Three years after my first triathlon, I finally got to do the triathlon that was supposed to be my first triathlon. When I was considering the idea of a triathlon, having one nearby where the swimming portion was in the pool seemed like the ideal first one. However, different life events always conspired to keep from from registering. This year I saw at the last minute that I would be able to actually participate this year. So I signed up about 2 weeks before the race. Unlike the one I did in 2023, I haven’t been training specifically for a triathlon, but I have been doing swimming, cycling, and running exercises since last fall.

The Day Before

Since I was using the same bike I train with, I didn’t have to do any tune-ups. I did do an easy 1 mile run at about a 10:00 pace to keep my legs and ankles loose.

Other than that, I just went to pick up my race packet and scope out the transition area. The race organizers helpfully provided a checklist which I used to make sure I had everything I needed for the race. Besides the obvious stuff, I took my Garmin 945, Garmin bike computer, Garmin front light, and Garmin rear light.

Day of the Race

The transition area opened at 6:15 and I knew it would take 15 minutes to get there. I set alarms on both my phone and my watch to make sure I wouldn’t miss getting up at 5:30. It turned out I needn’t have worried about missing my alarms, since I woke up around 4:30 and after that I slept very lightly, mostly lucid dreaming. The nice thing was that I didn’t wake up groggy. I hadn’t looked back at my 2023 race blog post, but I ended up having a very similar breakfast. I had 3/4 cup of Kashi Toasted Berry Crisp. I chose that out of all my Kashi Go cereal choices since since it had the highest carb content of the three of them. I figured that by the time the race started, or at least by the time I was on the bike, my body would be able to start using some of those sugars to give me energy. Unlike last year, I wasn’t planning to use any energy gels. I also had 1 cup of Raisin Nut Bran and a banana. The cereal was eaten with skim milk (my preferred way to eat cereal and also providing some simple sugars) and I also had some tea with a splash of milk.

I got to the race venue and took some time to orient myself. Then I got my bike to the transition area and set everything up.

After that I went to the pool restroom to take care of those needs and went back to my car to use my Therabody Pro with the triathlon program.

The Race

The weird swim situation is part of why I was just treating this as the “fun run” version of a triathlon. We were swimming in an outdoor pool and would go up the left side before coming back on the right (no flip turns allowed). The swimmer then had to duck under the lane line and do it all again until they reached the end of the pool having done 400yd. The other thing that made me not take it too seriously is that they were sending us off in series based on our self-reported pace (we didn’t have to point to a recorded pace) So I figured some folks would overestimate how fast they would go. This did indeed happen. I had to pass 2 people, meaning I had to slow down and wait until we got to the wall for them to let me pass. (therefore, unlike an ocean or lake race, I couldn’t go my fastest pace) After the swim it was a dash (couldn’t run on the pool deck for safety reasons) to the grass leading to the transition area.

This was my first time doing the cycling portion with clipped shoes so I would be changing into my shoes after the cycling portion (unlike last time). I had my bike lights on as well as my Garmin Edge 530. When it came to the front light - we were riding on roads that had cars on them (mostly the opposite side, but on the same if there was a bike lane) so I thought it would probably be a good safety situation to have the front light. Also, despite all the warnings about the weather we were blessed with a nice, cloudy race (for everyone that finished when I did - the sun did eventually come out around 9:15). The back light was incredibly useful because it has a radar built in so it would let me know when bikes were getting close enough to pass me. I was tracking the race on my watch, so I had been hoping to use the bike computer to tell me my speed and cadence without having to look at my wrist. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to make that happen without having a duplicate cycling entry. If I want to be able to keep track of my time in the transition area, does anyone else who uses Garmin stuff have a recommendation on how to do this? I lost a little time in transition getting the lights and stuff on, but I still finished the transition in less than half the time from 3 years ago. I think it helped that I had a tri-shirt on and didn’t have to try and get a shirt on while damp.

The bike portion went MUCH better for me this time compared to 3 years ago. I was averaging 16.8 MPH according to the official race stats and 17 MPH according to my Garmin. My max speed was 27 MPH, though. This race organizer doesn’t post rankings per stage, only overall rankings. However, unlike in Florida, I didn’t have people constantly passing me. I only had about 3 people pass me during the bike section. Toward the end of the 10 miles my quads were getting sore and I was worried that since I’d done this on a lark and hadn’t practiced any brick workouts that I was going to fail in the run.

After the 2 loops that made up the bike course, I got back into the transition area. I wasted maybe about 10 seconds trying to turn off the bike computer to make sure if my bike got jostled my wife wouldn’t get alerted that I was hit by a car or something. But overall, I was able to change shoes and put on my racing belt and hat pretty quickly. I also wasted too much time trying to get my cycling gloves off. Maybe next time I’ll just leave them on for the run. As the run began, my legs felt weird and I felt incredibly slow. I told myself to just be happy with an 8:00 mile pace since I hadn’t practiced and didn’t want to hurt myself. At first it seemed that would be my fate or worse as the Garmin started telling me I was at an 8:40 pace. But I eventually found my footing and was able to finish with an average pace of 7:27. I was able to do the final dash to the finish line faster than last time with a max pace of 4:31.

Stats and Maps

First a screenshot of the website:

Now in table format:

Chip time: 1:08:36.3

A few things I noticed

• I crushed the bike section this time. I think this is due to being clipped and a little more confident with the bike
• T2 was faster last time - but I didn’t have to change my shoes last time
• last year’s run was faster, but not much faster (especially for having not trained)

Some per event stats from my Garmin:

• Swimming
  • max stroke rate: 38 spm
  • average pace: 1:33/100yd
  • average heart rate: 142 bpm
  • max heart rate: 149 bpm

• Cycling
  • average speed: 17.1 MPH
  • max speed: 27.1 MPH
  • average heart rate: 147 bpm
  • max heart rate: 152 bpm

• Run
  • average pace: 7:34/mile
  • max pace: 4:31 /mile
  • average heart rate: 152 bpm
  • max heart rate: 165 bpm

Post Race Thoughts

Overall, things went very well for me. I tried not to push myself too hard (where I would injure myself) while also pushing myself harder than a normal workout since it was a race. I am eyeing another triathlon later this year that I will be training specifically for. We’ll see if I can do a little better and have some more fun!

• Race
• Triathlon