The Britt-Webb Family

July 30 Update: Brightroom photos are now online for Erik, Frank and Tyler. There are also some good photos of us in the Lost & Found. I’ve added the preview sizes of these to the end of the photo slideshow below.

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On Sunday, July 27th, my brother-in-law Frank Britt, his son Tyler Britt and I competed in the Massachusetts State Triathlon. Click the play button below to see the photo slideshow, or click the link in the photo’s bottom left to see the Picasa Webalbum.

The day started off very ominously, with overnight lightening and thunder storms continuing well into the morning. Race directors said it was scary at the race site at 4am. Fortunately, by 6am the storm broke and gave way to nearly perfect triathlon weather. The rest of the morning it was overcast, but not too muggy and great temperature. The water in Lake Dennison was 76 degrees.

Tyler and I ran the sprint distance (1/3 mile swim, 11.3 mile bike, 3.1 mile run), while Frank completed the olympic distance (.9 mile swim, 22.7 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). I’ve summarized our results below. The official results are also posted on Cool Running for the sprint and olympic distances.

Tyler deserves huge kudos for completing his FIRST triathlon. It was especially impressive that, considering this, he placed 158th out of 204 overall and 4th in the 19 & under age group. He completed the swim in 12:34 (faster than Uncle E), the bike in 44:48 and the run in 32:29. I think his big lesson learned (which he already knew), is to get a road bike. Even so, he said he blew by a bunch of people on the bike.

Frank also achieved a huge milestone, completing his first olympic distance tri. He finished 163rd out of 169 overall and 24th in his age group. He complete the swim in 33:19 minutes, the bike in 1:29:24 and the run in 57:01. A funny little story from this: He intended to run only 5k. Part way into the run, he turned to the woman along side him and said, “this is a LONG run. I haven’t even see the 5k turn-around yet!” To which she replied, “We’re 3.5 miles into the 10k. You missed the 5k turn around. You’re doing the whole 10k, my friend.”

As for me, this was my second triathlon of the season. Overall, I felt a noticeable improvement from the POWOW triathlon two weeks earlier. I finished 103rd out of 204 sprinters, 9th out of 12 in my age group. I completed the swim in 13:15, the bike in 38:47 and the run in 25:59.

Key insights into my performance:

• middle third of the swim still feels terrible, but I actually started feeling “in the zone” for the final third of the swim.
• Bike was great. Held my own up hills, blew by everyone (include elite) in down hills.
• I felt in much better condition for the run this time. HUGE knot in my left calf slowed me down, but I was really happy with my breathing.

Key lessons for next time:

• Put front bike wheel on correctly, so bike computer works!
• Improve bike out, with shoes already attached to the pedals
• Pull feet out of bike shoes sooner, before dismount into transition area

Next event: Sharon’s Back Triathlon in two weeks.

Attached is the triathlon packet.

Attachment	Size
mass state triathlon packet 2008.pdf	725.72 KB