Redondo Beach Sprint Preview

This Sunday I will be racing in the local Redondo Beach Sprint Triathlon. As of 24 hours ago, I was unsure if I was going to race because I thought I had a stress fracture in my right tibia. I saw an orthopedic specialist yesterday and he said I have post medial tibial stress syndrome (aka shin splints). I was given direction on what to do to get rid of them and was told there was very little risk of developing a stress fracture from my current condition. Most importantly, I was given the go ahead to to run...and so I'm going to go ahead and race this weekend. Check out my x-ray. Looks good to me...

Back to the race. The Redondo Beach sprint triathlon is my hometown race and it is super short: 1/2 mile swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run. The distances are chosen so that the average person spends about the same time on each leg of the race. This means that the race is good for swimmers because the swim is proportionally long.

Last year I came in third at this race and I hope to improve by a couple spots when I race on Sunday. I developed a mean stomach cramp that lasted pretty much the whole run during last year's race. I think it was because I ate too close to the race and didn't give the food enough time to properly digest. So far this season, I've been making sure to eat a full meal about 4 hours before my races and have not have any issues with stomach cramps. I hope I continue to not have issues.

I know a couple people that are racing in their first triathlon at this race and I'm excited to see how it goes for them. It should be a fun race.