For some reason, everyone was hunched to the outside, near the pier. I was inside with a straight sight at the bouy. Only was hit once in the first bit, and was able to settle into a nice routine. Turns were not very crowded and started to catch previous wave at the 3:00 mark. I stayed inside while most people kept wide for some reason. Stayed relaxed in the water and got a good rhythm. Caught many people from the previous wave and only was passed by one person from the wave behind me.

Take in less water. I got several large mouthfuls of water, and didn't breathe out of my nose enough. Later in the race, my nostrils kept draining water from my sinuses. Yelch!

Crowd was dead silent leaving the water and heading to the transition area. Boo! Got to my stuff pretty quickly and got into the shoes nicely. Didn't put shoes on bike because there was an immediate turn and uphill after the start. On the way to the transition, volunteers with hoses sprayed water to clean feet (Nice!). Transition area was VERY long and my rack was at the complete opposite end (probably a 80 meter run from the entrance to my rack)

Nothing.

With all the hard cornering and grade transitions, it was impossible to get into a rhythm. Was pushing very hard when I had the chance. Got better at cornering as the course went on (I realized that I was looking where I DIDN'T want to go and instead began looking at where I wanted to go). This race had the best collection of bikers I've seen. I rode better than I ever had and was getting passed regularly, which doesn't usually happen to me (on the bike).

Corner better. Train for short hill climbs.

Got shoes off at exactly the right time and jumped from bike nicely. Had some trouble getting socks on, but everything else was fast.

Could have run faster in transition area.

HR was low, but my spirit was broken. I had planned on pushing much harder in the run with each mile. Nose/throat were feeling gross from draining sinuses. Instead, I kept a decent pace but never went all out (from an HR standpoint). I think I was spent from working so hard on the bike. I lost probably 10-15 age group places during the run.

Train better so I had more left for the run.

Stretching, sitting in car for 1 hour on ride home


Lack of consistent training. Lack of speed work in training.


Pacific Sports is a great company. They keep you informed with reminder emails and the entire situation is perfectly planned and organized.

My only complaint is that they didn't coordinate the closure of the streets well. All race info said to take Jamboree to the parking lot. Jamboree was closed, so you had to follow detour signs all around the Fashion Island, which was a bit tricky. Then, when you found the parking lot, they said it was full and you had to go to another lot, which was a good 1/4 mile across the water from the transition area. Many of us were running from our cars to the transition areas to get thing ready at the last second. All could have been avoided if they'd just told us to take MacArthur to PCH instead of Jamboree.