Valdese Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Thunderstorms delayed my start for about an hour. I have been breathing bilaterally in training now for about 3 months. It has made my swim splits much faster in practice. Thought it would be no problem to do it in the race ... wrong. For whatever reason, I was having a tough time breathing. I seemed to be rushing things. Went back to breathing on one side and felt better. Still a pretty fast swim split for me.

My watch said 5:00 when I got out of the pool.

Relax more. Don't get into a situation where I am panicky and not completly exhaling in water.

ESTIMATED (T1 Not Timed Due to Timing Malfunction): The race began in heavy thunderstorms, so shoes and socks were soaked. Decided to go without the socks since they were too wet.

Nothing.

OK. I am a pretty good cyclist. So how could I only average 8.4 MPH for a 9-mile course ... simple I actually rode 18 miles. At the first turn (Flat Gap Road), I thought I heard the cop say left and that was the direction I went.

I was supposed to go right.

Unfortunately, left begins with a 1-mile hill that averages a 10% grade with areas of 15%. Once I started climbing the hill, I thought something was wrong, but I looked behind me and saw another rider, so I thought I was OK. As I climbed this hill at 6-7 mph, I thought again this doesn't seem right. After I got to the top, I began a descent and didn't see anyone else so I should have turned around at that point but I kept going. Finally when I came to a stop sign with no volunteers or police, I knew at that point I went the wrong way. Unfortunately, I was 4.5 miles the wrong way and had to turn around and climb and descend another 4.5 miles to the turn I missed. I thought I would just DNF at that point, but decided I would ride the actual course anyway. Looking at the results from my Polar, I did the actual course in about 29:30. Not a bad time after all of the climbing I did.

Stay on course, realize I made a wrong turn earlier. Not ride double the actual race distance up a pretty nasty hill.

ESTIMATED (T2 Not Timed Due to Timing Malfunction): Running shoes were wet, was taking my time due to my problems on the bike course. Again no socks. Got some pretty nasty blisters to show for it.

Didn't really push it on the run since I had no chance at a top 3 in my AG since I went off course (a long way) in the bike. Picked it up on the way back after I got over being mad at myself for the bike issues. Run was OK, probably could have gone faster if I was mentally into it.

None. Got my stuff and went home.


Riding double the actual bike course mileage.


Would have been a good race for me if I didn't take a wrong turn on the bike. I guess things like that happen. Overall, Setup did a good job with the race, even though it was delayed several times for Thunderstorms, they were able to keep things in control.