Long Beach Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Very smooth water. Low visibility. Big fairly easy to see bouys. I went out wide to try and avoid the congestion at the first buoy and then I stayed wide. Too wide. At one point I stopped to put my head up and was pretty much alone. I was swimming the right way, I think, but was well out from the rest of the pack. Looking a back I think I should have been pushing a little harder on the swim also. I didnt put in as much as I should have. Something I hadnt taken into account in my training/race prep was the loooong run up the beach to the transition area. I dont know if that is part of the swim time or T1. As a side note - I think my wetsuit is too big for me.

Stay closer to the course, no need to add extra distance to the event. Note to self - Its a race not a training swim, I feel I should have been going at it a bit harder than I was. But it was my first race. I didnt want to go too hard and struggle to finish. Getting that balance right I guess is something that comes with time/experience.

I think this went pretty well? I felt a bit dazed and confused initially, it seemed mildy surreal. The suit came off easy (I think its too big). Sun glasses, helmet on first. I rinsed off my feet with a bottle of water, lots of sand on my feet. Stuck my feet in my shoes, no socks, and away i went. I had not practiced running in my bike shoes with the big speedplay cleats but didnt fall, so I will take that as win. Overall it think the transition went good especially for the first time.

Need to get as much sand off my feet as possible. The loooong run up the beach had my feet coated in sand which in the bike shoes and later in the running shoes rubbed pretty bad.

Firstly I managed to get on the bike, clipped in and moving without any sort of disaster. I am still pretty new to clipless pedals and shoes and given the mounting area/first bit of the ride are uphill I could just see myself coming off or somehow coming unglued. I enjoyed the ride. As with the swim I was uncertain how hard to push in order to be able to finish without loosing all my steam. After the first mile or so I got what I think was a good fluid ride going. I was pushing reasonably hard, picking people of similar but slightly quicker speed or trying to slowly catch someone up ahead. I was keeping up a decent cadence using the gears rather than grinding. I was drinking regularly and was enjoying myself. I was certainly passing more people than were passing me.:)

Not too sure. I think I had a good pace going but maybe I should have been pushing a bit harder. Its hard to tell first race and all.

I feel this went OK. I put "average" in the evalutation as I dont have anything to measure against and am sure it could have been better. With the narrow, twisty, downhill approach to the transition taking feet out of shoes and jumping off the bike were just not going to happen. I did have quite a long way to go from where you dismount to the clydesdale rack at the back of the transition area. I ran in the cleats but didnt push too hard as I didnt want to take a spill. I run with neoprene knee braces on both legs. I dont really know if I need them or if they help at all but I have a dodgey knee from an old tennis injury and brace the other to avoid a compesation problem. The braces I use have three velcro straps around them. They stick to every damn thing and it takes abit to put them on. Putting the shoes on went fine.

The problem I have with my left knee only happens if I twist the knee and I really dont know if the braces help or not to avoid this, I guess they do. I dont know.... maybe I will train with them and race without them. Dont know what the right thing to do is.

For me a 25.19 is reasonably good. If you take into account it was after the swim and bike I am pretty happy with that. I tell you what. The first mile after the transition felt like it was three miles in itself. My legs felt like lead. It was a real struggle. After the first mile it started to become a bit easier. I was passed by few and passed a few. One lesson of the run was I cannot run and drink from a cup at the same time to save my life. I had never thought about his before. When I run I take a bottle of water and can drink from a bottle while running fairly readily. An open cup, well I think it would have made interesting watching for the spectators. I tried at every drink stop, of which I think there were four. I was wearing it all. One right over my face the next a bit got into my mouth but I choked on it, another down my shirt. I didnt want to stop that was for sure but i didnt get any water in me worth a damn either.

Not quite sure how you practice drinking and running but I need to figure it out. Train more. :) I guess bricks from bike to run more often to get used to the first mile after a ride. Looking back I think I might have been able to push a bit harder. I think doing some "race pace" training might help.

Does stopping count?


Too heavy. I cant believe that I have lost next to no weight in all this. I have been training fairly steadily for about three months. I thought by now I would have lost some weight.
Need to train more. Need to get a feel for how to pace oneself in a race compared to training.


I feel elated to have finished my first Triathlon. Its an amazing journey. About three months ago, roughly, my mate and I decided to go for it and train for the Long Beach Tri. I was too heavy (still am), unfit to hell(getting better) and wanted to do something challenging and good for me. The triathlon thing is just what I was looking for. Three sports instead of one and goal based training - Love it.
Overall - I should have tried harder in the swim. I felt I put in pretty well in the bike and a reasonable effort in the run but I should have been stronger in the swim. I think my transitions went well.
The best bit is I cant wait to get out training again and am looking forward to my next race.