Bath County Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was my first deep water start and that was different. Otherwise, it was typical: lots of people (all the women in one wave) and initial trouble sighting and getting around people. It thinned out some, but there were always people around me. Had the typical problems of trying to get around people, and people sighting poorly swimming in my way. I think I freaked out less on this swim than usual. There were long stretches where I was able to focus on my stroke and breathe on alternate sides and only sight occasionally. But still sections where I was breathing left every stroke. I had trouble with asthma the whole time, and that was a bummer. There was a rumor that the swim course was long this year. Don't know if that is true or not.

More open water swimming, more swimming training, period.

I took my time on T1. I had this wasn't going to be my fastest ever, so i just wanted to enjoy myself and not forget anything.

bricks! practice the transition with different clothes and decide which works best. or get a tri suit, haha.

When we were packing up, I noticed my front brake was rubbing a little... enough to slow one down, but not so obvious. I wonder if I handicapped myself on this ride???

Anyhow, the uphills were brutal and the downhills glorious. I hit 40.8 mph. I'm not a fan of the slow, long ascent. First have my speed was always 10-12 mph. yuck. but coming it back it was always over 20 mph, so I can't complain too much. asthma continued to be a problem, especially uphill.

ride more hills.

Also took my time on this one. Was trying to control the asthma.

I can do it faster if I want.

this was a tough, tough course, both physically and mentally. There were three major hills, and you got to go up and down each of them twice. I walked up a number of them, b/c running up them would have been slower than walking, but expend more energy. On the bike I passed two athenas. One of them passed me back here. I didn't have it in me to keep up with her. I think I would have if I'd been in a little better shape. my pace was on par with previous races, though, and I wasn't completely dead or crying at the end so I am reasonably well pleased. I would like to stop running 12 min miles in triathlons though.

DH was cheering me on at last turn, and Hope was cheering me on at finish. Fun fun.

More bricks. Try and keep up with the faster athena.

**Turns out I was only 2:40 behind the other athena, and she took first. Guess I should have tried harder! I mean, 2:40 can't be too hard to shave off here and there, right?

cold water... shade.. yeah.
then we got the included lunch (barbeque) which imho was not great, except it was because i was soooo hungry by that point. we went to another part of the park and showered in some amazing water pressure showers. i was super fatigued for the rest of the afternoon. made DH lift bikes because my arms were so tired...


Asthma. Lack of bricks in training. My attitude that I was just going to race for fun and had no real goals, which is fine.


race was well-organized, well marked, good support. food was so-so. as Hope pointed out, no port-o-potties in the transition area was not cool. (there were bathrooms a few hundred yards from the transition area.) plus they are being really slow this time on getting results posted. usually set-up does a good job with getting results up fast. :(