Buffalo Triathlon - Sprint Distance - TriathlonSprint

Not a real good start for me. I did everything I wasn't going to do. I raced into the water instead of drifting to the back of the wave. There were two sharp turns at the start of the course which never let us spread out. I was hitting people almost the entire swim. I was never able to settle into a nice stroke or be able to get my breathing correct. My googles fogged up half way through which made it so I was having to follow others in the water. I also had crappy swim form through out with my head out of the water and my legs dragging. Overall my swim sucked and I think my time shows that. I was pretty frustrated with my swim.

Need more OWS prior to my races. I also need a wetsuit for early season races. I also need to stick with my race plan and not get swept up with the crowd. I also need to get stronger in the water. More time swimming.

With the air temp and water temp what it was I changed my plan for T1 a lot of times. I was originally planning on just pulling on a pair of running shorts and tech shirt over my tri stuff, but ended up with going with my tech shirt and jacket and just my tri shorts. (I am not comfortable yet with running around in just spandex but I figured it wasn't so bad with everyone else doing it today.) I got my soaks on nice and easy from watching the transition video on BT. I got my glasses and helmet on quickly and was off. The glasses in the drizzle ended up not being so good, but would be great on an overcast day without rain or rain more than a drizzle. Was over the mount line and on the bike quick. Left foot was in the clip and the other I rode out of the clip until I was about 1/4 mile out of the transition area. I had the bike in the perfect gear for climbing out of the transition area.

Not much, I thought everything went pretty well. My body was reacting real well because of the cold swim, but I can't do a lot about that. On a warm day I could speed up the transition by not pulling on any layers, but on a day like today I would have froze on the bike.

I have had a chance to ride this bike course several times so I had a lot of confidence going into it. I felt really good coming out of T1 and took off. Knowing the course paid off as I new what gears to be getting into at different parts. I also knew were and when I had to breaking coming into corners or off of a descent. The bike course was pretty crowded and I wonder how a marshall could ever call a drafting penalty with so many bikes passing and catching each other all the time. Got frustrated a few times by people riding center of the lane instead of moving right when they were going really slow or struggling on a climb, but not really a big deal. I caught a fair number of people who started in waves earlier than me on the bike. I checked the bike computer coming into the final climb and saw I was going to finish under 50 minutes so I had a good recovery after a crappy swim. Dropping down into the dismount and transition area i had to dodge cycler who tipped over, not sure what happened but avoid smashing into them. Dismounted cleanly and was into T2. On the ride I was pumped that I stayed on the big ring on all but one hill when I dropped to my medium ring (I ride a triple).

I would have left my glasses off. I ended up pulling them off 2 miles into the ride and stowing them as the light drizzle was making it hard to see out of them. The only other things I would change is equipment, clipless pedals and such, but nothing I could have done today. I think to improve for my next races I do need to start do race intensity bike rides from time to time.

No problems with T2. Got ride of my jacket and was off quickly. Found my rack very quickly by counting the racks prior to the race. Another good tip I got from fellow BTers. Discarded my helmet and jacket quickly. Took a shot of water and was off.

I should have eaten some sports beans here but passed them by. Overall I thought it was fairly clean transition.

Started the run with my feet numb. Was hard to feel comfortable on the run when I couldn't feel my feet. Set my pace and stuck with it. took water at the first aid station. About a mile in my feet started to thaw and I felt better on the run. At the turn I thought I was going to blow up on the run. My stomach wanted to empty and the lower GI wasn't feeling so hot. I slowed my pace for about a minute and everything settled down and I took off again. After the last aid station, I started to open up my stride with the goal of empty any energy I had in the last part of the race. I felt I finished strong, but was done. Cool comment at the end of the race from another runner is that he thanked me for setting a good pace for him to chase after. Made me feel good to know I was going fast enough for someone else to try to pace off of me. This was a very good pace for me

I think getting nutrition prior to the run would have helped, but other than that I ran this race the way I wanted. I stayed within myself and pushed the last leg liked I wanted.

Walked around and changed into warmer clothes.


Training and fitness. I have made big strides since Feb when I started training for tris and other endurance sports, but I still lack in fitness and speed that comes with training. I also need to continue to reduce my weight so that I am not trying to move so much weight.


I liked this race. I think they need to change the first leg of the swim so people have a chance to spread out before the first turn, but overall I enjoyed the experience. Not really happy with my overall placing, but it being my first race it is what it is.