Hawk Island Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Cold! Almost missed my wave start. Couldn't hear or wasn't paying attention very well. Had to squeeze through the ladies lined up for their wave (sorry if I bumped a few, I did say excuse me). Ran and dove and in and Holy S#!t it was cold. Knocked the wind out of me. Took about half way to the first buoy for me to catch my breath. Started catching the group by about then.

Train. I haven't swam since last year? I'm not afraid of being in the water as I grew up on lakes. I manage to freestyle, roll on my back and kick for a few, then roll over and freestyle and so on. I keep promising after every tri that I will train for the swim......someday!

My time was fast (2nd in AG) but resulted in a slow start to the bike leg. Read below.

Prep my shoes better.

Had the shoes clipped in as usual. Tried a different pair of shoes than I've used before and practiced with them a few times Saturday. Seemed to have it: run to the mount line, hop on bike with feet on top of shoes, get to speed and then slip on shoes. The slip on shoes was big failure. I didn't have the velcro strap right from the get go and I messed with them too long. Probably cost me a minute or so of my bike time as I couldn't keep speed and mess with my shoes. Once I got the shoes right settled in to a decent pace. Goal was 28:00 +/- a few seconds but obviously didn't make it. The great thing about getting started late in my swim wave was I got to pass a lot of people on the bike! Kudos to all those first timers at this race as there was a wide variety of bikes/riders.

Practice. I've ridden my bike 4 times this year and didn't practice transitions until Saturday afternoon. Need to dedicate more time to this.

Thought I did good but was only 26th out of 43. I wear socks so maybe it took to long or maybe there were guys that rode with their running shoes on so they didn't have to make a change??

Try running without socks.

Here's where I goofed. Stupid me let my ego get in my way Saturday morning. My daughters school/our church had a 5k run that we (wife, daughter, me) registered for as we try to be involved with activities there. I said I'd run with my daughter (3rd grade) as that would keep me from over doing it. She had a couple of her little friends there, one that she plays hockey with so I figured we'd all run together at about a 10:00 pace. They sprinted off and made it about a 1/4 mile before they were red faced and huffing and puffing. Walk, sprint, walk, sprint, etc. I tried to encourage them to pace themselves but they couldn't/wouldn't. At any rate, I didn't want to leave a couple of 9 year old girls on an open road race course. My wife caught us so she took over. That's when my ego kicked in. I took off at about the 2 mile mark with my watch showing 24:08. Crossed the finish line at 31:10. DId the last mile and a tenth at this 5k in 7:02. Over did it............cost me here at the Hawk.

Not do what I did the day before and TRAIN more! I think I ran about 12 to 15 times in the last 2 months. Maybe 3 or 4 miles each time.

Drank some water, had a bagel and an orange and cheered wife coming in.


Lack of training. My goal was to beat my time (1:09:46) from 2 years ago when I was 48. Now that I'm 50 I wanted to prove to myself that I could do better. I didn't but I was close and all things considerd, I was happy with my performance.
I still play hockey 2 or 3 times a week in relatively competetive leagues with most of the guys 15 to 20 years younger than me. Alot of ex Junior, college some semi-pro guys that keep the game fast (relatively speaking). This keeps my core strength decent and my legs for biking in decent shape to do a sprint but I should really focus more on the three disciplines. I promise I will tri (try). I have athletic ADD. Just too much I like to do.


I'll be back!!