New Jersey State Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

I had practiced group starts, but all from standing, so this was new. It was a good swim, especially since I hadn't been in the pool much lately. I wore my nose plug to help with my breathing since I knew from my OWS practice that I had a hard time breathing when I get out where I can't stand. I kept moving forward and only came up to do some breast stroke 3 times for only a few strokes each. My form definitely can improve. Even with my poor form, this was my best even rank-wise. I did have a bit of a foot cramp but luckily that went away pretty quickly. It was nice to pass a few people from the previous wave, but it's pretty sad when women breast stroking and backstroking are going faster than you.

Get in the pool more and really work on my form (something to work at in the off season). I need to work on getting my legs up more and have a decent body roll in the open water.

The run up to transition was pretty painful (concrete boat ramp and then rough pavement). My rack was the first on the right after entering transition from the swim, but that meant a very long run (well in my case mostly walk) in my bike shoes out to where we could mount. I was pretty organized in transition and kept moving so most of the time was simply moving through transition. I couldn't believe there were people already coming back from the bike from the earliest waves. Wow!

Not have a bad achilles heel so I could maybe hope to run in my shoes. And I definitely need to work on toughening up the soles of my feet to handle running barefoot over pavement.

I was doing well on the bike for the first 8.5 miles. I passed way more riders than passed me and I was feeling good on the bike. Then coming around one of the last corners I heard a pop and then a ping and my bike seat started to move. I pulled over and found that my seat post had cracked along the back. I was able to sit on my seat, but I had to sit up toward the front so that really caused my back to hurt from the change in position, not to mention the girl parts. I also didn't feel like I could push it (my pace over the first 7 miles which had most of the "hills" was 15.25 and for the last 3 miles it was 14.25 so definitely slowed up some). I did manage to pass 3 people after that so I was being as aggressive as I could. I think my pace could have been over 15 mph if I hadn't had to stop and if I could have really pushed the end. But it was a good ride besides that and I felt strong. I probably could have pushed it a little harder, but I wasn't sure how much energy I could use up before heading into the run and wanted to be conservative there. It was still one of my faster rides on similar roads, so I'm happy with it.

Not have my seatpost break :) But seriously, besides that I think I rode well considering I haven't really been training super hard. More hill training would help me really power up the little hills on this course. My pace would drop about 5mph going up the hills, so if I can get my legs stronger for the hills, I can lose less speed on the little rollers.

It was an even longer run back to my rack because we first had to go over a small grassy hill, then across another street, then up a small grassy hill before even entering transition (the mats were in there somewhere). I couldn't rack my bike by the seat and the others on my rack had really crowded my spot so I took a few extra moments to get my bike properly racked (and pick up a bike I knocked off...whoops). Once I started changing shoes everything was fine and I was off, taking it easy at first.

Nothing I could have done better other than run with my bike but was afraid of my achilles getting hurt in the bike shoes.

I mostly walked (and obviously quiet slowly) except down a few hills and at the end. I was just out to have fun at that point so I talked to people coming the other way. At first my legs were hurting from trying to keep the pressure off my seat on the bike so had to work that out. I did run the last bit after the path re-entered the finishing area and tried to run (as opposed to my normal shuffle) through the finishing chute so I'd look good for my finishing photo (they haven't been posted yet so no clue how that worked). According to the 5k run splits I was DFL on the run. Yeah, I managed to come in last at something!

The finish was great and I came down the chute on my own so there was plenty of time for the announcer to call out my name, club, and hometown. That kind of finish is awesome!

If this had been my only race (or last race for the summer) I would have risked running more. But, really, I haven't been able to run (or even walk) since the beginning of May because of my achilles so I couldn't have run much more than I did. I do need to work harder at walking faster. I'm a very slow walker naturally. I need to realize it's a race and try to push it somewhat and get those legs turning over.

I stretched a little bit but since I hadn't really pushed myself on the run, I kind of counted that as my cooldown.


I had alot of injuries coming into the race. Besides my left achilles tendon, my right one was tender, I had plantar fasciitis in my left heel (that ended up hurting the worst after the race), my right hip and knee have problems, and I had strained my left quad about 2 weeks earlier. Oh and I totally didn't lose any weight in all this training so carrying around all those extra pounds doesn't help. And the seat post was another problem. Basically I'm a hot mess :) But I had fun anyway!


It was a great race for my first time. It was a large race with 2 distances (olympic started after the sprint) so there were tons of racers (2500 registered). All the organizers and volunteers were wonderful and there was great support by the police and public works so the bike course felt very safe. The course is pretty flat, so that makes it perfect for a new triathlete. I definitely will consider coming back next year to see if I can improve (or maybe try the olympic distance).

This was the target race for DC Tri's New Triathlete Program, so it was great to finally share the race experience with everyone from that (plus the club had over 200 people registered in the race so the support there was great...lots of "go DC Tri" on the run).

I'm proud that I went to the race and finished (and wasn't DFL overall). Considering all my injuries and the fact I've had some motivation issues including a few weeks with no training as recently as 2 weeks ago, I did well. I beat my worst case scenario (2:30) and came in just about what I thought I would do (I had guessed 15 min swim, 45 min bike, 55 min run, 10 min transitions). This was a big learning experience and I was out to have fun and know that I could finish. Now I have some motivation to keep with the sport and improve.

I'm pretty sore today (24 hours after finishing) and stayed home from work because I deserve a day of lounging around.