Virginia Run Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I was seeded 278th out of 500 or so entrants. That wound up being way too far back. I wound up wading about half the race, and passed 8 or 9 swimmers in just 5 minutes of swimming (including a pack of 4 at one turns!). There's no way those people were swimming to their seeding estimates. I think next time I might be tempted to overseed myself just to avoid the holdup.

I made two equipment changes the day before the race. I bought new goggles, as the old ones leaked a little, and a new nose closer thingie. I've never been able to swim without one of those, and had done all my training with my nostrils clamped shut.

The new one came off halfway through the first lap, and wouldn't stay on. After three attempts, I threw it away in frustration. I then had a hard time keeping my head in the water, as every time my face went under, my nostrils and throat filled with water. This wasn't a huge issue as I spent so much time wading, but would have been had I had space to swim.

The goggles, on the other hand, worked great!

I hadn't practiced transition, but it was really pretty simple. The only slight hiccup was my helmet buckle was twisted into the adjustment mechanism at the back, which probably lost me 20 seconds or so. I had everything well laid out.

However, I almost forgot and rode my bike out of the transition. I realized it as I started to mount, so dismounted and jogged it out. This cost me a bit of time.

If I had swam with my shirt on, that could have saved me some time... Running on asphalt/gravel hurt my feet a little, but it seems like running in flipflops would slow me down...

Would be curious to try the shoes clipped into pedals thing...

I knew the bike would be my best event, and it was. I was riding without aerobars, so spent most of my time in the drops. I must have literally passed 100-150 people in my 38 minutes (it was two loops, so some people I passed on the second loop were just starting their first one).

I particularly noticed form in the corners. I don't think I touched the brakes at all until I got back to transition, and was amazed how many people slowed to 10mph in sharp curves while I was taking them at 22. I wouldn't have felt confident doing that on wet pavement, but since it was dry, I went all out.

I bought new tires the day before, but never had time to put them on...

I'd be curious to see how much aero bars would improve my bike time. I also probably would have spent a little more energy, but was nervous about the run.

I also took two water bottles with me on the bike, which was way overkill. One would have been plenty for under 40 minutes.

I was one of the first people back to my rack, so had free reign over spots to rack it. Also, I came flying towards the transition area, instead of slowing down 100 yards out. As long as I stopped and dismounted before I entered, this was ok, right?

I wish I had thought to pull my feet out of my shoes before I hit the transition area.

I was a cross country runner in high school, ran a 5:05 mile, and sub 6-minute miles in the 5k. So to run almost 9 minute miles in a race is disheartening. The reality, though, is that I put in virtually NO running training, and no bricks. My longest run in training was maybe 200 meters...

This almost ended badly, however, as my legs started to cramp badly at the beginning of the run, but then miraculously loosened up immediately. Because I play a lot of soccer, I'm used to sprinting over short distances, then catching my breath, and repeating for 90 minutes. So that's pretty much what I did for the run. I would run for a fifth of a mile, walk for a bit, then repeat. It worked for my first race, but I need to build stamina to get this time down, and improve overall. I would guess with a medium amount of training, I could drop five or six minutes off my time here.

I sprinted out the last few hundred yards, and even though I felt like I was going to throw up at the end, I should have started a little earlier.

Training was key here, as I was way out of shape cardio and weight wise, and it caught up to me. Dropping 10 pounds and gaining some endurance will be my goal for my next tri.

Also should have practiced running in my tri shorts, just to get a feel for it versus soccer shorts.

Kissed my wife, posed for photographs, and soaked in the music and people. Absolutely loved the atmosphere and how supportive / exciting all the volunteers and participants were. I really was blown away by the people... Results were up VERY quickly, which was great to see.


My general conditioning and limited tri-specific training and running. I bike a lot, but that definitely wasn't enough.


Again, really pleased with the volunteers and the atmosphere. EVERYONE seemed to "want" to be there, whether racing, volunteering, or coordinating. I hope my next one is run this well...