Fort Collins Club Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

It was fun to start this race. The number 2 seed was in the age group 12-14, so I wanted to be sure to at least not get passed by him. It wasn't a problem and I apparently put some good distance between everybody else in the pool. Being first into the transition felt good.

I pretty much forgot where I placed my bike. I set it up so I was straight out of the pool doors, but adjusted one row over when I came out. I had to stop for a second and get my bearings to find where my stuff was. I ended up only 3 seconds behind 3rd place and I'm certain this would have made up that difference.

Next time I'll make sure I can see my bike from the pool door so I know what direction go go.

I got out of transition quickly. I was able to hop onto my bike just fine, got my feet on my shoes without either slipping. Unfortunately, as I was getting my right foot into my shoe, my left shoe unclipped. I tried to save it but it dropped off and landed in the street. I had to set my bike on the ground, put my shoe on and then hop back onto my bike. This was a good 20 seconds I wasted. On the plus side, nobody else was out on the bike by that time.

I think the next time I do this race I may just put my shoes on in transition and no worry about leaving them on my pedals. It seems to just be slowing me down as I run into problems and 20 seconds would have made a big difference in this race.

I felt pretty good on the bike. The first lap I was breathing hard and thought I was going to have a rough time, but my breathing evened out into the second lap and I wasn't feeling as tired. I was only passed by one person (who went on to win the race) while on the bike. Second into transition! My left shoe fell off as I was dismounting but one of the volunteers just tossed it to my transition area for me.

After #12 passed me I tried to keep up with him. After losing him around a turn I decided to save my energy for the run, but I realized there were a couple spots on the course that I could have gotten up to speed a bit quicker and saved some time. Next time I'll put more effort into accelerating.

Nothing wrong in this transition. Grabbed everything just fine.

Nothing.

My first mile clocked in a 8min. Number 4 caught me at that point and I decided to pace with him. I kept a few paces back the rest of the way. I pushed it up the last hill at Stuart, he was expecting the push and we had an awesome sprint finish around the last two turns. I nearly fell over as my legs almost gave out around the last turn. He got me by about one step, but I'm happy with the outcome.

I'm pretty sure the course isn't a full 5k. 8min. for the first mile, 6:40 for the second and then 5:31 for the last 1.1. As much as I'd love to believe that, I don't think I could actually pull off a 5:30 stand-alone mile right now, let alone 1.1.

I need to push that first mile. My calves didn't cramp up at all this time and I think that's a good indication that my fitness is improving.

Grabbed a banana, accidentally dropped the water that Starr had grabbed for me and then sat in the grass talking with AJ about his last day here before leaving for Germany.


Nothing really. I feel I could speed up my bike by at least a minute come September and I'll have to do some more tempo runs to get my first mile up to speed.


I still love this race and I'm happy to see the improvements I'm making. I'm getting closer to breaking one hour and I have full confidence that I will do so at this race again in September.