West Deptford Riverwinds Tri & Du - TriathlonSprint

Swim was TERRIBLE. Absolutely terrible. Really had me worried, since that is supossed to be my strong leg!! I was in the first group to go, so everyone was watching me start (so I thought...later Nick told me no one was really paying attention because they were so nervous). Plus, it was me and 7 strong guys who were talking about pulling off their 475 yards in 5 minutes. As my seed time was 6:45, I knew I was going to get lapped at least once.
As soon as I dove in, I realized I should have practiced swimming in my trisuit. The top filled up with water and I thought the bottoms fell off. Ohhh that would have been a sight- luckily they just pulled down a little bit. I don't know how guys swim in jammers & speedos all the time- I was paranoid every flip turn!!
The suit definitely created a lot of drag. Because of that, and seeing guys next to me SPEED by, I got really anxious and scared. I felt really panicky a few times and had trouble breathing, even inhaling water a few times. For someone who swims about 6 hours a week (a lot of yardage, too), this was a big problem. I started wondering what I had gotten myself into- maybe I should have trained more? No, this was just a sprint, I had done these before, and I have been training more lately than for the other ones combined.
Having such a rough swim really threw me off. I knew that since it was my strong leg AND I was starting first, I was just going to get passed the rest of the race; my goal was to hold off as many people as possible.
I survived the swim, somewhow, and managed to run out to T1.

TRAIN LIKE YOU RACE. Try swimming with the tri-suit ahead of time. I figured out during the swim it was made to be worn under a wetsuit, NOT standalone as a bathing suit.
And not worry about what everyone else is doing!
That all being said, I finished in 7:32, which was :45 off my seed time, but still not terrible. Terrible for me, not terrible in general as far as triathletes go I guess (swimming's my strength).

Didn't try to start clipped in; I had only practiced a couple times and it hadn't gone as smoothly as I was hoping. Plus, it was a really small transition area and I don't think it would have saved me that much time.
It was COLD!! Coming out of the ridiculously hot pool building and into the 50 degrees and wind was a nightmare. Trying to put on pullover jacket wasn't great either, but not as bad as it could have been.

Maybe practiced starting clipped in more, but for the race itself, nothing

Pushed the bike pretty hard while still trying to save some left for the run. Again, didn't pass anyone (expected), but tried to hold people off. Most people were pretty friendly and gave encouraging words as they passed. I did really well for me; I don't get out on my bike enough and was pleased at how I felt. The first few miles were kind of tough and I felt like they didn't go as fast as I wanted, but overall looking back I am really proud. Stayed in aero a lot (just got the setup last week), and tried to thank as many policeman/volunteers as I could. Mostly flat course, a few hills but none steep; one of the roads was really bad condition but we weren't on it long.

Nothing

Wheeeeew gotta love that feeling of your legs after the bike!!

My toes were STILL numb, and it was kind of hard to get my shoes on because they wouldn't move. Brrrr!

Maybe learn to dismount faster; watching Nick come in later I got to see a lot of people who could really make this one smooth motion, I want to learn this.

WOOOH!! I RAN!! I couldn't tell how fast I was going. I saw Nick head out on his bike as I started, and just kept thinking about what he would tell me to do if he were running with me. He was very helpful last week in our 10k. Just keep one foot in front of the other :)
Apparently I was going faster than I thought; 9:14 pace is AWESOME for me, especially after a tri. I'm sure that sounds pretty darn slow to most people, but for me this is SUCH a breakthrough. I was pulling about 10:20s during my 10k last week; to be able to move up to 9:14 is great for me, especially since I pushed the bike pretty hard. SO excited.

NOTHING!! :)

Walked around a bit


Need to run more- even though I did really well, my run really inhibited my overall woman category performance. Need to test out ALL race gear before race day (suit).

I was 8th out of the women- not sure how to put this on here. Sounds much better than 52/73 overall :)


OK race. It was inaugural, and very small, so I guess you can't expect too much. Not having day-of packet pickup was very inconveniant; driving 3:30 to NJ on a Friday afternoon up 95 was NOT my idea of a good afternoon/evening. There weren't any spectators (small town, inaugural race?) and post-race food was mediocre (lots of muffins and stuff- most athletes I'm guessing aren't really looking for pure sugar foods! I wanted more healthy options). But they did a really good job for a first tri for the association and the area.