I just tried my first triathlon yesterday. It was a lot of fun. It was just a local small town one a little shorter than a sprint distance. I have some questions. I changed shoes after the bike into some vibram five finger shoes and took me a long time to get them on. gonna switch to a barefoot shoe without the toes. was wondering if I should train in elastic laces or just use them in races? My next question is about 1 mile into the run i got bad abdominal cramps. It was very warm and only drank water on the bike. Is there anything that i can do to help prevent this from happening? Any help would be appreciated. I have my first real sprint tri in a few weeks.

The speed laces I've used (three different brands) have all been the type that once you put them in a shoe you leave them there for the duration of the shoe's life. I suppose it would be possible to remove them and reinstall them but frankly I'm not that motivated. lol. I just put them in and train with them.

As far as the cramps, if you were only drinking water during the race my next question is what did you eat before the race? Might have just eaten too much or perhaps too soon before the race? Just drinking water itself shouldn't be a problem as you don't have to fuel a whole lot for a short tri. And fueling during the race in anything shorter than an olympic length tri doesn't do you any good as the race is over before your body is able to process the carbs.

I run in a tri shoe with a velcro closure (K Swiss) that is faster for me than elastic laces. Minimal shoe and I only use them on race day. When I used Yanks laces I never had the confidence to run in them all the time.

Hit the electrolytes if you want to avaoid cramps and my friends swear by magnisium.

Oh the velcro shoe sounds good, hadn't heard of those and k Swiss are a great brand for shoes. thanks for that :-)