This was rough. The swim killed me for the rest of the race. I panicked after rounding the first buoy and spent tons of time and energy trying to find my way, while trying to avoid the faster swimmers. About halfway through the swim, some guy hit my face and knocked my goggles out of alignment. I never got them back in place correctly, so I had water in my eyes for the rest of the swim. My form was bad, and completing that swim may have been one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. Looking back, my poor performance in the rest of the race was directly affected by my poor swim.

I need to swim more. I only learned how to swim properly five weeks ago. I don't have the form or the stamina to compete well in the swim. I would also make sure to eat more both before and after the swim.

I was thrashed after the swim, so I tried to take my time in order to get my breath back. The kicker of it was that we had to run, with our bikes, UP A HILL after transition.

I would have made sure to eat something or take a gel.

I had nothing in the tank. By mile 5, I was just praying to finish. Somehow, with the help of gravity on the downhills, I was able to keep going, even at that slow pace. I never stopped, but I thought about it a lot. I was miserable. My legs were on fire, I had no breath, and my back hurt. I was so disappointed with how that went.

I needed to drink more and to do it on a regular basis. I only drank when I thought I had a chance to. That was a mistake. I also needed to eat the gel that was in my pocket, but I forgot about it.

I tried to take my time so that I could get my breath. I drank some water, changed socks, and hoped that I could muster enough energy to finish. I was slow, but I needed to be.

If I had felt better getting off the bike, I probably could have done this transition in 2 minutes. But, as it was, I did what I could.

The first two miles, I could barely run them. But I tried to keep moving and walked when I needed to. I felt awful, but I was determined to finish and I was determined to finish the race in under two hours. At the last mile marker, I looked at my watch and saw that I did the first two miles in 22 minutes. I realized that 11 minutes miles weren't going to get it done. So, I slowly made my way up the last hill, got to a flat and increased my speed. By the time I hit the last downhill, I was going double time. By the time I hit the turn for the last 200 yards to the finish line, I was sprinting. I did that last mile in just over 6 minutes, and reached my goal of finishing in under two hours.

I'd find a way to have more energy for the run. I'm a good runner, but I had little left in the tank. As it ended up, that effort in the last mile made my run semi respectable, considering how the rest of the race went.

I stumbled to the food tent, got some water, an orange, some cyclomax, and a mellow yellow. Then I leaned against the fence and tried not to fall over.


Food and water. My nutrition was totally inadequate. I need a better plan for the next race.


I liked the race and I'm glad I did it. I know that I shouldn't be too hard on myself because this was my first race and I only trained for five weeks. But ultimately, I can't help but be a little disappointed. So, next race, I'll just have to do better.

The important thing to note here is that there WILL be a next race.