Massachusetts State Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

11/135 women.

My goal was to swim faster than at Mini-Mussel since it was a shorter course. However, as we were heading out to the start buoys, this girl WHACKED me in the head. "Sorry" she says, and I'm thinking "Geez, we're only heading out to the START - pay attention to where you're going, lady!"

I positioned myself towards the front because I just didn't want to hassle with potentially threading through a bunch of people. It was a good decision overall, but way more of a scrum than I've experienced thus far. Someone swam over my legs, another person hit me in the bum, I was knocked on the head, etc. I was starting to get really annoyed, and could see why others have said they push people out of the way when necessary. I was finding it impossible to settle into bilateral breathing and was just puffing a lot more than normal. Also, because I wasn't bilateral breathing I was pulling off-course to the right, so I started sighting almost every other stroke and pointed myself to the left.

Compounding the problem was that my goggles were leaking. I stopped to fix them, but after a few strokes the left one was leaking again. Briefly debated swimming with my left eye closed (after all, it's not my good eye anyway) but decided that wasn't such a great idea. I was wondering what the issue was given that I haven't had this problem before, but then I remembered the girl that whacked me in the head before we started. I realized that it probably knocked my strap off center, so I stopped again, reached back and pulled the strap up, squished them onto my eye sockets, and that took care of the problem.

After the goggles were finally fixed I was able to settle in and start bilateral breathing. Really tried to swim quickly after rounding the second buoy, and started passing people in the wave in front of me. As I hit the beach I heard Jeff yell, "You're one of the first 25 women!" which psyched me up.

My time ended up being pretty quick considering the problems in the first 1/3 of the swim, so I was happy.

Make sure my goggle strap is all set if I get hit in the head. Otherwise, can't think of anything else. I still think it's worth setting up towards the front, even though it's more physical.

6th AG, 16th females.

Pretty good T1. It felt strange not to have my gloves. My wetsuit could have come off a bit more quickly, but it was still better than the first race at Webster.

Can't think of anything, really. Maybe put bodyglide all over my feet so the wetsuit will slip over them more easily?

Well, I had a big lesson burned into my brain on the bike - STOP DOUBLE SHIFTING!!!!! The bike was going pretty well initially. Burned a bit on the false flat and the road quality in the park was annoying, but once we got onto the smooth pavement it picked up and I started passing people. At the base of the hill I went a bit too long in the big chain ring and then double shifted to get into the small ring - yep, dropped chain. My brain was thinking, "Fuck, fuck, fuck" as I got off, but I took a deep breath and set to work. I knew that if I didn't stay calm and methodical it could take me a good ten minutes to get it around the metal protector on my frame, so I just plugged away. Thought I had it back on pretty quickly, but it wasn't quite there and dropped again when I turned the crankarms to double check before re-mounting. Again told myself to stay calm, tried to ignore all of the people passing me that I had already passed, and managed to get it on for good. I had to turn downhill to clip in (given the grade of the hill it was too risky to try to clip in while going up), and profusely thanked the car driver who was waiting while I did a figure-eight ("Good luck", he called out!). Then I started hammering again. I thought of Chrissie Wellington in Kona last year and just shook it off. In the end it ended up costing me about 3-4 minutes.

Re-passed some of the same people again on the hill, commiserated a bit with an older gentleman on a tri bike, and did my best to make up time on the downhill but it was tricky because of the slick roads. I probably only spent about 1/3 of the time in aero, but I didn't want to take too many chances given the road conditions (rough at times, and wet.)

I also made a point to stand up periodically, which really helped my hamstrings on the run.


DON'T DOUBLE-SHIFT!!!! Jeff warned me about that a few weeks ago and I had forgotten. Bad habit, but it's one that has likely been permanently broken!

5th AG, 39th women.

Finally, a T2 under two minutes. It was a longish run to the rack with my bike. I unclipped my helmet while I was running, and not fiddling with the gloves or the Garmin made all of the difference.


I'd like to learn to take my feet out of the shoes while I'm riding, but at the moment there was nothing I would have done differently.

I was a bit concerned about how this would go given that I didn't have my Garmin so I was running blind. My hamstrings felt much better in comparison to Mini-Mussel, but I was having a hard time with feeling like I was getting enough air at first because of the humidity. I was startled initially when a guy on his bike crashed right next to me, but I kept running when he said he was o.k. in response to my asking him.

I cheered Renee as she went by, and was concerned when I saw her walking back because she had obviously crashed. Margie was with her though and she said she was o.k., so I kept going.

Kept a decent pace for a while while I regrouped, and chatted a bit with a 50-54 AG guy for about 1/4 mile. He stopped at the turnaround to grab water which was just as well, because I was starting to pull away from him anyway.

I tried to reel in a guy in front of me for the last mile or so and caught him with about 1/2 mile to go. Made a point of cheering on Team Training people as they went by on their bikes. A women who ran by me said "You're so good" re: my cheering, and I told her that if she was in my AG I would be telling myself, "More running, less cheering!" and she laughed. I felt really strong at the end and ran in hard, and ultimately ended up beating my PR pace by 1 second/mile.

If I could chat with someone, then I could also probably be running harder even though I felt like I was working hard already.

Didn't really do much - cheered on the other Team Training people (including Allyn.) Was psyched to see that I placed third in my AG! Hung out for a bit after the awards ceremony and then packed up and drove home.


Well, even though I placed in my AG I really didn't feel like my head was in the game. I'm not sure if it was because it was my second race in two weeks, or if I just wasn't jazzed about doing this particular race because it was so short.

Ultimately what limited my ability to perform faster was the issue with the goggles in the swim and dropping my chain on the bike. However, even though I had mixed-results as far as my goals for the race, I was really proud of myself for keeping my composure with the goggles and dropped chain and shaking it off. It just drives home the point that you can prepare all you want, but occasionally something will happen that's out of your control and it's up to you as to how you'll handle it.


This race ranks third out of the three I've done. There wasn't anything wrong with it in particular, it just lacked something that I can't quite put my finger on. Also, I really wasn't crazy about the short distance (1/3 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 run). Seemed more like the distance for a mini-sprint. Again, although there's nothing wrong with the race per se, I won't be doing it again.