Pretty smokin time!

It sounds like the bike course was, at least, borderline dangerous.  Sounds pretty crazy to have had to ride between cars DURING A RACE.

I like your assessment of the bike to run transition too............."HORRIBLE".........That is so accurate!

Way to go bro!

Great Race!!!

Great job!

 I unfortunately got stuck at the Main/Rutherford intersection for about 3 - 4 minutes.  The Officer informed me that the he could no longer hold traffic and the cars "were more important" than the race.  Words (by other racers, I was not brave enough to say anything) were exchanged, and we were cussed at the said officer.  The only reason we didn't wait longer at the intersection was because all 20 or so of us just went at the same time.

The run had to be short.  My stand alone PR in the 5K is 26:27 in Dec.   I seriously doubt I  pulled a 25:03 for a 5K tri run. 

Again - great job!

I really feel for the folks that had to stop for traffic.  It results in a race that's not equitable for all competitors.  It was a tough situation even for the cops.  Here's what I've heard: The RD worked with the county sheriff's office for traffic control.  That wasn't appropriate for all intersections because some of them fell under city police jurisdiction.  They became aware of the race, chased off the county sheriff's deputies and began trying to sort out the situation.  But there was no permitting for road closures and they felt responsible for getting traffic flowing. 

Probably plenty of blame to go around.

The run course was short by about 1/4 mile... 2/10s at least.  That's 1:30-2:30 minutes depending on your race pace.  So even with that in mind, your run was good!

Yes I will!!!!

And running too!  There's no reason I can't be a minute faster in the 5k.

Thanks.

"Legs felt bad starting out (normal) and pace felt exceedingly slow but that's an illusion having to do with bike to run transition."

Glad you wrote that. I am kinda beating myself because I felt so horrible running after my bike althought I didn't really hammer as hard as possible on the bike TOO HAVE A GOOD RUN (but couldn't get my speed up).

-Chris

Right.  In my experience, at least in sprint tris, the best way to race is to push the bike a little bit because the idea of coming off the bike feeling perfect for running is a pipe dream....or a pacing tactic made for long-course tris. 

Then you just understand that what you feel like on the run is normal.  It's very interesting to me that I can be chugging away at a 6:30 pace or faster and it feels like 8:00 pace subjectively.  I also feel pretty crappy and that goes away in 1/2 mile or so as I relax and the body adjusts to running. 

Also, in a race your subjective evaluation of effort is different due to excitement and adrenaline.  so when you 'take it easy' on the bike you are actually working harder than you realize.

Now that could be helped by having objective metrics such as a power meter on the bike and a GPS watch on the run, but those can also work against you when your race-day excitement could possibly push you to higher levels and you used those devices to hold yourself back to an expected performance level.

Either way, just know that it's completely normal for the legs to feel tight, weak, slow...and it's NOT actually the case that you are slow.