Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was my second open water swim ever, and first mass start ever. I really had no idea what to expect except what I had read on BT, but it lived up to the washing machine stereotype. I was punching and getting punched for the first few hundred yards, and someone grabbed both of my legs at one point and pulled me back. Also, I almost ran into the first buoy, but looked up just before I got there. The last few hundred yards were easy. I was by myself, so the only difficulty was looking up every few strokes to see how far off course I had veered. I passed some of the elite swimmers that were in the wave ahead of us (I'm not sure how the elites were seeded, but I don't think this should have happened). Then I staggered up onto the beach and hustled over to the transition area.

Get a sleeveless wetsuit. The water wasn't cold at all and its only going to get warmer through the year.

It took a little while to get out of my wetsuit because I was rushing. Once I slowed down it was pretty quick.

Slow down and be calm about it.

I chose to run up the short hill after transition and mounted my bike about 100 yds into the bike leg. I got up to speed quickly and passed a bunch of people in the first mile. The hills weren't as bad as I had feared, but they were a lot worse than the ones that I normally ride on. I really need to work on my climbing. Because I live in an urbanish area, this was the first time I've had a completely uninterrupted ride and I was happy with my time. I think I might have gone a little too hard because the run was difficult afterwards.

Train more on the hills! And I need to drink more, I only drank about a third of my water bottle. And buy a cervelo.

I almost missed the dismount line because of the little downhill leading up to it, so I was going way too fast when I jumped off. I squeezed the brakes hard to compensate, and the bike almost flipped over. After that little embarassing stunt, everything went smoothly.

Get off the bike a little earlier.

This was not a good run at all. I was expecting something around 19 minutes. My legs were a little tired coming off the bike. At first I told myself not to panic, that it was supposed to be normal. But then it continued through the first mile and I realized that it wasn't going to get any better. I was passed by two people and I didn't have anything in me to respond. I don't usually get passed on runs. The fact that I went pretty hard on the bike probably had something to do with it, but I know I can shave a lot of time off of my run in my next races. Also, the last mile included one really steep hill which I was not expecting at all, even though I had already biked up and down it in warm-up, biked up and down it during the race, and run down it at the beginning of the race. I must not have been thinking straight. But, excuses aside, I think I could have done better here.

Run harder. I had a little left in my tank at the end. I haven't done a race before where there isn't someone right in front of me pushing my pace, which makes everything easier. Also, the biking in the bricks I've done included a lot of starting and stopping right before I got off as I bike through Arlington, so they aren't representative of a race. I need to figure out a way to do better bricks.

Walked around, nothing much


This was my first race. I'm sure with experience I'll knock some time off.


Even with the run, this was a great first race! I'm excited to finally be a triathlete, and I got a trophy to prove it!