Spring Sprint Tri ‘26

Well that took some effort! Running on loads of fatigue from volunteering afternoon and overnight at the SD100 and minimal training for this race (even coaches “oops” from time to time!), I went into this race with fingers crossed that muscle memory would kick in and help a brotha out!!

Bobbing in the water before the race starts, I knew knocking out this 1000m would be the hardest part of the race. I always do better with some warm up strokes beforehand to calm the nerves, get the body moving and find that groove. But there’s not enough time for that so we’re heading into the race cold! The horn kicks the race off and we’re swimming!

Get about halfway to the first buoy and we’re pausing to catch some breath. After another break or two, I get around the first buoy and it’s a long stretch to the next. After another break, I finally find my rhythm about 500m into it. My group is long ahead of me. I’ll catch them on the bike! No one wins from the swim anyway! I swim MY race, get around the next couple of buoys and head towards the dock to finish.

Out the water, unzip the wetsuit, run into T1 and get ready for the bike. Suit off, bike shoes & helmet on and we’re heading to bike out!

Rinse the mouth out from the saltwater and we’re plugging away on the bike! Lots of hairpin turns on this with a decent straightaway and a fun overpass loop to take advantage of. Four loops gets us 20mi. I definitely catch up with folks here. But I won’t lie, my legs are dying trying to pump out the watts! Did I mention I ain’t trained much for this race? 😂 By the 4th lap, I’m ready to get off the merry go round! Give one last hammer into the parking lot, pass a few more people and hop off the bike.

Run the bike into T2, click clacking with the cycling shoes to my station. Rack the bike, pop off the bike shoes & helmet, put on the run shoes, grab my race belt& bib and I’m out in 1:22. Just like a DJ, transitions matter!

Hammys and quads are shot from the bike, but running is my turf! Surprisingly, no baby deer legs to start off. #iykyk. Hit the first mile cautiously. By mile 4, my legs are like, “whoa, Nelly!” They want to seize up. Walk a bit, catch my breath, pop a gel and some water. Finally, I tell my legs to fuck off and let’s go! 

Along the way, this younger dude starts running with me. Asks how many laps we got. Tell him I’m on 3 of 4 and he’s annoyed he’s got 1 more to go! Smartly, he tucks right behind me and hangs with me. We’re passing hella folks up, bobbing and weaving through. I don’t try to drop him - I ain’t the legs for that, but also, I want to help him push through. He’s also keeping me honest and pushing me, even if he don’t know it. Legs are on the verge of cramping, but they’re holding. Mile 5 at 7:39. By far, not my best, but it’s what I got! We hit the last aid station, grab water on the go and push forward. I let him know we got a mile left and to just hold on. We’re on the “trail” section of the course - a mix of thick powder, bark mulch and rocky terrain. We still weaving around folks and it’s a great mental win passing people.

I announce a half mile left as we turn into the parking lot entrance. “Figure out what you got left in the tank, pull the trigger and take off! Don’t worry about me.” He thanks me for letting him draft off me and he goes. “Follow behind me, I got you!” he tells me. Oh I’ll follow, but not close! 😂 I ain’t got that much of a kick left! I’m glad I can help him! One final turn and the crowds cheer us on. Somehow, I’m catching up to him. I guess he shot his shot too early. I’ll close the gap a bit, but won’t catch him.

With about a quarter mile left, I see wifey. Chuck her a quick deuce and pick it up to bring it home.

2:17:02

I see young buck at the finish line corral and we thank each other one more time for a good race. Definitely the push we both needed to get us through! 

Definitely not my best, but to be honest, it’s not that bad! Shout out to the race gods that let me pull off a decent effort! I definitely felt that heavy tiredness from working 14 hours the night before. It took a lot to ignore it and push on. That feeling of being undertrained was real! I remember somewhere on the run thinking, “yeah, let’s not do this for SDIT in 8 weeks!”

What went well

• Sticking to my strengths. I didn’t let myself get caught up with the crowd passing me in the swim. If I let my ego try to keep with them, I would’ve wasted way more energy and potentially put myself in a bad situation in the water. One of the last out the water, but I knew I’d make it up later.

• On the bike, I took advantage of the loops to gain speed/time where I could bombed the downhill and let it carry me up the loop and passed hella heads. It’s fun keeping up with cars on this section! Knowing how to manage the hairpin turns worked great too. Took them wide into it, narrow on the exit and used the momentum to zip out of them as fast as possible.

• On the run, I listened to my body and didn’t push too much. Walked when I needed to save energy and let the body re-coup. Definitely dug into the pain cave running those last two miles with the young dude but didn’t push beyond what I had in me. Hovered right on that edge though!

• Nutrition - Did well eating gels roughly every 30-40minutes. Took two on the bike and two on the run. Did well with timing the hydration. Sipped out my water bottle every 5 miles on the bike - roughly every 15 minutes. On the run, I grabbed water at every loop. Big sip and doused myself with the rest to cool down the body.

Thankful I was able to pull it off with no damage! A big, big shout out to everyone that participated!

Pics incoming soon!