Morton Plant Mease Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Not sure why people lined up horizontally across the beach. I lined up behind the 2 folks on the buoy line and stayed there. This was a great spot for me and I was able to draft (a first!). Since I tend to pull to the right, starting just left is perfect. I stayed with the pack and came out of the water with my group....was passed by a few blue caps but just a few.

I forgot there might be a sandbar, and I started taking off my goggles, then had to don them and put them back on to finish the swim.

Nothing, this was pretty close to perfect and as good as I can be right now.

I think this is the longest transition I've ever seen. It felt like a mile from the water's edge to transition! Crossed over 2 timing mats (one at the beach) and one just before transition. I'm known for walking a lot of transitions, but I jogged most of this one...it felt great to pass the clapping spectators while I was running, instead of walking. :-)

Had a little issue with my garmin on the way out of T1. It fell off my bike and broke into 3 peices. Tried to put it together, but in the stupor that is triathlon, I put the face in backwards, so it wasn't going to work. Decided to stuff it in my bento box and not lose it, but it meant the whole bike would be blind.

I need a simple computer thats a backup to the fancy stuff. This has happened to me now a few times.

OH MY! I've been suck a chicken about this race, but I didn't need to worry. The Sand Key bridge wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and the downhill was SO MUCH fun...until I realized I had to turn....I think I used every inch of that road making that turn...whew, made it!

The Clearwater Bridge (is it still called the Memorial Causeway) was as awful as I remembered, but toward the top I was completely inspired by a one-legged man in a handcycle hoofing it up. How amazing.

The ride from Clearwater to Bellair was a little hillier that I thought it would be, and what happened to their roads? Bellair used to be the RICH part of town, but they seem to have welfare roads with potholes and long lengthwise cracks. Lots of folks fixing flats here.

The Bellair Bridge is different. No more flat bridge. The new one is like the old Memorial Causeway. It wasn't so bad, and I did a huge public service by letting someone know that their tri shorts were on life support and that I hoped this was their last race. I guess I pulled it off without being rude, cuz a few moments later the see-thru shorts guy saved my life by alerting me that the road suddenly ends. We were probably moving over 30mph and had a choice, hit the cars going 10 or go to the left of the cars as there was no going right. This was DANGEROUS. This was the spot where the cops needed to be. The next half mile was a huge mess as cyclists who were now passing cars on the left were weaving between moving traffic to get back over to the right. What as mess!

In the last mile, I was visualizing t2 and realizing that I never took my socks out of my transition bag....thought about going sockless, but decided to take the extra 30 seconds to get my socks.

Lots and Lots and Lots of deep sand :(
I really wanted to keep running at a pace I could sustain, but I couldn't do it in the sand. The back of my calves were on FIRE! Once we got out of the deep stuff, the race was much more fun. There was a DJ and folks were having fun doing disco pointing to 'staying alive'. I entertained myself by interacting with almost everyone.

Joked with the 80 year old as he flew by me....I bet you don't need Viagra!
Praised the girl with one leg as she passed me.
Cheered on the guy wearing a BT tri top!
Cheered on someone in my age group who was kicking my ass
Tried to rile up the 20something to go catch that 80 year old

Near the end, there was a guy wearing a Boca Raton Tri Club shirt who was walking a LOT. I asked him to keep walking about 5 more steps, so I could pass at least ONE person in the race. Predictably, he took off running and though I did pass him, he passed me back and we really pushed each other hard the last 1/4 mile. I asked him to come to every race I did!

I'm not willing to learn to run in the sand, so I can't complain (too much).

Ate, and ate, and ate.


Glad I did this race and got over my gephyrophobia. The race was well done with 2 exceptions:
1- Don't make people get their timing chips separately from packet pickup on race morning.
2-The Bellair bridge needs police at the base of the actual bridge, where the bike lane disappears; not a half mile down the road.