Hammonton Recreation Department Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

It's amazing how my perception of this has changed from when I was in the water, after the race and until now. Initially I just wanted to quit right there in the water but I thought about a thread hear on BT started by BryanCD discussing what do you do when you're mind is telling you to stop. I decided I was going to finish the swim and the race no matter what, in other words HTFU. After the race I was frankly embarassed by my performance. Now I'm taking it as a challenge and I'm going to kick the swim's a$$ at NJ State. Where do I start on the actual swim. I was in the 1st wave off and I situated myself in the rear right side of the pack. Almost instantly all the work and practice I put in went out the window and I reverted to something that resembled thrashing and holding my breath. The other people in the water bothered me. The dark, murky water bothered me. Basically everything got into my head and got me off of my game. Because of this I switched to breast stroke and not even a good one at that. Did this to the turn around which I walked around and then did a combo of BS and free style the rest of the way but never, ever got into any kind of rhythm or relaxed state. There were about 1/2 dozen or so in the same boat as me so at least I wasn't alone. Even though my performance was frankly embarrassing there was no way I wasn't going to finish. I know I wasn't DFL as I made sure I beat a few strugglers from my heat out of the water but couldn't have been far off.

Practice OWS as much as possible. My mind just wasn't prepared for it even though I know I can swim the 1/4 mile (twice that far really) without a problem physically. Have to learn to relax and just do my controlled, slow thing. Maybe next race I'll just start last in my wave so I have clear, calm water right from the beginning.

After the awful swim I ended up taking longer here so I could compose myself a bit and get my mind into doing well on the bike/run instead of just mailing it in. Already knew my goal time of 1:25 was going to be out of the question. Was pretty calm in transition, cleaned and dried my feet, had no issues with the wetsuit or getting my socks/shoes on.

Not much. Could've rushed in and rushed out and saved a little time but I had to get my head back around that it was still a race. Shoud've tied my shoes up tighter here as didn't remember to do it leading into the run.

Got into the bike right away and knew I should have people I could pass since I was pretty far back in the pack after the swim. In the beginning I was doing most of the passing and getting up to 24 mph and keeping it pretty much over 19.5 the 1st half. The 2nd half I was passed by other fast bikers who obviously struggled with the swim like me. In the end I did well on the bike for me and was pretty happy with the ride. I did drop my chain once so that took a minute or so to fix and get back up to speed. I didn't have any cramping issues on the bike this time and I attribute this to much better pre-race hydration.

This one is easy. I need to ride my bike more and build up my leg strengh. There are still too many times on what are in reality little inclines where I lost way too much speed/momentum.

This went very well. Found rack right away, dropped bike onto the rack, helmet off and swig of gatorade. Took an extra second to reach into my bag and grab my watch as I didn't wear it into the water and forgot to put it on before the bike. Ran out of transition and legs felt pretty good.

Probably just forget the watch and make sure shoes are tied tight how I like them.

This is where I still struggle with how much to push myself without running out of gas. Need to work on that as I could've shaved another minute or two off of my time for sure. Went out and immediately started passing people. Was running a little bit past comfortable but well within myself. Eventually got to the turnaround and watch had 14 minutes which made me think I wasn't running hard enough. At this point I thought this would turn into a 28 minute run and I definitely wanted to be under 25 at least. I was still passing people and had yet to be passed by anyone so it should've occurred to me that the turnaround wasn't the 1/2 way point. Started to push a little harder but not full out. Before I knew it I was turning right back on to the sand track and was within a 1/4 mile of finishing. Here one person came flying up and passed me. Tried to catch her but ran out of track. Realized right away I could've gone for broke more in the run as I had more energy than necessary after a Tri.

Run harder. I was tired but definitely not spent at the end and probably had 2 to 3 minutes faster in me for the run.

Co-worker Jay was waiting for me at the finish as he was about 7 minutes ahead of me (thanks swim). Grabbed some lemonade and yummy cookies and set off to find my Dad. After talking to him for a few minutes he decided to head off to the car as it would take him awhile to get there in his chair. I went and gathered my stuff and before leaving went over and cheered on some finishers. The joy on most of their faces is what snapped my out of my swim funk and made me determined to conquer it next time.


Umm, my stupid a$$ brain which went into panic mode instead of doing what it knows I can do. It and I both know I can't swim fast but the distance shouldn't have been a problem or a worry. Also need more TITS so I can push more on the bike without worrying about bonking.


Well the 1st one is over and plan on coming back next year and breaking 1:20. The race itself I enjoyed and it was a great venue for spectators so my Dad enjoyed himself as well.