Wilmington Sprint Triathlon Race Report

September 20, 2008

Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

Swim 1500m intercoastal channel(point-to-point)

Bike 20K

Run 5K

The Wilmington Sprint is the largest triathlon in the North Carolina Set Up Events series. The race is approximately 1300 participants strong and upon looking into the sea of bikes racked in transition, it looks like everyone one showed up this year.

The swim is in the intercoastal waterway is a point-to-point swim. The swim start is approximately a little over a half a mile from the transition area. You can walk over or take a short bus ride over to the swim start. The course is a zigzag through the channel. The swim buoys are set up just for reference. You don’t have to swim to the “left or right” of the buoys or make a turn at the triangles, just get there with the fastest line you personally decide on. This format intimidates a lot of swimmers but if you are comfortable in open water it is a huge advantage. For me personally, I think it is one of the most enjoyable swim courses I have had the thrill of participating in. I felt like I had a good swim. I was comfortable, took what seemed like the shortest line in and wasn’t out of breath until I exited the water.

Upon exiting the water is a several hundred-yard sprint to the bike. You have to get out of the water, run through a marina parking lot, run across the a four lane road, and then all, and I mean all the way down the long transition to eventually find your bike racked.

I left my shoes in my pedals, strapped on the helmet and took off.

I struggled a little this time getting my feet in my shoes to get rolling on the bike (one of my shoes almost clipped out of the pedals several times from me fighting with it). Instead of loosing more time with a shoe on the ground, I just rolled at 10mph for a few seconds until I got my feet strapped into my shoes, the it was Hammer Time!

The bike course is flat and fast. The only incline is the bridge over the intercoastal. The wind was fairly strong for approximately four miles of the bike that slowed down times a bit but it was still a fast bike. A few of the corners were rather sharp and several participants felt the need to leave some skin cells on the pavement before they left the course. Fortunately, I stayed upright, drank a bottle of hydration throughout the ride and felt like I was making good time.

T2 was easy. I slid on the shoes and race belt and was off. I apparently got myself fairly worked up in transition because by the time I was leaving the area I was completely out of breath, to the point were I was in such oxygen debt that I could hardly hear anything. I had to throttle back a bit for the first almost mile to catch my breath.

As for the short 5K run, I did what I could for not being able to run for sometime. By design, I am not a sprinter but I did expect to pull off a much better time. I was passed by what I counted as 20 people in the short course. The muscles in my legs aren’t used to running right now and I had to come to grips that they weren’t going to turn over any faster. My left leg (from the stress fracture) hurt a little and I didn’t feel like making it any worse to pick up at most another minute or two by forcing myself to go faster.

I finished feeling content that I was able to just participate. I truly love waking up on race mornings.

The course at this race is unique and fun. Set Up Events does a great job coordinating so many people in this race. I’ll sign up again next year and just hope that after the race the weather is sunny and a fun time (maybe even a nap) on the beach afterwards will be a nice reward.

Race Results

Swim:23:19(180)

T1:1:02

Bike:33:32

T2:1:40

Run:22:58(205)

Overall:1:22:30(125)

Train Hard, Race Harder