Belleplaine Sprint Tri - TriathlonSprint

Ok, so my plan was to breaststroke if I got nervous and then go back to freestyle until I got my nerves under control. Basically, I ended up swimming breaststroke most of the way. I never could get my heartrate down, I think more because of nerves than because I was swimming that hard.

I already knew I needed to start swimming 5x a week and really work on my technique. I just figured growing up at the shore that I would be ok with an openwater swim. I will start swimming in the bay once or twice a week before the NJ State Tri. I also plan to attend some of the Splash and Dash races. Also I swam in my tri shirt which was like a parachute, I'd rather wrestle it on in T1 then feel that again.

I think this went pretty quick, maybe 40 seconds in and out. Threw on my helmet strapped on the shoes and went.

Overall, I was happy with this transition. I might try to learn to get on the bike with the shoes in the pedals though.

The bike is my strongest leg since I have been cycling for a few years. I probably went out too hard if anything. It also took me a while to get my heart rate down and get in a groove since I was still feeling the swim. I had two gels stuck under a rubber band on my stem, I ate one right away and one towards the end.

I would have held back a bit on the bike in retrospect. I also would not have consumed so much water and gatorade. I drank an entire aero drink of water and a half a bottle of gatorade. It was too much fluid for 44 minutes and I felt it slushing around in my stomach during the run.

This transition was a bit slower. I put my race belt on but still had my mini pump in my jersey pocket. I fumbled around trying to yank it out but it got tangled in the race belt. I realized I was standing still and said forget it and ran with the pump.

I would probably have taken the pump out prior to putting on my race belt. I also would like to get some yankz. I rushed tying my shoes and ended up folding part of the top of the shoe over which rubbed my foot for a mile before I stopped and realized what it was.

I am guestimating on the time here. My PR for a 5k is 28:40, so this may not have been too bad. I felt pretty tired at this point from the bike. And as mentioned it felt like I was carrying a gallon of water in my stomach. I finally felt normal the last mile and upped the pace a bit.

I would have drank less on the bike and slowed down a bit on the bike. I also should have paid attention to my watch when I left T2 so I could pace myself better. I also could have ran harder the last half mile.

I just stretched a little and had a banana. I also changed into a long sleeve t and some shorts.


My lack of open water swims hurt me big time. I definitely need to go back to the drawing board on my swimming in general. I usually do my bricks at a decent pace on the bike followed by a hard run. In retrospect maybe I should have done some bricks with an all out ride so I was running on tired legs. Oh and probably the fact that I weigh 240 slowed me down, but hey I was 285 at Christmas time so I'm not complaining. I'll just keep training and trying to lose weight.


The race was pretty good overall. I am giving it an average rating just because I do not have any other tris to compare it to. They definitely had a good day considering that their van rolled itself on the highway on the way to the race. They did a great job of regrouping and pulling the race of in spite of the accident. I would have like to have my splits but I understand what happened. I would do another one of their events next year.