GroundForce IT Power Sprint Triathlon Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Gavin M.
Moseley, VA

  (05-24-2010)

"This is a GREAT local Sprint Tri in Richmond put on by Richmond Multisports. As is always true with Laurie Mehler and her team from RMS, the race was very well organized! The race consists of a 300 meter pool swim, a 20k bike, and a 5k run. The bike course is very fast and primarily flat with a few rollers. This is a GREAT course to get down in your aerobars, get in a big gear and push hard (31:40 for me this year)! The run course is also relatively flat with a nice flat/downhill leg into a moderate climb before the turn-around. This run course can also be run very fast (19:24 for me this year)! The reason I saved the swim for last is becasue it is a 300 meter snake pool swim. Athletes are seeded based on their predicted swim time and while this tends to work out msot of the time, it does not always work (liek what happened to me this year). I was seeded with a 5:45 swim time which is about 15 seconds slower than my best 300. I had a good start and actually caught the althlet in front of me within 3 lengths. She politely held up at the wall so I could pass her. At the end of the 5th length, I felt the athlete behind me touching my toes, so I politely held up at the wall and let him pass. He then proceeded to gradually run out of gas, but never held up to let me pass again for the remaining lengths. I also never got a clear shot at passing him without endangering myself and and an oncoming swimmer. So I basically breast stroked on top of his feet the rest of the way. The good news was that I used very little energy. The bad news was that my time was 6:24 which cost me breaking the 1 hour barrier overall for this race. The lesson learned here is that I will seed myself faster next time based on my best swim time so that I don't get held up. That is the tricky part about pool swims in triathlon.

I was still happy with 21st overall and 4th in my AG and next year, I will go under 60 minutes. I highly recommend this race even to triathletes like me that typically focus on Olympic and Half Iron distances, becasue it is always fun to go as fast as you can in a Sprint Tri! "

Reviewed by a: Repeat Participant for 2010