Luray Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Swim was good - I kept a pretty decent pace (got better as I went along, actually), didn't get kicked and didn't get off course. Of the three girls in our little tri group from church, I was the first out of the water. It was nice to be able to pass people in a sporting event and actually leave them behind the entire time! Water was nice and warm and no critters. I did feel a bit out of breathe coming out of the water, but going up the flight of stairs to the transition was not quick (slippery, so everyone was going slow) so I was able to catch my breathe a bit.

Maybe wear a wetsuit to shave off some time. And obviously train for more speed now, but since this was my first tri, I was more concerned with completing it. Otherwise, I was happy with my swim.

T1 time is deceptive because we had to run up a flight of stairs to get from the lake to the transition area, so it was a ways. Felt fine with getting on my shoes, etc. I don't have tri shoes, but it was quick enough esp. since I didn't wear a wetsuit. All those years of theatre make quick changes a piece of cake. 6th in my AG out of T1.

Nothing really - maybe save myself the 0.05 seconds and get tri shoes for the bike. I don't know if this is a quick time, esp. when you consider the length of the trek to the transition but I felt okay.

The bike killed my time. I am not a very experience cyclist and this course was HILLY. There were several descents that I coasted while feathering the breaks and at two points actually walked a little bit. I am not comfortable flying down steep hills on a sharp turn where the road is tilted at an angle. Going UP the hills was not terrible until the one last hill - I think at one point I was going under 4 mph. I'm just not strong enough. The flatter areas were okay - I'm not super fast regardless so on those sections I did as I expected. DFL in my AG.

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to buy the bike any sooner. And I didn't want to wait until next year to do a race. So I should have trained more, but logistically, I'm still getting used to the bike! I didn't drink at all, because I can't drink and ride at the same time yet. But it took me as long as I had projected, which is fair enough.

I started running in the opposite direction out of T2, but fortunately only for a few seconds until someone told me it was the other way! My shoes were a little harder to get on than I had expected - and I had speed laces - just couldn't get my foot in as fast as I had wanted. Otherwise, it was fine. Grabbed a quick drink before heading off.

Nothing really. Wasn't much else to do. Maybe not run in the wrong direction first!

I was wiped by the time I got to the run. My legs were actually fine, coming off the bike. Grabbed some water on the way out at the aid station. Walked a little bit and then ran the first leg (out). Ate a Clif shot. Grabbed water at the turn-around, but at that point, my body was done for. My heart was pounding and I was breathing shallow, so I fast walked for a good chunk of the "back" portion. As I entered the park, I started to run and when I passed my friends (all of whom finished before me), I just took off down to the finish line.

Not walked - could have shaved about 4 minutes off my time. I give my rating a mark of in between average and below average - the first half of the run was okay.

A friend brought me Gatorade and half a banana. Then we packed up our stuff and went and got burgers and fries. Yum!


My ability. I maybe should have skipped this triathlon and waited until next spring. By the run I was just too damned tired. I'm not an athlete quite yet, though had the bike not wiped me out, I may have done better. My goal was to finish without dying, in under 3 hours, and not DFL in either my age group or overall.


I say "just right" with a caveat - I wouldn't say "too hard" because I obviously finished. And it was really only the bike that was difficult. I maybe should have picked a race with a flatter bike course, though in my defense, it was initially billed as "rolling" on the bike, not "hills". Later on, they changed it. So the difficulty of the bike was offset by the swim and run, and the run, I would have done better had I not been wiped out by the bike course.