Montclair Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Water was reported at 84 on Saturday morning, so no wetsuit swim. ON race day I think they may have reported it at 80. The water was pretty nice. We swam in a clockwise direction, and was supposed to be 1k but my time and effort did not show that. I bet I will rank better than my calculated pace would normally show. I tried to catch some feet but ended up behind people that couldn't swim straight again, but it wasn't that bad to find someone else. The waves aren't as crowded here as some other races. Eventually I got someone who was slightly faster than me, and I hung on to him for a while. We caught the next wave and by the time we got out of the water, there weren't many people from our own wave left. More people from the previous wave. Sighting was great, swim felt great, and turns did not bunch up. Good swim.

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Swam without a tri shirt, so of course I had issues with getting it on in transition with a wet body. Still wasn't too bad. But once I got on the bike, I didn't get my feet into my shoes very cleanly, that cost me some momentum. I ran really well in transition with and without the bike.

Not sure which is more time efficient - swimming with a tri shirt already on (no wetsuit), or putting it on after the swim. Seems putting it on later would be better if you can do it quickly.

The nice thing about repeated loop courses is that by the 2nd loop you know where you can hammer yourself because you get are getting a break soon. It was nice to push it on the up hills because the downhills, or flats were coming up. Kept the front in high the whole way, and passed a lot of people. I should rank pretty well in the bike. Drank one bottle of Heed on the bike and that worked out well. Had one gel as well.

Not many people paying attention to rules in this race. One guy passed me on the right, and I saw people drafting. It wasn't too bad with that though. Most issues were that slower folks didn't stay to the right (blocking). I didn't see anyone out there enforcing rules.

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I did my moving dismount with the shoes still on the bike, and two bikes ahead of me completely stopped to dismount. I didn't have much time to avoid running into them, and they didn't give me any room to get by, but I somehow managed it. Ran really well with the bike. Didn't find my spot right away though, I ran down an aisle that I hadn't rehearsed. Didn't cost too much time.

Need to maybe scout a better area to do that dismount so I don't hurt someone. Also need to go down the aisle I rehearse in my head before the race, to get to the spot easier.

My mile splits were way off, I have to question the splits. I have 8:10, 8:26, 8:27, 7:45, 6:45. I suppose it's possible that it's correct and the latter miles are from slight downhills, seeing the end, an encouraging runner behind me, and the last mile is "almost 1 mile (it's an 8k course)". Not a big deal though.

I did not enjoy running off the bike at all, but settled down into a decent pace considering. There were tons of people passing me on the run, which is still weird for me. I am used to passing other people. My swim and biking improvements have caused my weak link to be running!

Didn't like running on sidewalks; felt like I was running at home. There was a nice trail section at the 2nd loop start that was pretty fun, and was a little technical. I would've taken the whole run like that. I had one gatorade with me, but didn't drink too much of it. Drank mostly water from the course as well as dumping some on my head. Forced one gel down me at mile 3, which worked out well despite my feelings. I really did not want it at all.

About 3/4 mile from the finish someone behind me said that he was going to follow me all the way in, right when I was thinking of just settling for my finish. So with the pressure I stepped it up, and had a really strong finish. In the end we helped each other have a really great end.

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5 slices of pizza and a swim in the lake to cool off.. the best part of the whole race!


Didn't taper because it's just a training race. Also, still sore from my first track workout from a coach, 4 days prior! I have to be happy with the race regardless of my fitness, it was a good day.


The 2 mile distance from parking to the start/finish stinks, there's no other way to say it. But what can you do, you are limited in areas to swim, and this is actually a good place to swim. It makes it more critical to remember everything, because going back to the car would be awful! I saw people doing that though. The race day packet pickup line was pretty long as well, did not leave you much time at all to get ready for the race. The course itself is ok for a populated area. Volunteers are great, and the food is endless pizza.