North Muskegon Block 58 Triathlon - TriathlonLong Course

Never, EVER, test out new equipment at a race. We all know that, however when you lose your goggles right before a race what do you do?? You hope for the best. My new goggles started leaking right off the bat, but after I stopped two times and adjusted them, they were fine. Live and learn! The goggle-issue messed up my head a bit, and and combined with my lack of warmup, I couldn't get my breating under control until almost the first buoy (500m). That missed warmup would have fixed my goggle isssue too...doh! After I settled in, I felt like I was swimming well. I could tell as I neared shore because suddenly there was a forest of seaweed underneath me, like inches from my face. My arms were stroking through it, but it didn't tangle me up. It was really very cool!

WARM UP! Good grief, when will I EVER learn this lesson!! On a positive note, my recent practice siting seemed to have paid off because my navigation went pretty well.

The distance from swim to transition was approximately 150 yards, so I elected to strip my wetsuit immediately after exiting the water. That worked well as far as ease in removing the wetsuit. However, due to the location of the timing pads, that time was included in my swim split instead of my T1 split. No big deal, really.

T1 went well, I was in and out of there quickly and no issues with stumbling around or losing my balance while getting my bike stuff on.

This was one lonely bike ride! With only 34 people in the race, we were quite spread out along the bike course. I think I only saw 3 other racers the entire 2 hours I was out there. Thankfully my family was driving around and parking at strategic locations to cheer me on as I rode by.

I feel like my biking has been declining since I've been riding more outdoors this Summer. I think I'm going to try to include 1 spin class per week back into my training schedule, I need someone pushing me harder.

Quick and easy!

I was losing steam by this time. Every time I tried to pick up my pace, a few minutes later I would feel myself slowing down. I think I was passed by 1 guy during the run, and other than that really didn't see anyone else except for another guy way ahead of me. I was feeling really lousey, but just kept pushing through to the end.

Drink Gatorade, walk around, etc.


I don't think I spent enough time training with brick work to prepare me for a race of almost 4 hours in duration. The longest training session I did leading into this was 3 hours.


The course and length of this race were great, and the views of Lake Michigan were beautiful! This was only the 2nd year for this race, and the organizer certainly had his hands full. This race shows alot of potential to grow into a significant event, I would recommend it. The more people we get out supporting this event, the better it well get!