changing to running shoes went pretty well though.

Nothing specific comes to mind.

The run went well, and my time would have been about a minute faster were it not for the need to, uhh, make a pit stop. Stupid nature, why must you call me? ;) Oh, and I had to re-tie one of my shoes too. Anyway, the run felt pretty good and my last mile was easily my strongest. No real complaints here.

Use the restroom before the race, doubleknot the laces.

They got the broad strokes right; the run & bike segments were well-marked & such. However, they could have done a better job with the pre-race meeting & with explaining the swim course. There was a lot of confusion amongst the racers as to who went where on the swim course.