Belleplain Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

There were no splits so no rankings for each sport... The swim was by far my most horrible part of the triathlon. I guess it's because I have never done an open water swim. As soon as it started I went out there way too hard. I was about 150 yards into it and I was already burned out. It went thru my head that I wasnt going to make it and that my first race would be a DNF! I had to doggied paddle for about 50 yards just to catch my breath. I wasn't exhaling while my face was in the water, I wasn't sighting, and I was just having trouble all over. About half way thru I recomposed myself and did ok for the rest of the swim. I still had a lot of trouble with the breathing.

More OWS before an event, focus on stroke, breathe properly.

Put in more time swimming on training. We all know I didnt do as much as I should have.

Everything went extremely well in both transitions.

Nothing

The bike segment went extremely good for me. From the transition I hopped on and was off. I was riding around 20mph for the first couple miles. Around mile three I reached down for my accelerade and as I was pulling it up I bobbled it and lost my grip and it fell on the road. I decided not to stop and get it and I just kept going. I had only put one bottle in my cages so I had no hydration for the entire bike. Around the fifth mile or so my friend Lauren came flying past me. I decided to go harder and I stayed about 100' behind her for a few minutes but she can just fly so I let her go. I kept my hammer down for the entire rest of the ride averaging around 22 to 23 mph for the rest of it. I was extremely happy with the bike as I was hoping to average between 19 and 20mph at the most.

Not much. Maybe ride a bit harder.

Everything was extremely smooth. I saw Cori as I was racking my bike and I took a few seconds to bitch about my bottle falling. I also took a few extra seconds to drink some accelerade in a bottle that was in my transition bag.

Nothing

I have no clue how I pulled this off but I destroyed what I felt my run time would be. I have been training extra hard in my run and it really paid off in this race. I started off a bit slow but I picked up the pace and started passing people pretty quickly. I got up to one guy and he sped up a bit so he could chat with me for a few minutes. Talked about it was my first tri and he was in his third season. He was saying he was doing a HIM this year as well. Just looking at him it seemed like he was having difficulty with the sprint so how was he going to do the HIM. Oh well maybe he knows something I dont. When I hit mile one at the aid station I grabbed about three cups of water. Dumped one on my head and drank two. I kept going quick and I saw my friend Lauren again a bit of ways ahead of me and looping around the loop. On the way back I finally got into yelling distance to her. I kept cheering for her and made sure her leg and hip were ok. They were so I followed her in all the way to the finish. She has been great to me helping me out along the way (also inspiring to see her bike because she can fly!). As we rounded the corner I saw the time clock and I was just so happy to see I was destroying my goal time. It made me feel great inside that I was over 8 minutes faster than what I thought I would do. For my first triathlon ever I am extremely pleased with my overall race performance and my place in my age group. Better than half of the pack is ok in my book for now. It feels good to finally be a triathlete.

The only thing I could think of is to run a bit harder. After I crossed the finish line my tank wasnt quite empty but I figured better safe than sorry.

Did some minor stretching and walked around. Besides that I didnt do much more beside rehydrate myself and eat another PB&J when we got in the car.


Swimming! Swimming! Swimming! I need to train more and better at my swimming. I knew I have been avoiding it and now I can see where my weak link is. Besides that I just feel my other fields need to stay consistant with training and eventually start working on speed training with each one.


Like I said, I am happy with my overall results. After it was all over I reflected back to that moment in the water when I was thinking I was going to have to give up but I am not a quiter and I did the right thing, I finished what I started and ended up kicking ass on the other 2/3 of the race. It's not a one event race, there is always room to make up for lost time. I am happy and I felt like it was a great first race for me and at the same time a good stepping stone for Philly.