Randolph Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

the wave was all men 39 and under. there was a fair amount of jostling before the start as they held us in the water for a few minutes. i was more or less front and center (as far as I could tell). They sent us off and it was pretty chaotic. I tried to get a good jump, but it seemed like guys were all over me. I gave a few shots and took a few, too. In the first few seconds someone had their arms around my waist, and I got a foot to the eye, but it didn't mess up my goggles. I got into a good groove just before the first buoy, took it a little wide to avoid some traffic and then had plenty of clear water. There were a few guys in front of me. The 2 in front of me were definitely weaving a lot. By the 3rd buoy I had caught them and we all came in at about the same time.


Not too much, maybe sprint out a little harder to get away from the crazy masses, but sometimes this puts me into oxygen debt so I either have to practice that scenario a little more or just deal with the groping.

Had my cap and goggles as I exited the water. wetsuit was down to my waist by the time I entered transition. Got to my spot and the left leg (with timing chip?) was stuck for just a second. Then it came off and the right leg came right off. Helmet, glasses, and shoes on (no socks), and I was off.

Learn/practice the shoes on the bike. I felt pretty quick while I was at my spot, my time seems inline with other people who finished around me. 90th out of 354 overall.

I got up to speed pretty quickly. The hills come upon you within the first few minutes on this course. I did pretty good with the climbing and ok on the descending. Some of the big climbs I was going like 8mph and sitting amongst guys with zipp wheels and me with my 24lb road bike, so I felt pretty good about that. Got passed by some fasties during the first half of the ride, but not too much towards the end. had about 3/4's of a bottle of gu20 on the bike, and that's it.

not much given my current training/fitness level. I felt like I pushed myself pretty throughout and stayed pretty focused.

rode hard to the line, and slammed the brakes with one foot over the side. ran into transition, racked bike, helmet off, took sunglasses off by mistake. shoes off. shoes and socks on. race belt on, sunglasses back on. a swig of water and I was off.

not take off my sunglasses only to put them back on. probably cost me 2 seconds. learn/practice the shoes off while on the bike thing.

I think I can run better than this, although I haven't really incorporated any speed work into my training as I am focused on building a solid aerobic and injury free run base at this point in time.

Out of transition I got up to speed fairly well, but could tell that my calves were tight/heavy. There was quite a few times that I wanted to push myself harder but my calves/legs weren't responding too well. I felt almost too comfortable breathing and cardiovascularly speaking, wish the legs could have came around a little better, but all in all it was a solid learning experience and I will get a lot out of it. They had 2 aid stations that you passes 2x each so there was plenty of water to sip. had a few quick sips and poured one over my head just for fun.

more brick workouts that follow shorter/intense bike sessions to better mimic a race situation.

stretched, met up with my girlfriend and parents. took a few pics and ate some food.


given my current fitness level (a work in progress), not too much considering it was my first race and i was going into it with pretty wide eyes and learning experience type of attitude.


Great race organization, everything was well explained and well laid out. Some of the road surfaces kind of suck, but the lake is really nice for the swim, the bike course goes through farmland and state game lands so it is pretty scenic and hilly. the run course is pretty good as well. Glad I made this my first race and I'll try to make it back there again in the future.