Papillion Mayor's Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Disappointing swim overall. I started up front and on the far right which was right where I wanted to be. The gun sounded and we were off. I felt good and was doing good for about the first 75 meters or so. Then I kept getting tangled up with one guy in front of me who I was attempting to pass who was zig zagging every where. That flustered me and so began my panic. I flipped over at least 4 times throughout the first 300 meters to calm myself down. Finally with about 150 meters to go, I finally felt comfortable and started to push.



I think I need to be more mentally tough in open water swims. Yes it's a bit scary since you can't see and since you're swimming with 100 of your closest friends, but really, I've trained hard for this and should be fine in the water. I know I'm never going to lead coming out of the water, but there's no reason why my time shouldn't have been in the 9:00-9:15 range other than my panick.

Pretty good transition. Wearing the speed suit for the entire race helps.

I keep saying this, but eventually I need to get some tri bike shoes. When I get those, I will practice and eventually do the races with my shoes already clipped into the pedals. Also, I may opt to not put on socks for sprint distances in the future to try and save another 20 seconds or so. Even with having to put on my socks and shoes during the transition, this was good enough for the 24 fastest T1 so I'll take that.

Behold the power of a tri bike. I knew I had had a poor swim and when I saw the clock, it confirmed it for me so that made me go what I thought was fast during T1 and even more so on the bike. Before the race I was thinking that I could probably break 35 minutes so I was right on there. I had my splits as 11:26, 11:34, and 11:46 but I'm short 5 seconds somewhere in there. I went about as hard as I could. The only way I could have gone any faster today is if I didn't have to slow down during the second and third laps sometimes when there were large groups of athletes that I was attempting to pass. I don't believe I got passed at all during the bike and I passed a lot of people during the ride. Compared to my bike split last year which was 36:43, the new bike definately made a huge difference.

Nothing on the bike. Hopefully with a faster swim in the future, I'll be past a lot more people early on so I can make up a few more seconds here and there since I wouldn't have to go around them.

Great transition. 3rd fastest T2 overall and only 1 second behind the two athletes who had the fastest T2 at 0:24 seconds.

Nothing.

Before the race, I had said I wanted to break 20 minutes but I really didn't think that was possible. I was thinking maybe something around 20:30. Much to my surprise, I just about did break 20 minutes. My legs were pretty well shot after the bike but I pushed about as hard as I could while still holding enough back so I could give it all I had the last 1/2 mile or so. My first two splits were decent at 6:41 and 6:55. The last mile, I was trying hard to catch one guy in front of me as well as hold off the guy who was charging behind me. I hit the bridge which is about 1/2 a mile to go and I wanted to down shift, but I kept telling myself that the pain was only temporary and that the pride that would result would last a lot longer than the discomfort I was in. As a result, I caught the guy in front of me with about .1 mile to go. He then gave it a kick with about 100 feet or so to go and caught me about 10 feet before the finish but he must have been gased because he didn't have enough to sustain it and I clipped him at the finish. We gave each other a high five after the finish. Just more proof that there's some good sportsmanship in multisport. Last mile was 6:25 so I was really pushing but I'm missing 4 seconds in my splits. Last year I did the run in 21:12 so lots of improvement here too. I passed two guys during the run and didn't get passed at all (barely) so it was a great way to finish the race.

Hit the hills, but going up them and down them a little harder. I know this is where I can make up some time, especially going down a hill since I'm one of the bigger athletes, but I just wasn't thinking about it during the run.

Walked around, visited with some of the other athletes. Talked with a teacher and her daughter who attends my school for a while.


The swim.


I'll be back next year for my 4th year in a row and plan on continuing to improve my times.