Devil's Challenge Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Calm water. Got up front but stayed to the outside to start. That worked out well as I really didn't get bumped. I was able to draft two people but was too fast for them and after hitting their feet a few times I went around them. Swam right up to the point where my hand hit bottom. I noticed I was passing those who decided to stand up to run through the rest of the course. The interval work I did the prior week helped a lot.

I was very happy with my swim. My technique has suffered lately so I would like to work on that along with more intervals.

What can I say? Wear a wetsuit - it takes time. Wear socks for bike shoes - it takes time. Not connect shoes to bike - it takes time. Drying off feet completely - it takes time.

Do the opposite of the above! And become a better swimmer without the wetsuit.

Overall I felt great and was able to get up the first hill with little problem, but a few of the hills in the middle seemed to wear on my legs. I did slow a bit on the downhills to conserve some energy for the upcoming hills, but probably should have continued pedaling in some way. The intervals and hill repeats I did a couple weeks before, and the week of the race, helped my fitness. No issues with calf-cramps. Cadence, while I don't track it, seemed to be consistent as well as good gear shifting. Had 20oz of water and 20oz of gatorade, plus a Gu (w/ caffeine) at mile 10 - couldn't believe how thirsty I was.

Practice intervals on hills.

No issues here. It seems to be a long run into the transition area and the past two years it has been a bit soggy and muddy.

Try to take feet out of shoes before dismount (but what about the mud?). Also, get some zip ties for the shoes.

First mile was horrible. Even though I practiced a T2 earlier in the week, my legs didn't want to cooperate and I felt like I was bonking and would eventually walk. I got my mind off those thoughts and focused on breathing. I popped a caffeine Gu at the 1/4 mi point which helped by mile 1. I did (stomach) cramp about the 1 mile mark so I don't know if it was the Gu or too much or not enough to drink. I didn't get that sloshy feeling but was burping the Gu for a 1/2 mile. I decided not to drink anything from my water bottle until I got to the water station. By then, my issues were gone and I was ready for a water. The rest of the run was fine. At mile 2 I had 10 minutes to reach my goal of 95 minutes and that helped me settle into a nice pace the rest of the way.

Focus on increasing run times. Figure out my GI issues.

Ran in place for a minute. Walked around and chatted. Got some food.


Not working on speed throughout the summer. Mainly focusing on longer endurance - as evidenced by a lot of energy left over after the race - and swimming and biking speed. I need to work on the run portion as that is a detriment in my events.


I really like this course and wish they had a long course to cap off summer. While a couple of the roads need work, those are minor compared to the rest of the event in terms of organization, scenery, and fun. The tech-tee given this year was much better. They also started about 10 minutes late due to late arrivals at packet pickup. Decent crowd support up to 2 hours into the event. I don't think it's a 1st timer event as I did last year, but maybe for those looking for their 2nd or more tri.