Sprint Triathlon Summary
As you can see I finished second to last in my age group. I assumed I’d be in the back of the pack no matter what but, I didn’t think I’d be that far back! The swim went well in my opinion. We treaded water for our swim start and I tried to stay out to the side to avoid the crowd. I tend to sprint out and get tired if I get stuck in a crowd so I wanted to make sure I was out on my own, especially at the start. We swam around 3 bouys for a total of 500m. By the first bouy I was already switching to the breast stroke to catch my breath. I panicked! I rolled over on my back for about 20 seconds and caught my breath and the rest of the swim was peaceful. The bike was uneventful, I found myself alone for most of it. I expected that might happen as I was in the last group of women to exit the swim. I passed two people early on and the was passed by a group of 5 later in the race. That was the most people I saw the entire bike! The last third of the race I found my self in line with a few other people and we all rode to the finish at about the same pace. It was nice to finish with a group so I didn’t feel so out there and alone.
he run was hot and hard. I haven’t been doing much running at all this year. In fact, I havent run anything over 3 miles all year. I knew this would be the hardest leg for me. As you can see from my summary I was at an 11:07 min/mi. Again, I found myself alone for much of it. Thee run course was a 1.5 run out and back for a 5k total. Once I passed the turn-around for the home stretch there were plenty of other runners to pass and they were all cheering on their fellow runners. I got plent of “Good Job!” and “ Keep it up!” I was so hot though and my calves were cramping for the first mile and I could literally feel the heat baking my skin. That’s Texas for ya!
My goal was to finish in under 1:30 but I missed it. I know now that I really need get more open water practice. I feel like I was fortunate for this race. There was more visibility in the water than I’d seen in other open water races and swim practice. I could at least see feet in front of me for sighting….or dodging when coming for my face. I just need to get comfortable in open water and I need to practice my sighting. I was zig-zaging all over the place. I also know that I need to focus on getting my legs used to running again. When I was training for my marathon last year I could hit an average 9 minute mile with ease. I was struggling just to keep moving during this race. Overall I’m happy with the race. Even if I was slow, I saw improvements in my problem areas. I feel like that’s what was important.
For those of you who like Vlogs, I was able to get some footage from the race and a bit of week 1 in training.
Happy running!
