Lions Spring Sprint Report

250 yard swim, 9.3 mile bike, 3.2 mile run. Why do the results people put the wrong mileage in the results? The bike portion was advertised at 9.3 but the results state 9 miles? Why do they do that? It's annoying!

Despite the above today was a perfect day for the Lions Spring Sprint in Marlboro MA. Weather could not have been better.

Unfortunately the opening act was a 250 yard swim. One swimmer at a time. We were instructed to swim up and back then under the buoy over to the next lane. Ok. I figured that would not be too hard and it wasn't except for the fact that I missed the wall and had very little UMPH. I was then passed by two women. I had gotten to talk to both of them in line and found them to be really nice. I only hope I didn't piss anyone off for being seeded a little too far up. I had to take on extra time to let them go by me. That sucked. The water was a bit warm and it (the swim) just kinda stank. I timed myself in and out.

My honey came with me to cheer me on and take photos. She's not a professional photographer so I must cut her some slack. She also needed to get out of the house badly since we had to put our very sick cat down on Saturday.

I made some great progress in my transitions by skipping socks all together. No socks on the bike or the run. That worked out well. I only pulled on my tri shorts, shoes, and helmet. My transition time was around 30 seconds. That's REALLY REALLY good for me. Of course I didn't have to remove a wetsuit but still. (pat pat)

The bike course was hilly and windy but I'm accustomed to that so I was attacking the hills and downhills all over the place. That was until I went straight over a hole, BANG... rub, rub, slooooooww... Stop. Front tire was stuck. I looked and could not figure it out. I did not have a flat. So I took off the front tire and put it back on trying to figure this out. All the while another guy had hit the same hole before me and got a flat. I put my tire back on and it was still rubbing. I finally realized that my aerbar had pivoted downward causing my aerobottle to lay atop my tire. Once on my bike I was able to pivot my bar back up. Flat tire guy had gone through his first cartridge and asked me for mine. I said OK and he was grateful. We didn't have that far left to go at this point.

My bike transition went well. In and out pretty quick. My run was great. I passed 5 runners and just kept the pain locker shut.

My total time 1:01:16.

4th AG -8th Woman OA - within my AG - 7th on the swim, 4th on the bike, and 1st on the run. Yeah!

All in all I'm very happy with my performance. I do feel as though I'm getting better at this. I'm just a little discouraged with my swimming because I THINK I'm working hard at that but don't seem to be improving very much. I guess it takes a long time.

Here are some photos from today. Backwards chronological order.

In this photo I'm happy with my race. I thought that I placed 3rd at this point when in fact I was 4th.

My run.


Bike Transition. My row had the distinct disadvantage of being in the last row. We had to run in and out further than anyone because there was only one combined exit and entry way.

My biggest fan :)



The Pool.

Warming up.