Bath County Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Official results not posted yet, but based on my watch... 27 mins & change. First tri, second OWS ever. Not too thrilled about my time, horrified by the execution. Honestly, I did more back floating (no, not stroking) than anything else. Good news is that there's plenty of room for improvement; Hey, for the amount of back floating and veering off course that occurred, 27 mins ain't too shabby! Oh yeah - at the last buoy, some boat must've dumped fuel in the water! Gasoline smell everywhere - I was gagging for about 30 yards near the end. Good times.

Train more - in open water. Also, there's something to be said for the whole 3:1 ratio thing. That probably would've helped immensely.

I dunno, an hour? The hill climbs were pretty challenging but the rolling course was overall a lot of fun. I really love those climbs where my only two options are: (A) come to a dead-stop and fall over because my pedals are adjusted so tight I can't clip out quickly enough and then face walking the rest of the hill, or (B) take a chance that I won't pass out from the intense FIRE that are my legs and lungs. But seriously, on the first and last hill, I passed a few racers who dismounted and pushed their bikes the rest of the way up. Seeing that gave me motivation NOT to do the same.

(1) Could've pushed it a little harder. Was worried about saving my legs for the run. (2) Force myself to drink just a little more during the bike. A little dry in the beginning of the run.

Okay, the peanut gallery that is my family totally distracted me by draping themselves over the transition area fence and shouted "go go go hurry up hurry up", while also asking questions about my hydration, how I was feeling, did I have any cramping, whether I was forgetting anything ... Which led me to actually FORGET SOMETHING... my race belt!!! LOL.

FOCUS... TUNE OUT THE PEOPLE THAT ARE NOT DOING THE RACING!!!

Ok. The run starts with a short but steep hill up and out of the parking lot, then you turn right onto the street and immediately head up a long and fairly steep hill. Well, I was close to the top of the long hill when I realized I didn't have my race belt (!!!) -- So yeah, I turned around and ran back for it LOLOLOL. Then I had to do the hill(s) again! Ran out of the parking lot, started up the long hill and decided to walk it. I think that whole episode cost me a good 4 minutes if not more. I probably didn't need to do all that since we were chipped, but I didn't want to take any chances. After I crested the hill, I got into my rhythm and it was smooth sailing from there. During the first mile, I passed a few people that I had passed on the bike. Yeah, chuckles. As for the rest of the run, I've been training on hills of pretty much the same grade, so it was fine. The run portion took about 30 mins total (belt retrieval and all).

Pay attention to my own transition plan. The race belt was right there!!! LOOK. MENTAL CHECKLIST. FOCUS.

Not enough and right type of swim training. Bad transitions.


Definitely doing this one again next year.