On August 14 I raced at the Sharon Triathlon in Sharon, MA. I had seen online that this was a flat and fast race and was hoping to get in a solid tune-up before Timberman the following weekend. The day before I went and picked up my packet and went for a ride around the bike course with my dad.
Race day weather was rather dreary and wet.
Getting ready for a warm-up swim:
The start was in waist deep water which is a bit awkward to get going since you can’t dolphin dive or get some momentum from running. I started on the outside but towards the middle. The course was a long clockwise rectangle with the first leg being a short one before a right turn. 
The swim seemed a little long to me, as I put in a top 1/3 of the field performance but only averaged 2:04/100 splits.
Exiting the water: 
Not sure why I am still getting out of the wetsuit in front of the bike. T1 fail: 
Finally getting out of T1: 
Clipping in: 
As you can see below, although it wasn’t raining it was very humid and damp and the roads were very wet. I was hoping to really drill the bike and average over 22mph. Through most of the bike I was on track for that performance. However, in the second to last corner (just previous to the below picture), I took a corner far too aggressively for the conditions and lost the bike. I ended up sliding down the road and mangling up my bike and body.
Luckily it was only 200-300 yards from T2 so I limped it home:
Even with the crash and being stunned in the middle of the road for a bit before I rode in slowly, I still managed a top 22% in my age group and top 13% overall bike split. After a pitifully slow T2 due to assessing injuries and having a conversation with the race director I decided to try to at least finish. The run started very slow as my left leg was sore and the big gash on my hip was rubbing on my shorts.
After a few adjustments and some jogging I was able to pick up the pace a little towards the end:
It certainly was disappointing to get such a poor result. However, more importantly was suffering a big crash just a week before Timberman.
| Time | Distance | Pace | AG Place | % | Overall Place | % |
| | | | | | | | |
| # Entries | | | | 32 | | 510 | |
| | | | | | | | |
| Swim | 18:16 | 1/2 mile | 2:04/100yd | 11 | 34% | 153 | 30% |
| T1 | 1:59 | | | 14 | 44% | 147 | 29% |
| Bike | 35:43 | 12.3 miles | 20.6 mph | 7 | 22% | 68 | 13% |
| T2 | 2:31 | | | 30 | 94% | 444 | 87% |
| Run | 44:39 | 4.4 miles | 10:08/mile | 29 | 91% | 397 | 79% |
| Total | 1:43:07 | | | 22 | 69% | 233 | 46% |
Here is a review of the injuries:
Little elbow scrape:
Some leg abrasions:
Probably the most annoying was both my hands getting cut up:
Gnarliest looking was the hole in my hip from where the plastic on the bottom of my seat stabbed me:
And then the classic road rash on my left leg:
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