I have a wetsuit that I tried out at the lake yesterday for the first time. I had some hard times yesterday with my goggles, so ended up using my old, old pair of goggles (from like 3 years ago). Crazily, they functioned just fine!

Everyone walked into the water for the start of the race. When the race director said "go!" most of us just kept walking - it was pretty shallow for the first little bit. Once I decided to start swimming I was freaking out when my face when in the water. I feel like I have OK swim form as a rule. But today I just couldn't seem to do it. I started breathing really heavily, feeling terrible. I kept flipping over to my back, taking some deep breaths, then flipping back over to try again. Finally I decided that I was just not going to put my face in the water. This was not how I practiced at all, and I knew it would take more energy to do it like that. But I felt like I had no choice.

At the first bouy I heard a guy behind me yell "Where is the turn for the sprint distance??" I laughed a little bit on the inside, because the sprint wave wasn't supposed to start for another 30 minutes! :) Somebody didn't pay attention at the pre-race meeting! :)

As I was swimming I was actually sort of near a couple of people - within probably a hundred yards. Also I wasn't last out of the water, which was a small miracle!

Basically I think I just need to do more open water swimming. I basically hate it, I'm not gonna lie...but if I want to improve then that is a good way to do it.

I was a popsicle by this point. I had been fine in the water, but I was pretty darn chilly when I got out. It was raining, so everything was wet. I decided just to put on my bike jersey and a light jacket to try to keep some of the water off (ha!). I got out of my wetsuit fine, got everything on just fine. No problems here!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/115484436 1,534 ft of elevation gain
When I hopped on my bike, I realized my chain was not on for some reason. One of the volunteers helped me get it back on. I got about 1 mile out on the bike, and looked down at the place where my food bag was supposed to be - gone. So, I had zero calories to take in on the bike (because all I had was water in my water bottle). I tried not to let it get to me but I knew I would suffer for that. The bag had been on the bike when I walked it out of transition so I'm not 100% sure what happened there.

The bike was hilly, and lonely. I passed one person right away on the bike, and didn't pass anyone else (though I did get lapped by a few people). I was going super slow because, well, I'm just slow. The rain kept coming down with very few breaks. My feet started to go numb, more from being cold than anything. My nose was running like crazy, I was just soaking wet from head to toe. It was pretty darn miserable.

About mile 13 I started to feel hungry, but again there was nothing I could do about this.

I was so thankful when I pulled into the transition area - I was ready to be DONE with the bike!

I would have a back-up plan for food - maybe also have a stash in my jersey pocket that I could access to in case of emergency. Obviously more training on the bike would have been good, but I only had a certain amount of time to get ready for this race and I feel I did well based on my training.

I have never been so happy to be done with a bike ride. As I was coming in off the bike several athletes were already leaving - they were done with the whole race. I hadn't seen anyone in miles and miles on the bike so I was afraid that I was the last person by far, and that all the volunteers in this miserable weather were just waiting for me to get done so they could go home!

I had been planning on taking my jacket off for the run, but I decided that I'd better leave it on. My toes were totally numb, and I doubted that I would get too warm - if anything I would just get warmed up and be at a comfortable temperature by the finish. I did grab the extra Cliff bar that I had in my bag - I was super thankful for that, seeing as how by this time I had almost been working out for 3 hours with zero calories taken in.

Nothing

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/115484428 291 feet of climb

In the first 1/2 mile my right shoe came untied THREE TIMES. The third time I double-knotted it, and resisted the urge to tie fourteen more knots. I have a fancy way I tie my shoes that usually works awesome without being double-knotted, but it wasn't working (possibly because my shoe laces were soaking wet).

Anyway, by mile 2 I got warmed up enough that I could actually start to feel my feet. I was keeping between a 9:30/10:30 pace, depending on if it was uphill or downhill. It really was super hilly. I passed 2 people on the run, and having to stop to go pee cost me about 2 minutes or so. I ate a few bites of my Cliff bar, but I was just not feeling very good at all and my tummy was not real interested in eating at that time. I think I just went too long without food and so then my body was not sure how to handle it once I gave it some. I ate about 3 bites of the bar total; maybe about 100 calories or less.

I felt like I finished strong given the circumstances. I really don't think I had it in me to go much faster on the run, not after the day I'd just had!

I ended up finishing 4th from last. I wouldn't have minded being last but I would have been pretty sad to know that all the volunteers were waiting just for me! The weather was so miserable, but they all had smiles on their faces and they were awesome!

Nothing

Pretty much I just stopped running. :) And I immediately started craving my typical post-race meal, which is a big greasy bacon cheeseburger! Mmmmm! They already had the transition area torn down so my husband and D and my mom helped get my stuff together and we walked to the car.


First of all, I just got a wild hare 3 months ago to do this race. I haven't done a triathlon in about 3 years. I had tons of run-specific training - I did a marathon in June of this year. But I didn't start swimming and biking until about 3 months ago.

I feel like I could have done better if I would have had an additional month or so to train, but at the same time I was kind of expecting to be one of the last finishers. I knew when I signed up for this I would basically just be trying to finish, just to say I did it.

A lot of things went wrong on this race - my goggle issues (starting yesterday when I found out my 3-month-old pair no longer sealed), my panicking in the swim, the very cold weather, the rain, and not having anything to eat on the bike. But all in all I think I did the best I could have, and I couldn't have given anything more. So I am proud of that! :)


I thought this was a great race. Everyone was nice, with a smile on even though it was 55 degrees and raining the whole time. The thing that bothered me the most was that I didn't really see that the course was marked - they relied on volunteers to point people in the right direction. I was nervous when I was taking so long on the bike that the people pointing the way would quit before I finished, but thankfully they didn't! :)