Rebel Man Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I suck at swimming. All there is to say about it.

Spend more time in the pool. Going to be at least three times a week or I am going to drown at Memphis in May.

Was racked close enough to the bike exit that I ran out after putting my shoes on.

Emily got video of me out of T1, I should have ran a bit more in the bike shoes. Volunteers were screaming "walk across the entire mat" at the edge of transition so my addled mind made me actually walk across the mat. Next time I am jogging.

Riding out was very nice. Kevin beat me on the swim but I caught up to him once we got out of campus. There was very little traffic on the way out and also felt like there was no wind. After the turn around I got the wind full to my face. It was bad, took work to go 14mph in spots. There were far too many cars on the course inbound back to the University. Traffic was only controlled at large intersections. I saw several cars pulling out of on street parking that came close to colliding with bikes.

I should have carried a little more water/Gatorade.

Everything went super. I was quick getting into my socks and running shoes. Headed to the exit and realized I had left my race belt and number at my area. So I turned around and ran back to get it. Of course Emily and Sarah both got it on video.

Practice a bit so I don't do something silly like forget my number.

I was actually happy with my 5k. My goal was not to walk any and I succeeded. The bike and run course were together towards the end so I had several bikes passing me closely. Also the road was open for cars and there were lots of them zooming through too.

Water bottle and some snacks at the finish.


Traffic.


I had fun at this race. However it could have been much much better. The transition area was poorly designed, if you did not get a good rack, you would were screwed by having to run farther. Apparently an email with more details went out on Friday morning. I did not get it, must have looked like spam to gmail, but Cory and Kevin did get it. Check-in on Friday before the race was a joke, we got our tshirts and that was basically it. The real check-in was at 6:15 before the race where I actually got my race number. The pre race "meeting" consisted of being yelled at through a megaphone around the pool. There seemed to be no real instruction for newbies even though the distance of this race was sure to attract a lot of first timers. On the bike course, I did not see the first course marshal. The campus roads that the bike course followed should have been completely closed to vehicular traffic but were not. It seems that some detours around the rest of the bike course could have been enforced to reduce the traffic there. There was no separation at all of the bike and run course when they intersected. This along with the vehicular traffic was extremely dangerous. While on the run course I saw several runners listening to headphones which is against USAT regulations. After I was finished I saw a guy come in on a bike with headphones on and no helmet!!! He transitioned and continued on the run course with his headphones. These issues might have been acceptable at a first time race, but Rebel Man is in year two. King of the Hill in Tupelo was a first time race last year and was much much better organized than this one.