USAT Collegiate Nationals - 2009 - Joe Imbrogno

The morning was very cold, which probably turned out to be a good thing,
because it made the 53 degree F water (or about 12 deg C for cameron!)
feel surprisingly tolerable, with a wetsuit of course. As this was only my
2nd triathlon ever, I knew what to expect a little more, but am still very
inexperienced, which is why it was so much better to race with the tri
club. Having other people there racing with me surely calmed my nerves.
To summarize my race:

The water was quite cold, although not terrible but while swimming i
couldnt see my hand in front of my face, and consequently swam into much
debris and other swimmers. Also, I can only breathe on my left side, so I
really couldn't notice that a current kept sweeping me off track, and i
spent way too much time trying to right it. Now I will have to force
myself to learn that which I have been avoiding for so long: bilateral
breathing!

The bike course was shockingly hilly (to me at least) and the wind made
aero bars essential the entire time. It was a fun course, as I hit almost
40 mph down the hills, but a tough one (going up the hills, i hit as low
as 7 or 8 mph!!). The final climb right before the transition to the run
was the last thing my quads needed before the 10k.

The run course was as nice as you could ask for, nice and flat, but
relative to the morning temperature it got pretty hot. and after the bike,
I felt like the part of the quad that comes down by the inside of the knee
was going to charlie-horse the entire 10k. Luckily it didn't and given the
issue I was pretty satisfied with the 10k split. I definitely need to work
on running right off the bike, though.

So, all-in-all, while not particularly happy with my time, the race was
still a ton of fun and very educational, as i now know some of the little
things i can tweak and work on and where i can improve (everywhere!). The
race just made me more eager to train and compete in more events like this
over the summer.