Callaway Gardens Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I felt relaxed before the race. I was in the second wave and the water was fairly warm. I decided to start near the front of my wave since I have read so many race reports of people saying they wished they would have started farther to the front instead of being near the back and having to fight their way forward. I had to do a few dolphin dives to get started because it was a bit too crowded to full-on swim in the beginning. Visibility was really difficult in the water since the first wave had kicked up the sand pretty good and the water was pretty murky anyways.
The course curved around the edge of the beach and I was a bit concerned about staying the correct side of the buoy so as not to be DQ. This concern combined with having a bit of trouble getting into a freestyle rhythm and breathing led me to doing breast stroke for the majority of the swim leg. Passed a few guys from the first wave and still hung in there fairly well with my wave which I was happy about but was definitely disappointed that I did not do freestyle. Was happy with my time though! ( I wasn't sure when to stop my time so I stopped the swim leg time when my feet hit the beach.)

-Do freestyle in the race! =)
-Work more on intervals/speed work with freestyle stroke.

I wasn't sure when to start my T1 time so when I was out of the water I started my T1 time on my watch. I was right beside BTer Mindy (Yay! So glad to meet a BTer!) and we ran up the beach together and the hill (which spiked my heart rate up!) to get to the racks and we split to our different spots. My heart rate jumped to 179 so I slowed to a walk for about 10 seconds then continued to run to the other end where my bike was racked. I was really happy with my set up. I used an extra water bottle to watch the debris off my feet then got on my socks and shoes along with my helmet and sunglasses. I was a bit more slow than I should have gone with putting on my gear but I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything. I took a little bit of time to get a few gulps of fluids in me then quickly unracked my bike and trotted it out of T1 and took off smoothly.

-Not stop to walk at all during T1.
-Even though I was happy with me transition, my time in T1 really hurt me so I need to be much more quick with putting on everything and getting a move on!

Looking back on the bike I really wish I would have been more full-on with my ride. I was a little more conservative on the ride than I could have been but since this was my first triathlon I wasn't sure what my legs would be like after the ride and I wanted to have juice left for them. I picked off a lot of riders (Yay!) but had some fast dudes pass me along with two fast chickas! (The dudes looked all kinds of wicked serious with their disk tires!) I kept checking my heart rate as a way to help monitor how physically I was doing. I drank a decent amount of fluids throughout the course and felt strong throughout the course.

The ride says 10 miles but my bike computer said 8.63 miles and I think was average more of a 19.5 pace rather than a 22 pace...


-Go much more full-out since I was feeling pretty strong at the end of the ride

I felt good coming into T2 and easily put on my shoes and switched my helmet for my visor. I took a minute again to get some more fluids in me then took off. (About 3 minutes into the run I realized I forgot my race number/belt. Oh well!)

-Quicker transition all-together
-Quicker racking of bike
-Not forget race number and belt! =)

My weak area... My heart rate was going a little high the first half mile before I felt like I turned over. My legs felt surprisingly strong and didn't feel much of the "wobbly leg" many talk about. This only further confirmed why I thought I should have gone more full-out on the bike leg. I had a good handful of people pass me and I passed some as well. There was water at the 1 mile or so mark but the table was kind of far back and no one was handing water to us so I didn't realize there was water until I had already passed it! I still felt good for the most part without the water (even though it would have been nice to have some!) and turned over again around 1 and 3/4 mile then picked up my pace for a strong finish that I was happy with.

-Need to continue to get better with my running
-Add tempo runs to my training and some interval speed work

Filled out my time card (while dodging the vomit! Not mine!) then found Adam and went over to the Pavilion for some water, Gatorade, and a banana. Walked around for another minute or two then went back to my transition site and quickly loaded up then headed straight home. (We wanted to stick around for the awards but we live on Piedmont and close to 10th and we didn't want to get stuck in the Pride Festival Parade and not be able to get to our townhome!)


The fact that this was my first triathlon and I didn't know what to expect or have any idea as to how I would perform. Also, not doing specific skill work in all areas enough to have the speed/endurance on my side. Have really only been working on volume up to this point.


This a really nice race to to as my first triathlon! I was happy that I was in the top 1/3 of my AG. Not a bad start so now I have something to build on! Will most likely do this race again next year. (Long-term goal: Podium place for AG! haha!) This did make me want to get really serious about my training and doing triathlons. I've got the bug!