Big Fish - TriathlonSprint

The swim felt really good for me. Since it was only 500m I pretty much sprinted the whole thing. Got out in front of most of the pack within first 150m. Much easier swimming out of the pack. After making the turn I started catching swimmers from an earlier wave and had to navigate around them. The course had a little seaweed at the beginning (ended up with a big piece across my face) and then a little more at the finish.

Nothing much. This had to be one of my best tri swims so far.

Had to run up a hill from the lake to transition area. Got to my transition area very easily but then had to wait for some people who were walking their bikes and blocking the entrance to my section. Transition went ok and then ran out with bike. I was a little slow getting on the bike and getting my shoes into the pedals.

Need to find a way to get glasses on after the helmet because they need to go over the helmet strap and as it was I had to remove them and put them on again under the strap. Also need to practice doing transitions with shoes already on the pedals to speed up time in transition and getting up to speed on bike faster.

I felt like I was really moving fast on the first half of the course which had the most downhill grades. Passed a lot of people from previous waves and had a few speedsters cruise by me. Coming back some of the hills really challenged me, especially the last big one. Just put my head down and kept digging.

Need more hill repeats in training.

I came into the transition area with a fairly decent crowd of other people which made me go slower than I would have normally. The good thing is because I was going slower I felt more comfortable dismounting and getting my legs under me and moving. Once into the transition stall I moved pretty quickly and got out in a decent time.

Practice dismounting with feet on top of bike shoes and leave shoes clipped on the pedals to aid in a quicker transition. I'd also like to find a pair of shoes comfortable enough to run a sprint in without socks.

I found it a little hard to catch my breath during the run. I also had a slight cramp in my side during about half the race. I think I was pushing pretty hard since it was a sprint and just tried to concentrate on keeping my strides strong. I was hoping for a pace around 7 minute miles and was pleased with my 7:18 pace. Running fast is certainly not a strength for me.

Need to do more interval training with some faster paces over shorter distances. Most of my running has been focused on longer distances with an 8-9 minute pace.

Walked and stretched a little. Drank several cups of water and Heed.


I enjoyed this race and would certainly do it again. The park setting is very nice with a grassy transition area. The sprint swim is a short all out 500m, the bike course offers some challenging hills, and the run course has a nice combination of pavement, gravel, flats, hills, sun, and shade.