Hansen Dam Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

The race started about a half hour late.

I managed to squeeze my way to the front of my wave prior to the start. Where I would normally sort of half heartedly jog in an "excuse me" type manner into the water, I went for it this time (having been in my wetsuit for the better part of an hour, I was anxious anyways). I was the second guy to hit the water. Yes! This felt good. Of course, the moment the rest of the wave started swimming I was quickly pushed to the middle/back. But still....

oh yeah.... as usual, in the panic and pandemonium, i neglected to start my watch.

After a few hundred feet I started to settle into a comfortable pace, but then decided "to hell with this" and pushed it a bit. I found a good pair of feet and followed them until they did me wrong. There was traffic around the buoys but my recently learned trick of asserting my space through aggressive forward motion worked out well. Virtually no contact.

Coming in towards the end of the swim I had my only navigation issue. There was a buoy that was dissimilar to the rest that I didn't realize needed to be taken on the right (all other buoys taken on the left) No real lost time. I corrected my course, rounded this buoy and started to pour on the speed just in time to be clocked squarely in the goggles by a very accurate and firmly planted foot. I swam the last 15 or 20 yards with my goggles flooded.

I had my wetsuit stripped to my waist before I was even out of the water. I have a new system. Since I will *never* learn to leave my cap and goggles on until my hands are out of my wetsuit, i have taken to just abandoning my cap and goggles within the sleeve of my suit. Works just great, particularly the part where my hand with the goggles and cap wont fit through the sleeve and gets stuck. I'll retrieve them later.

All in all, I am happy with my swim. Faster than usual for me is still very very slow for most of my age group.

Learn to swim faster. Pay more attention to the order of operations. Suit off of arms first, then goggles, then cap.... repeat after me.

No problem finding my bike. I gave up attempting T1 standing up. I have very poor balance and always fal down while removing my suit. This time I just sat down and took off my suit/put on my helmet. Today I am racing both sockless and gloveless in an attempt to save time. This works well.

I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of bikes that are still there. This is an odd sensation for me.

Parctive jumping on the bike. I stopped and climbed on and wasted a few seconds getting up to speed for it. Also, practice leaving shoes strapped into pedals. I was a bit tentative as this is a new bike.

Coming out of T1 I had some trouble mounting and getting clipped in and up to speed. This frustration motivated me to make up for it which I did. I went out hard. Probably a little too hard.

The first leg of the course is a gentle uphill grade which can be ridden in the big ring and in aero comfortably for the most part. This part of the course was fairly uneventful.

At about the halfway point there is a hard right and a long fast gentle downhill. This got as little dicey as the pavement surface was poorest right here. There was also a lot of bike traffic on this stretch.

I have been spoiled by my last few races. At those, everyone seems to respect the USAT rules as they relate to drafting and passing. Not so much on this part of the course. About halfway through the downhill I ran into a little wolfpack about three riders wide and three riders deep that would not really let anyone around them. The universal vocal signal "LEFT!" was too subtle for these folks. I got caught up with this for about a half mile and it was at this point that a more agressive rider found a hole through the pack. This is the only time I was passed on the ride.

I LOVE THIS NEW BIKE!

It looks fast, it feels fast. What a pleasure to ride.

I would be much less bashful about the little traffic jam i encountered. I have heard other riders be more assertive, yelling other things like "Stay to your right, please" I always thought it was kinda condescending though.

I had some issues with my cleats at the dismount line. The last two races I came within one angstrom of falling over in an embarrassing slow motion clipless pedal incident right at the dismount line. Peedra usually manages to get great photographic footage of this awkward little two-step. This time I just unclipped my right foot, slowed and stopped completely and very carefully and deliberately unclipped my left. Net result: Instead of looking clumsy, i just looked slow.

The balance of T2 was a whirlwind. No socks in the running shoes. This was my only change of plans for this race. This helps enormously.

Maybe loosen the release on my pedals just a bit. Its tough to unclip. Or better yet, practice the unstrapping and getting out of shoes on the fly.

This is my weakest facet of triathlon by far. Think of it as a three mile long dissapointment in watching people of every different athletic ability pass me as if i were running backwards. My goal in any race is to make it through the run without having to walk and in that sense i made my goal. I did manage to conserve enough energy to sprint the last few hundred yards across the finish line. An average run by my own standards. Painfully slow by anyone elses.

I need to focus on my run in my training.

Crossed the finish line and did not stop in the chute this time. There were volunteers to take your timing chip and pass out your finishers medal. There was an announcer at the finish line who was doing his square best to keep up with the names and numbers. There were a lot of people at the finish line cheering. All in all, a pretty good race day vibe.


I am pretty happy with this race. The things I was dissapointed in are the same for every race. My running ability being the biggest y far.


This was a fun little local race. I really had a good time. Peedra and I stayed around to watch a friend from work finish. His wife also entered the race, her first, and toughed it out and finished as well.

After Wildflower and Vineman, a smaller race like this can seem a little disorganized, but all the big bones stuff was good. Sure it started a little late, but there were plenty of volunteers, the course was well laid out and clearly marked, the traffic control was very good for the bike, the registration was efficient, and the transition area was well thought out. If all of the big races could just do these things well, isn't the rest really just window dressing?

This was a fun little local race and you can't beat the registration price at $40. Schedule permitting, i'll be back next year.