I seeded myself second, which was perfect because I didn't have anyone tapping on my feet and I wasn't one the feet of the guy ahead of me. Turns out the fella in front of me was in a relay, and despite his older age, was quite quick . . but he only had one leg of the race to worry about so he could afford to go all out. At least that's what I'm telling myself. My flip turns were less than stellar. Almost each push off was weak, mostly due to being too far away from the wall. I'll chalk that up to being in an unfamiliar pool and the lines on the bottom of the pool not having a "T" at the end.

There was a lifeguard (?) standing at the wall at the end of the swim trying to direct me to the ladder to exit. For me, generally, the ladder is a slower way to exit so I bypassed her and just hopped out at the wall. I got the feeling, as I was running to T1, that she did not appreciate that move based on the comments I heard going away.

1/5
3/49

So my supposedly awesome transition spot was not the best after all. Although it was the first spot in T1 and the closest to the bike mount I actually had to run back towards a specific exit and double back. Not a huge deal though.

Also, holy cow I sucked it up trying to get on my bike. Maybe I need to go back to leaving my shoes clipped in, because this and the last race I've done some embarrassing bike mounts

I had Kevin right behind me on the swim and he went on by me while a fudged around with getting clipped in. I was soon right back behind him and he was behind the lead moto escort out of town. Having raced with him enough I knew Kevin was a faster biker than I, but I was right on him, so much so that I had to pass him right back. With the sun rising to our left I could see by the shadow he cast that the was right with me the whole way as I approached the turn around point.

This turn around was at the bottom of a hill, meaning that it was a momentum-less climb back up that same hill once the 180 degree turn was made. And that's when Kevin passed by me and then took off once the road leveled out. Me thinks that he meant to do that all along; sit in my (legal) draft for the first half and then sling shot around me towards home. I knew passing him was too good to be true.

1/5
4/49

Again, for the second race in a row I didn't feel exactly comfortable making my usual flying dismount. I really need to practice these and get my confidence back.

The third place biker had closed a bit of the gap on me and was right on me after T2. It wasn't too much longer before he went on by. He was just a faster dude than I, and I had no hopes of staying with him. I could see him and Kevin up ahead most of the race, but all I could do was maintain the distance between me and them.

Usually in these sprint triathlons it takes me a mile or so to get settled in and to get really going, but today I just didn't have that extra gear. I finished up a nice, quiet, hard run to a comfortable 3rd place overall finish.

Talked with Kevin, and met Tyler (who won) and chatted about the race/training/etc.


I had fun at this small town race. Everyone in the community did a good job of putting o this event. Not too hard of a race, especially for the heat of July.