I did a sprint triathlon the weekend before last (5/31) and thought I'd share some rookie mistakes that I made. Laughing at myself comes easy (and heals the frustration of missing my goal time). I also figure that maybe it saves a couple of you the few minutes that it cost me, and 3) I believe in karma and maybe #2 above will come back to me in a future race (certainly reading about the experiences of others, their training, tips/tricks and the inspiring elements has already helped me!)

So on to Pawling...

Weather forecast all through the week leading up to the day called for 70% chance of rain, isolated T-storms with, get this, "Storms may produce large hail and strong winds." - That is how weather.com defined the hourly forecast at the start of the race.

A little digression - recently bought an aero helmet (LG Rocket). I'm always warm at races, on the bike and especially during the run. When I got the helmet, I looked at the size of the vent openings and thought to myself, my head is gunna to cook in this thing! For Pawling and after reading the forecast, I was thinking that not only was the helmet an excellent purchase, but it will double as an umbrella and lightening coverup! btw-I love the LG Rocket - Used it for three races so far and had PRs on all races(different distances)!

So the night before the race I did one last run through of all of my gear, double checked everything against my trusty printout of all stuff that I should, at least, consider for a tri, made sure my heartrate monitor was fully charged (that got me on a previous race-nothing like turning it on at the start line and see that "battery low" warning!). In packing, I kept wondering if I had any gear that was especially useful for triathlons in monsoons that I may not have used/had the need for in previous races. I drew a blank on that one so off to bed.

Slept well, up at 5am (no rain), on the road at 6:15am (no rain) with my buddy who was also competing, arrived at 7am (no rain), checked in, racked my bike and then started the mental preparation/worry/second guessing until the 9am start (still no rain) (I like these late starts!). I whiled the time running intervals to the bathrooms that were 500yds away - my coach always advises me to warmup in each discipline, so on top of the rbathroom running intervals, I did my normal 5 min run with a few pickups thrown in, got my wetsuit on and hopped in the lake finding it refreshing and far less bracing than I had imagined - I guess the colder air temps gave me that illusion.

I was in the 7th wave - my buddy was in the 6th. Kind of liked the later wave versus usually going in earlier. Got a chance to watch a bit and calm down, cheered some of the first waves out (600yd swim) and thought, "why aren't they running to T1 - don't they know this IS a race". First time I witnessed the stagger to T1 as opposed to part-taking in the staggering.

My turn - got in the water had a good start, got a few elbows in my face and drank a few mouthfuls of lake effect, but I know the drill and coped well - my sighting was straight as an arrow to the far turnaround bouy (simple out, u-turn, and back course) - were it not for the wind pushing the earlier buoys into my straight line, I would say it was as good as it gets for me. Hitting the rope a couple times was no biggie-got to the bouy and slid around, in the process passing a few who were wide of it.

Coming back I was hitting my glide and everything was looking good. Managed to gain on the lead swimmers, but since the waves were 3min spaced with different swimmers abilities, I think I was hitting a bunch of slower earlier wave swimmers - saw the shore and started to increase my kicking to fire up my legs for what I knew would be a fast bike. I came out of the water completely exhausted (upper body wise) and staggered to my bike.

Got out of my wetsuit quickly though nearly fell over trying to pull it off of my legs - I usually finess it off a little more, but came to realize the previous race finessing wastes too much time. Still upright, though very unstable - I'm thinking the quicker I get on this bike and start pedaling, the better I'll feel.

Mistake #1 - headed the wrong way in T1 - I guess that's what happens when you have a good swim and avoid the rush. I quickly recovered from heading the wrong way and was back in the game.

Mistake #2 - looked down. No bike computer. I took it off the mount to be safe on the transport (outside bike rack) part - I know you experts are probably thinking, forget it. Hit the pavement and ride by feel - couldn't bring myself to do that. I always hold too much back and end up riding too slow, or push too hard on the false flats and burn my legs up. Headed back to my rack and fumbled for another 2 preciouis minutes and I was set.

Finally off to leg 2 and onto the bike, my favorite and best leg. Had a good bike and noted that few people passed me. I wondered if I had gone too hard as I always do. Came into T2 and felt like I had made up some time.

Out of T2 is respectable time (for me) of around 1:15 (Pawling doesn't provide transition splits and instead lumps it into your swim and run times as the bike entry/exit has the chip gates.

Off to the dreaded run. Last year it was ridiculously hot and I was wearing a black top that I nearly fried in. Being somewhat frugal (and still having the black 2xu top), I figured wearing it for this race this year with a weather forecast of rain/t-storms and hail would be fine, right? Nope - It was now heating up and I started running thinking, "dam-I should have worn the light colored top".. I managed a good run for me. I continued to think positive, saying "you're doing well", "you have energy", "just keep your pace building", with a few negative ones, like "don't blow up!" Came down the last 1/3 mi and was feeling good. Increased my pace and gave it everything I had for a strong kick to the finish.

All in all, Pawling is an excellent sprint - Efficient registration, Great crowd, good competition and pretty good post race food.

Times (1/3mi swim, 13mi bike, 3mi run):
swim:14:12min (includes the lunch break T1 delay)
bike: 33:57min (almost 23mph)
run: 27:45min
Total1:15:54