First triathlon of 2016 is in the books. Smithfield is a very “newbie” friendly event with a 300 meter pool swim, 10 mile bike, and a 5K run. Starting times are based on your estimated 300 meter swim which, for me, makes for a long day just waiting around.

The weather was pretty bad but, as it turned out, the bike and run were not nearly as miserable as I expected them to be. Nothing much to report other than my swim and run were a bit quicker than last year while I lost a bit of time on the bike and a lot of time in transitions. I suspect I was a bit cautious on the wet roads and having 4 inches of mud in the transition area tends to slow one down as well. Overall, I was about 30 seconds faster than last year.  Although the swim was about 30 seconds faster, I’m more pleased with how it felt. I was much more relaxed and never felt any anxiety.

Now if I could just shave a minute or two off my 300 meter time that would at least give me a much better starting seed. Waiting around for 4 hours kind of sucks. But even with the miserable weather and the long wait to get started, there’s just such a positive vibe at these events, you simply can’t wait for the next one.