I lined up as the farthest to the left with a straight shot to the first turn buoy about 150 yards from shore. I was in a 30-40 male wave and it looked like it was going to be competitive based on that first 150 yards. But I reached the turn first and after that I was all alone. With no one to follow it took me the longest time (it seemed that way, at least) to find the next buoy to sight off of, but I couldn't find it. I had to pull-up and tread water to find it. I was a little worried that other swimmers were going to start plowing over me because I stopped, but it never happened. I then remembered that there was a good sized boat parked by the final turn buoy, so I headed in his direction.

There was a little bit of lap traffic when I converged with the Olympic swimmers, but no biggie. The water headed up the beach was pretty shallow, so I did more walking through the water than I would have preferred., but it what it is.

Intensity was a little low here on this leg, maybe because I was out in front, solo. I do better when I have another guy there with me.

3/11
10/120

No hill to run up out of the water. Thumbs up. My wetsuit didn't want to slide off of my arms. Usually this is not the place where I get hung up on. Felt slow and clunky in T1.

The course starts out mostly flat so I tried to focus on getting my breathing and HR under control. I did ok. I tried not to get too wrapped up in what the Olympic/70.3 racers were doing in terms of pace. The turn around was just a cone in the middle of the road. It was uncontrolled and had to come to a near complete stop while I waited for a car to go by. Even my Garmin autopause decided to beep at me.

After that I was finally able to gauge where everyone else was behind me. There were 3 guys relatively close and within striking range, but after that there wasn't much else. Here is a good point to mention that I had a small inkling that I *might* be able to get an overall win. However, I didn't know anyone doing the sprint so this was up in the air.

When your the first person to hit portions of the course you find minor flaws in the course markings. My first such experience came as I was closing in on T2. I had already pulled my feet out of my shoes and was pedaling, head down, towards transition when I all of a sudden looked up and saw a sign and an arrow pointing left. I braked hard, thinking I was going to miss my turn, but it turns out the sign was just for additional parking. A guy caught up to me and witnessed the whole thing. I don't know if I should be angry with myself or not for this mistake, but later the race crew would put up signage to reduce the confusion.

5/11
60/120

Gosh I'm an idiot.
Transition is empty, I'm the first bike back in. I have no idea where to go. My bib # was 939, but in my head I was thinking 993, and the signs hanging at the end of each row confused me to no end. I swear it felt like I was wondering around T2, with bike in hand, for 5+ minutes. Eventually I gave up on the signage and started looking for my equipment, which is when I spotted my shoes.

This was the second race in a row (both sprints) that I've ran sans socks and its been no issue at all. Ever since I got blisters on my feet from going sockless in my very first tri I've avoided doing this.

Tie a bright balloon to my transition spot so I can find it (just kidding).

I was second out of transition but I passed the other guy right away to take the lead spot. One of the other deficiencies in the course markings was making sure the run path was clear. Turns out quite a few spectators set up camp on the run course, next to transition and no one bothered to tell them. So when I came running around I'm halfway tripping over people, their lawn chairs, and maybe even one dog..

When I arrived at the campground there was a intersection where you could either go straight or turn left. I knew we had turn left at some point but I wasn't sure if this was it or not. I turned around and looked at the guy running behind me. Without even saying a word to him he threw up his hands to show he was just as confused as I was. He yelled, "whichever way you go, I'll follow." Well I went straight, correctly. I soon came upon an aide station stocking up for the day. I quickly shouted to a guy who may or may not have some sort of authority in these kind of direction matters and let him know that the previous intersection wasn't clear.

After that I resumed the usual suffering one does during a 5k in a sprint triathlon. Any hopes of winning the sprint were dashed around 1.5 miles after a guy in my age group passed me. And it wasn't the sort of pass where one slowly creeps on by you. No, it was the kind where I look like I'm standing still and he is sprinting. No chance of even going with him. He actually got a gap on me and then I at least kept that gap from growing too much bigger. Coming into the finish I again dodged some more people, this time a couple walking their lab in front of the finish shoot entrance.

Waited around a long time for age group awards (2 hrs after finishing my race). Met a talkative guy from Hays, KS. So we passed the time talking training and what-not.


I was really annoyed after this race and I wasn't sure if it should be with myself or the race. Probably a little both. The part that affected my finish time were probably mostly on me and my mental sharpness.


Having never been to this side of Clinton Lake, I was really impressed with the beach area. While the Oly and 70.3 bike course mirrors a lot of the June race that takes place on the other side, this is a great location for a race. Plus this run course is more shaded. I'm sure 99.999% of people didn't have any course marking problems but it caused some minor issues for me. Also, while likely a one-time occurrence (because I don't recall them having an issue before) Ultramax had issues with their timing and figuring our final finishing order. I stuck around about an hour or so longer than I would've normally.

Good race, generally speaking, and I would do it again.