Douglasville Last Chance Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Since the swim was last there was enough spacing that the churn was minimal. Even so, I had only taken a few strokes when I felt someone slapping at my feet. Also it was a bit annoying touching the wall, ducking under the rope, and starting swimming again - 7 times. But the pool was nice and deep throughout - 7 feet all the way to both ends - and since it was only 7 laps it obviously went pretty quickly.

Not much. Given that the swim came after a run and a pretty tough bike ride, and there was not much interference in the pool, I think it went well.

T1 was run to bike. Since I bike in my running shoes (flat pedals, no cages) this was pretty easy. There was no electronic timing so I don't really know how much time I spent here. My sunglasses were fogged up so I had to wipe them off to see through them - the sun was still barely up. I should have worn them on the run but since it was a trail run I didn't really need them and I wanted to make sure I could see any roots. Running through the wet grass and hopping on the pedals wasn't ideal - but after a few minutes I felt like my shoes held the pedals OK.

Have the sunglasses on during the run. Since all the transitions were "backward" I did not do any practicing.

This is only my second tri, and the first was in South GA where it is much flatter, so I was a little worried about the hills here. They were tough and slow but I was able to keep pedaling and negotiated them successfully. I had to do a lot of shifting on both wheels and with my old bike that is a pain in the butt - I'm always scared the chain is going to come off. I thought it was a pretty fair course although it would have been nice to have less traffic; but there's not much you can do about that.

Train on some hillier routes to better prepare for this particular course. Buy more lottery tickets so I can afford a new bike.

T2 was bike to swim. Again, this wasn't too complicated, since all you had to do was strip off shirt and shoes and REMEMBER YOUR GOGGLES which I happily did. However for some reason I remember fumbling with my shoelaces (running shoes) and could have saved some time there. Jogged through the grass to the pool entrance where they had a staff member hosing off your feet and legs as you jogged onto the pool deck. The lifeguard made sure to tell you not to dive so I jumped in feet first and started stroking.

Just rip off the shoes.

I felt like I had a very strong run by my standards. It obviously helped to do the run first with fresh legs. All of my training runs have been at least 4 miles so I felt like I was sprinting this one. My unofficial watch time had it about 23 minutes. I wish they had used electronic timing - oh well maybe next year?

Not much on race day but for me to get down around 7 minute pace I need to do some speed and interval work I guess.

Walked back to the transition area after getting out of the pool. Dried off and put on long sleeve shirt and sandals. Packed up, walked bike back to car to load up. Ate fruit and bagels, water, and Powerade. Chatted with a friend who I had run into before the race, and chatted with a couple strangers - one of whom turned out to be the 2nd finisher overall (which I did not find out until the awards). Thinking I had a shot at a plaque due to thin participation in my AG, I hung around until the end, and ended up with 2nd in my AG. He announced my time at 1:15 something but my watch showed it about 1:17.


1) sloppy transitions 2) poor hill training 3) no cycling shoes.clip ons on bike 4) poor bike fit 5) not enough speed intervals in running


This was a first time event, and as such, I was a little skeptical that it may be a bit disorganized, but I think overall it was run pretty well. The start seemed to be on time but the award ceremony was delayed maybe 20-30 minutes it seemed. I wish there had been electronic timing so I could better understand splits and transition times. I guess that stuff costs money but this race fee was comparable to the previous one I did, which used timing ships. Not much in the goodie bag, but I liked the T-shirt pretty well. Overall though I think it was a good race and has potential to grow, although the pool situation seems to be a limiting factor.