Tri Roanoke Valley – Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Pitiful swim time!!! Well, I can't be too disappointed. This was my first tri-pool swim. I played it WAY too safe. I submitted a 7:10 swim time & I ended up slower than that by :30. How in the world?! This is slower than my training warm-up time! When I swam the distance at what I thought would be a comfortable race pace during practice, my time was in the upper 6's. Submitted over 7, just to be safe. Not sure what happened. Overall, the water felt great & I wasn't breathing hard (that should've been my clue, duh!). Definitely had problems bumping into the lane line while snaking through the ropes. Now that I think about it, I this is where the seconds probably added up--losing momentum & time when crossing into the other lane. Swim seemed to go by fast. I had a good time in the water though.

I would simply risk it and go faster...not shoot out lightning fast, but I shouldn't have been afraid to challenge myself. My swim time kept me from an overall podium finish. I wasn't aiming for an overall podium, but it's frustrating [after-the-fact] to see how close I was to being the 3rd overall female finisher. Needed to practice more pushing off the wall into next lane. Thought I could do it but it didn't work well. :)

Forgot to fold my towel in a way where I could step on it & have some overlap to dry the top of my feet. Wasted too much time getting on shoes. Not sure what happened with clipping in. I changed my pedals for one (I needed to). It took me a good 10-seconds to clip in my left foot. Ranked 2nd in age group T1.

Will either go sockless or finally get tri-specific shoes.

Nice out-and-back bike ride. Was slower than I planned to be on the way out. When I saw my time at the turnaround, I picked up the pace bigtime. Time back was 8 minutes faster than 1st half. Took a gel at mile 8. Was hoping for an avg. speed of 19mph. Ranked 4th overall female on bike.

Pick up the pace a little after the first couple of miles.

Went okay; no major complaints. The tranz area had blocks not racks. It took me an extra 5+ seconds just to get my rear tire in the slot. Ranked 3rd in age group T2.

Need to practice dismounting more.

Thankfully, my weekly run route has hills. The run course was challenging but I passed a lot of people on the run. I was the 2nd fastest female runner; fastest was my local training teammate by a :12 difference.

Nothing.

Walked around; drank my Endurox R4. Chatted with hubby, kids & friends.


Swim, swim, swim! Even still, I'm pleased that I didn't panic or have to use another stroke. Also should've pottied once more before race. Went several times but when I started pounding the pavement, I really felt it. :)


So glad I chose to kick off tri season early with this triathlon. I'm still growing and learning in this sport but I love it! This race was such a great "teacher" & helped me to assess where I am and areas of improvement. Volunteers were great! Reminded me a lot of my hometown. I would definitely participate again next year.