Wild Dog Triathlon - TriathlonMini Sprint

Felt good for about the first 50 yards, then started sucking down the salt water as it was quite choppy. My left goggle also filled up with a bit of water, so stopped at one point to drain the water out. Just did not feel too comfortable out there today. Very glad when it was over. Need more practice in choppy conditions. First time wearing my wetsuit in a race, and very glad I did. Good practice for Cranberry Tri next weekend when I plan to wear it.

Drink less salt water! Hah!!! Practice more open water swims, although, been doing that about twice per week. Get a swim coach!

Transition felt slow and just not right. First time wearing the wetsuit, so that may have been it, but the wetsuit seemed to come off pretty good. Sat down on grass to get it off. Did run by my bike about 3 steps before I looked back and saw it. BAD. Took a swig of gatorade before I took off with my bike through the chute. Also, stuck the piece of gum in the mouth to ward off any cotton mouth, always seems to work well for me.

Watch the "pros" or definitely more experienced folks then me do their transitions. I run with my bike shoes on and step over bike to get on it. How do faster people do their transitions? Could easily save another 20-30 seconds here.

No one passed me, so that felt really good! Granted, all the men started in front of me, so I'm sure I would have been passed. Definitely fun passing everyone else, and motivating. My computer showed I averaged 20.5 mph over 10.68 miles, which met a goal of mine - to finish with 20mph average pace or better. Course felt really good. Hills were very minimal, the wind played more of a challenge than hills did. Other bikers were also quite an obstacle! I brought no fluids with me on the bike as the course was so short.

Nothing.

Can't remember when I took my helmet off or even unclipped it. Hopefully I unclipped it while running with bike to transition area. I definitely was not thinking about my transition before I can in. Big mistake.

Plan for transition few minutes before coming in, like thinking through the steps I need to take - helmet off, rack bike, running shoes on, visor on, drink, go! Once again, how to the faster people do it - undo straps on shoes before pulling in and ride with feet on top of shoes??? Much to be learned here.

It felt pretty good, even right after getting off bike. It did take legs a bit to warm up. At the turn around, you make a loop through this parking lot, and I remember telling me self, don't slow down now (just had made it up the hill to the turn around). So, tried to pick it up and run kind of hard down the hill and the rest of the way to the finish. Did pass one woman, which felt great - she was in the 35-39 age group (granted, she had done Barrington Tri the day before1), but couldn't catch the next one. The running really felt good the past mile. 6.37 pace, very excited about that one! Need to find a 5k to race to see how my time is, maybe I could PR?

Nothing.

Really nothing. Just walked around, grabbed a water and this hydration thing they had at the finish. Drank both of those, ate 2 slices of orange. Packed my gear up and put in the car and waited for age group awards.


Lack of training! Still doing pretty good, but imagine if I had actually trained in May, June and most of July?


Beautiful scenery, very flat, fast course, so it is easy to go hard. Did not like the closeness of other bikers and runners, as you actually ended up with bikers (doing out and back on same sections) with runners off to one side. Accident waiting to happen. They had FABULOUS gear at the end for the age group winners and for lottery. Good brick workout to gear up for another race. Most challenging aspect was not hitting other riders.