mini-Mussel Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Seeded myself a little to the right as it looked like the left was going to be a lot of people fighting for position. Started out strong and had open water to myself for the first two hundred yards and then ended up right next to Kevin (t3coach on BT). Going into the race I figured we would be pretty close to each other most of the race. He and I ended up just pacing off each other. Looked back at the 600ish or so point and saw that we had put a big gap on the rest of the field. Had a very comfortable pace going and I could tell we were moving pretty well. Came around the last buoy and put a quick sprint in to make sure I had a little room as I did not know how wide the exit was.

Nothinig - Kevin and I really paced off each other well.

Solid T1, 8th OA and includes putting on shoes.

Nothing

Came out of T1 a little behind Kevin but was able to catch back up to him while he slipped into his shoes. Wanted to keep watts steady at around 300 but that was blown as Kevin took off up the first little climb and it took 350ish to stick with him. For the next few miles he would get ahead a little bit up the hills and I would catch him on the downhills. It was really windy out and I had to come out of aero a few times with the HED3 and Disc. At around the mid point of the ride he started to gap me a bit and there was nothing I could do about it as I was pushing hard and still slowly loosing ground. By mile 14 he had a good solid lead (50-60 ft?) and I when I looked back behind me no one was close. About this point in the course you make a sharp turn left and the police officer did not see me and let a car through. I locked up my breaks and almost went down but was able to stay up and get back up to speed quickly. Kevin was out of site though. From there pushed the last 2 miles hard and got into transition as fast as I could.

Nothing - pushed it hard, almost hit my goal watts (296 vs. 300) and loved the course. Wanted to stick with Kevin but he is a little stronger than I am on the bike and it showed on every uphill.

First time doing a flying dismount so that was fun.

Uneventful though a little slow getting my shoes on. 26th OA.

Move faster

Came out of T2 and was told that Kevin was 1:15 up and no one was even coming into T2 behind us yet.

My family was there to cheer me on and they were crazy loud as always.

Immediately fell into a good pace and it looked like I was very slowly catching up to Kevin. This was confirmed as the person as mile 1 said I was 1:05 down. Saw Bob Stocks and some other BTers at the waterstop! On the way back I surged hard hoping to try to keep it close and at mile 2 the guy said I was 40 seconds behind. At this point I knew I was not going to catch Kevin and when I looked back, 3rd place was a good 2 minutes or so behind so I eased up a bit and cruised the last mile in. At the finish line they mentioned that I was originally from Rochester, NY - I have no idea how they knew that. :)

Nothing - good solid run and I did not completely fry my legs out.

Talked with Kevin after - turns out we might have swam against each other when we were younger and that a guy I swam with in high school was a teammate of his in college. In addition to being a great triathlete, Kevin is also a really nice guy. He definitely helped me push today. Also was finally able to meet Bob Stocks in person and was able to catch up with Ken again. :)

Ally came in and was the 5th OA female and 1st OA on the swim again. :)


Not much - happy with the results and loved the course.


Just a great race - this ranks right with Columbia and Reston as one of my favorites. Pretty course, good crowd, well run, etc.

So many nice touches - personalized messages on bike racks, great long sleeved tech tee and other fun giveaways (cowbell!, nutrition, shampoo, conditioner, etc), good food after, fun awards, etc. Would definitely recommend this to anyone considering doing it.