Montclair Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

One of my goals for this race was to start the swim right in the middle of the scrum. Normally I hang out back because I am such a slow swimmer but have gotten somewhat faster. I think for the first 250M my legs were a foot under water due to people grabbing them, hitting, swimming over etc.

Kicked in the face by a breast stroker, was right in the middle of the scrum until just about 1/2 way then it evened out.

Not sure about that swim time. my watch said 22 something which I also thought was slow I think the extra time is the timing mats were not right on the beach, had to run up to get to them.

Others were complaining that they thought the swim might be a bit long so I am going to use that excuse. If the time had been better I would have been thrilled with this swim because I felt good the whole way especially after I got out of the melee and was able to actually focus on my stroke.

Not sure, felt good but time didn't match, hopefully the course was long. Again that is what I will use as my excuse here.

Fiddled with garmin, socks wern't going on right and still had a much better time than my last few races.

Read something either here or on ST about not mounting right at the line and just running by folks that were all screwing around trying to get on. Worked like a champ, there were 3-4 people at a complete stand still so I just ran right by them and jumped on the bike, no having to weave around them.

Need to work on running/riding without socks and maybe buying the garmin quick release.

Where to begin with this course....

One lane with 2 180 degree turns at either end. There were just way too many people out on this course at one time. Pretty much either blocked or drafted the whole day.

I was trying not to do either but with that many people out there it was impossible. I would move back right when I could but there were just so many people going much, much slower. One time when over to the right I came up on a slower rider and looked over my left shoulder to go around them and a long train came by so wasted a ton of time on the hill waiting for everyone to go by so I could get back over.

Another time going down hill about 40 there was some open space and one perosn in front of me riding rather squirrely so I shouted with plenty of time, "on your left" hoping that would get her thinking about staying to the right, well of course she moved over to the left and I had visions of it ending right there for one of us, I would have done the gallant thing and gone into the curb as best I could instead of shoving her back to her side which would have been good for me bad for her. I screamed move over NOW! or something similar and she got things back under control luckilly, and did apologize as I was going by, I felt bad for screaming at her but wasn't sure what else to do at that point, figured hurting her feelings was better than both of us in the hospital...

I actually spent a good portion of the race after that on any descents with one arm aero, the other arm on the pursuit bars just in case. I am perfectly comfortable with my bike handling skills but not those of a good portion of the others racing so I figured better safe than sorry.

Did see 2 P4's out there, funny more P4's than Planet-X's, I like that I think.

Had a good time chatting with a few folks that I rode with for a good portion of the race as we blocked or drafted our way around the course.

Not sure, kind of dissapointed with my overall time again, would have liked to have been 22+ but not sure how much my not aero the whole time and having to deal with everyone else out on the course slowed me down.

Felt like I was taking good advantage of both up and down hill sections, passed a ton of people going up each hill.

83rd overall.

Not much to do here, maybe move faster with bike while running?

Had to run up a steep hill right out of transition, then pretty flat until you hit a long uphill run, 2x with this.

I have gotten used to this in my last few races, I have an ok swim, pretty good ride, then watch everyone as they run by me.

Nothing overly eventful on the run, felt like I was running a decent pace for me in tri runs, I seem to do better in stand alone races than I do after coming off the bike in a tri.

I hired a running coach to get me ready for MCM so hoping some of that will translate into faster tri run times.

At least this time, no phantom sticks in my shoes, numb feet, blisters or anything else.

Run faster.

Waited for Sam to finish, talked to the BT crew and found out that 3558 had a wardrobe malfunction and didn't get to do more than the swim bummer (Note I did whoop up on him in this race, me 151, him 301!)

Congrats to Shelly for finishing 1st in AG and 10th female overall, if you can't be fast yourself it's nice to have fast friends ; )

Drank some water, headed over to inlaws to get the kids and Karla & her husband, inlaws and family headed over to Cracker Barrel for a nice greasy breakfast.


Dunno, I wasn't really training specifially for this race, haven't done much since Mooseman but would have liked to finish this one a bit faster than my final time showed

I must say though this report looks like most of my other reports, never happy with results, so gives me more motivation to get back out there and train harder.

Need to get back focused on training to go much faster at Hagerstown and Culpepper.


I like the fact this race so close in Montclair and the lake is wonderful to swim in. The whole 600ish people on the bike course IMO is just too dangerous though, probably won't be back here unless they change that.

For the run it wasn't so bad.