Dakotaman Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

For being my first open water swim I felt amazing in the water. I started at the very back left of the guys group. It was a beach start which I just loved. I ran in to where I was up to my chest, as to allow the fast people to get on with their stuff. I then dove in and started my swim. I got a very good pace at the beginning and passed a few people within the first 100 yards. I actually swam OVER Howard Bich, who is the guy who started this race . I felt somewhat bad but I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. I stayed right next to the bouy line the entire swim as I was still a bit nervous about swimming in open water.

About halfway I started to hear the Jaws theme music in my head, which is disturbing in and of itself. Even though I KNEW there are no sharks in Lake Alvin, it didn't help at all. Once I hit the turnaround bouy I knew I was home free. I felt a few tickles at my feet and so for the entire return leg I was kicking pretty strong to keep the tickler away from grabbing onto my ankles. I knew the women started 5 minutes later so I figured it was a female swimmer trying to swim over me or something. However, I never saw/felt anyone pass me from that point on.

Turns out they were all going WIDE of the bouys and many people hit the beach and then had to run down it since they messed up on sighting. For my first swim I did three things right:

1 - Breathing was good, swallowed very little water.
2 - Sighting was perfect.
3 - I didnd't get kicked in the face!

And I did three things wrong:

1 - Kicked too much (will come into play later)
2 - Didn't reach far enough on strokes
3 - Kicked a guy in the face who tried to pass me early on.

I came out of the water feeling pretty good about my time. My normal 100 pace in the pool is 2:20, so 2:55 isn't too horrible. I will do better next time though.



Not kick as much, and really work on reaching for the horizon with each stroke. I feel like a lot of the problem with my time can be attribute to my lack of swimming experience. Considering the first time I really 'swam' was 5 months ago, I'm happy with my swim time. My goal for the swim was 20 minutes!

The transition time started when we hit the mat on the beach, so mine is quite long. I jogged up the beach and the ramp, then onto the rocky parking lot/transition area. The jog alone took almost 1.5 minutes, so I consider a 3:26 not too bad. I washed off my feet with my extra water bottle, dried off with a towel, and then threw on the socks/shoes. I don't ride clipless, so I knew I would save time in T2. I took the time to down a gel and then stuck the other two gels into my trisuit pockets.

I need to work on not stumbling around coming out of the water, haha. I also struggled to clean the feet while standing, so next time I'm just plopping down on my rump quicklike.

I really didn't find my legs until about mile 3, and up until then my pace topped out at about 12mph. Once I hit my stride I jumped up to about 15mph and held it as I gained on a group of female riders. Then disaster struck!!! I went to grab a gel from my back pocket and noticed that BOTH had fallen out of my trisuit pockets. So there I am on the bike with no calories except for gatorade. I started freaking out a little, but focused on the group of female riders. We took turns passing each other and then finally they pulled ahead right at the turnaround.

Some fatigue started to set in, which I'm not sure if it was mental or just accumulating a huge calorie deficit as I did (calculated at somewhere around 890 calories for my size at that time/pace/hr) However, I noticed that the group of girls passed another person, and guess what.. it was a GUY! I knew at that moment that I had a chance to NOT come in last among the guys for the bike leg, this just set my heart afire and I pushed the pace up even higher. For the last 3 miles I kept the hammer down and never slowed below 19 miles per hour. I'd end up flying by the guy who I had sighted and then on the final stretch also caught a female who I hadn't seen before (mind you she was still technically 5 minutes ahead of me since I started swimming first).

While my average speed is slower than I'd like, my top speed made me happy. 35.8 mph on the big downhill :D


Get nutrition on the bike! I think this would have the hugest difference in the race for me. I know I can pull a sub-hour ride on that course, but I need calories to do it.

Also, I think going clipless will help too. Right now I just have pedals, no cage or anything.

So well, I didn't jump off the bike. I stopped the bike and slowly pulled my leg over the crossbar. Then I quickly racked the bike and grabbed a gel and took a swig of gatorade. I ran out of T2 feeling good about my T2 time!

Until I noticed that my helmet was still on, hahahahaha. I threw it aside on the run course to later be found by a family member.



I'd say take off my helmet but that might have cost me a second or two, so I don't know.

However, the top T2 time for the day was a mere 18 seconds. That is just insane since there is a good 30 yards worth of transition area to get through.

I really don't think we can call this a run. I think there is a better word to describe it, 'BONK'! My plan was to keep a steady slog throughout the run portion, but that was put to hell by the gel issue on the bike. I normally average 12 minute miles on my training runs, but like I said this was more like jog, walk, jog, walk.. repeat. I never thought about quitting, just kept putting one foot in front of another.

Almost every triathlete coming back (since I got to see most of them running towards the finish, said good job and other good wishes. It brought tears to my eyes to know that they were all cheering for me. I know that I am not at the same level as any of them, but knowing that they cared enough to notice the effort I was giving, it made the entire day worth it.

As I turned into the park again I kept a steady jog. Many people were putting their bikes up, but everyone I saw gave me good wishes or high 5's or good jobs. I would have cried, but then I saw it... the finish line. I had secretly worried they took it down, since I was the last one. However, it still stood there ticking away. Then I saw what it said, 2:14:40. I was like, wow, if I haul ass I can make 2:15. So that is what I did, I ran like I've never ran before, and I have no freaking clue where it came from. But I covered at least 150 yards of running in 21 seconds. I crossed the finish line and I have to say that I have never in my life been more proud.

Learn to run
Proper Nutrition
Not overdrink on the run
Don't overheat (90+ degrees outside)

Warm down? Umm, not passing out or puking. Then we walked over to the banquet (ie subway sandwiches) and I had a turkey subway sandwich and stayed for most of the awards ceremony. The guy who won it all had a time of 1:10:34, so he was DONE before I finished the bike, so I felt it was only proper to stay and congradulate him.

My swim coach, Kathy Grady, finished 2nd women's overall. She had the 3rd fastest overall swim time at 8:07.. just wow. My alternate swim coach, who also trains the Seals Swim team, came in at 8:47. These girls are just fast.




I really feel that I made a few key mistakes that hurt me, but luckily they are all correctable.

1 - Kicking on the swim
This really hurt when it came to the running. I got really bad cramps in my calves on the run portion.

2 - Losing the gels
I know most people don't need a lot of nutrition for a sprint tri, but my total calorie expenditure for the race was over 2500. So yeah.

3 - Lock Laces
I didn't mention this before, but I used lock laces for my shoes. I didn't take the time to get them tight enough and it gave me a lot of trouble on the run portion. My ankles do NOT like loose shoes. I ended up with a HUGE blister on my right toe.

Also, Rash:
My armpits began to bleed on the run due to the sweat/rubbing. I need to use bodyglide in the future.




This was my first race and boy did I pick one with some doozies for hills. The opening climb out of T1 and T2 makes me rethink the entire 'South Dakota is flat' opinion.

I'm glad I did this one first as my next two are both a tad shorter (400,12,5k). I also have a new motto:

I may have come in last at the my first, but I'll come in first (or near) at my last!

Thanks for taking the time to read my rambling race report.