Title 9 Women Only Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Felt very slow, but the water was so lovely and warm, and it just felt so good to be swimming again, that I really enjoyed the swim. I mostly took it very slow and easy, since I was worried about running out of arm strength by the end, but after I rounded the last buoy and realized I was going to make it, I put on a bit more steam. The chop was a bit entertaining, but I didn't have too much problem with it.

Considering that I had no time to train for the last 6 weeks, of course the first thing would be to train. I would definitely like to get in more open water swim time next summer, since I am still not great at navigation, and I could have swum better in the chop.

I didn't wear a wetsuit, so T1 was 30 seconds shorter than my last race, where I did. I was not very organized about it, though....just kind of haphazard in how I got things together, so I feel I could have been faster.

Be more organized. Not have a bike computer in my shoe, for instance....

Definitely feeling the hills more due to the lack of training. That and clipping in and clipping out at the beginning and end were awkward. I kept a decent, though not super-fast pace....nearly two minutes slower than this same course in the spring. Also awkward having to pass so many people. This race had three times the number of participants as the race in the spring, and there were a LOT of people on mountain bikes or hybrids who were really struggling on this ride, and would have done much better on a bike with less rolling resistance.

Train more, of course. Could have gone a bit faster, but I was worried about the run. I perhaps saved a bit too much early on in anticipation of the 'big hill', which didn't turn out to be quite as hard as I was worried it would.

Had trouble racking my bike, it kept falling over. Had left my running shoes too far unlaced, so it took me a while to pull the laces in, and I managed to pull one the wrong way through the hole in the meantime and had to re-lace it. Overall, a comedy of errors.

Be more organized, focussed.

Took it really slow at the beginning. The transition from the bike was hard, due to not having done any brick workouts, and it took more than a mile for my legs to get into running again, whereas usually it only takes 3/4 of a mile. I walked both aid stations, catching some gatorade at each. Was able to pick up the pace after the first mile, but kept the pace reasonable. Still had some left for a kick at the end. Maybe a bit too much, could have pushed it a tad harder overall.

Held back a bit too much, could have pushed it harder. Cardio was fine, muscles were feeling it more.

Walked it off, got a massage. :)


Lack of training.


Max performance was heroic. Tropical storm Hanna came through Saturday night, and only cleared out Sunday morning around 2-4 in the morning, which meant the race organizers had to put everything back together in the 4.5 hours between 4 am and the 8:30 start. We started about 15 minutes late...amazingly little considering....