Tri the Parks - Indian Springs State Park - TriathlonSprint

Some day I will stick to my plan and start near the front. I can swim faster than the majority of the clydes and I still can't bring myself to swim over people. For the first half of the swim I felt like I was swimming in slow motion because full strokes would cause me to run into the people ahead of me. I had about 200 yards of pretty open water but then I ran into alot of people from the two waves ahead of me. I was thirsty before the start and, while on the beach, realized that I had only had about 4 oz. to drink that morning.

Definitely start towards the front and push it. There's no reason for me to be slower than 1:45 100's in a sprint. Drink more the morning of the race.

I'm not sure why my time was so bad here, other than having trouble putting on my socks.

Try going sockless?

I felt pretty good on the bike. For the first time I was actually passing people! And only a few of them were on mountain bikes. I only got passed by two people and I must of passed 25 or 30. I was in the next-to-last wave with only the novices and relays behind me so I should not have been passed much. I dropped my chain twice, costing me less than a minute each time (once it came off the lower pulley of the rear derailleur too) but I was able to chase down those who went by both times. My goal was to average 18 mph for the ride and I almost did that even with the chain delays.

Be more careful with my shifting. Both times I dropped my chain I was trying to shift while in the aerobars. I have an older ('82) bike with downtube shifters so it's a little bit of a challenge to shift while in aero.

Not a bad transition. I did not run all the way up the hill and out the run exit.

Run all the way.

This is where I fell apart. I probably pushed too hard on the bike and I definitely was dehydrated. I ran a little too fast for the first half mile and then started walking the hills. By this time it was too late to catch up on hydration. I also have been doing mostly long runs and slow 5k's with my running group. I need to start doing more speed work and race pace runs.

Drink more starting days in advance. Not push quite so hard on the bike. Do more running at race pace. More bricks too.

Walked around to find friends. Drank 3 full bottles of water in the hour after the race. I waited around to see Rebecca and Dan get their hardware before heading to Fresh Air Barbeque for a recovery meal.


Not following my game plan with nutrition, hydration, and placement on the swim. It was still only my third tri and I have two more sprints before I tackle the South Carolina HIM.


The race was great. It's my performance that wasn't.