Morton Plant Mease Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was HARD! We were fighting the current the entire time. As soon as I got in, my left goggle filled up with water. I swam the entire swim with my left eye closed. I got smacked a bunch in the first 100m or so, but started passing people early on. As I progressed, I just swam past people and made my way up. I started way in the back of the pack and was able to come out of the water 21st in my age group. I was surprised to see 10:55 on my watch as I stood up and didn't go over the mat until 11:18. A very slow swim for me as I should have swum about 9 minutes here. But the current really held everyone back.

Couldn't do anything different, I'd ask the ocean to be a little calmer next time though!

OK so the first 2:30 of this was the run from the beach to the TA. What a ridiculous amount of time. It was a little more than a quarter mile. Plus, my bike was on the fifth rack from the front of the TA and we entered from the rear, about 30 racks behind mine. So it was another dash to my rack and about another 20 seconds before I could even start transitioning. The rest of the T1 was about 1:10 by the time I got to my bike. It was a smooth transition from that point. No helmet issues this time.

Nothing. They need to rethink the distance between beach and TA though. SHEESH!!!

This was my most impressive bike split this year. Not my fastest, but 21.2mph with 2 huge bridges where I was going 12mph?? Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that. At the bike start I passed a bunch of people, I think one or two in my AG. I kept pouring on the power, but I was nervous about losing my energy at the top of the bridge. I hit the first bridge at about 23 and by the time I got to the top, after shifting, I was at 12. Coming down there was some wind, and a looming left hand turn, so I couldn't let it all go on the way down. I think max speed was about 32. Kept up a good 22 to 23 after that til we got to the next huge bridge. For that one I sped up to about 25 and hit it good. Passed about 6 people on that bridge. They must have used up all their energy. I stood up, pedaled hard and got to the top. Took another age group spot. This time I was able to make 36mph on the way down. This was only about 5.7 miles in, so from there it was pretty flat. I kept up a 24 to 26mph speed for alot of it, never falling below 21. Right before the last bridge, a truck came over into our lane and almost wrecked me. I screamed some choice words but he didn't hear. Apparently, he wrecked three guys behind me. One of them was a guy I was playing yo-yo with for most of the first 7 miles. As I rode, I ate some Clif Shot Blox and drank Gatorade. No stomach upset. On the last bridge, there was traffic but I hit it at 26mph and got to the top at 21. The rest of the ride I spent picking off people one by one. Picked up two more age group spots and finished the bike in 14th place. I had the 13th fastest bike split.

Nothing. This was a GREAT bike.

Nothin' to it. Just throw and go.

Nuttin at all.

When the run started out, I felt okay. But then we stepped onto the beach. I immediately slowed down cuz my legs were pissed off. I got passed by two people in my AG and two other guys in 35-39. They were both very muscular so I was pissed cuz the big huge guys never run faster than me. The sand just sucked all my energy out. As the second guy in my AG passed me I started to get mad. I was now in 16th place. I was hoping we'd get off the damn sand soon. Finally we did. I stepped onto some compacted sand trails and passed Mile 1...8:45! Holy crap. So damn slow. I knew I could go faster. My breathing was fine, but my legs were so mad at me because of the sand. Well it was over now. I immediately turned up the heat. Took one age group spot just past 1.5 miles. Worked on the next guy. Took him at about 2 miles. Then up ahead I saw two more guys in my age group...I knew I could get them if I could just get my per mile time down to about 7:15. At the turnaround we were at 2.6 miles and I was at 11:10 for that split, so I knew I'd gotten my pace up to a good low 7. I ran as hard as I could, passed the last two in my age group and made a run for the finish line. I looked back to see where the guys I passed were running and they weren't close enough to catch me. So I didn't push too hard when I came into the finish.

I wound up with a PR by over 3 minutes, even though I missed my 1:15 goal time by about 3 minutes. I think if the swim wasn't so choppy and I was able to keep up a faster pace on the run, I'd have done better.

Try to run faster in the sand.

Drank alot of water, waited for the other BTers and hung out. Took some pictures, cheered for the BTers, had a good ol' time. Then I got stung by a bee. IN THE EYE!!! OUCH!!


On the swim, the current...
On the bike, nothing...
On the run, sugar sand.



In its second year this race was sold out. It's a great experience. It's like a little St. A's. The course is challenging, the atmosphere is great, the post race stuff is awesome. Free beer too!! I will definitely do this one every year.