I need to practice swimming in the ocean. I've never swam nearly 1/2 a mile in the Atlantic. Plus thanks to "Ophelia," there were still some high and choppy waves (3-5 feet). And to make matters worse, there was no current!!
I swam out under the choppy waves, hit the turn and fell apart. We were out past the crests, however the water out there was not flat. Because of that and because I'm use to swimming in pools, I seriously struggled the rest of the way; doing a lot of breaststroke and backstroke at times just to catch my breath. All I can say is wow! What a challenge that was.

Get out to the Ocean and practice before the race.

Was given a spray on my legs to get sand off.

Maybe don't stand so long where the young lady was spraying me off. I had a bucket at my station and I probably could have saved some time.

I was given an opportunity to ride a friends street bike. I had never ridden a bike like that before and it was a struggle to start on the bike and get my feet into the cages.
We couldn't pass anybody on the bridge, and because of that there was a "traffic jam," with about 8 bikes in a row stuck. I probably lost about 1 minute having to slow down.
Other than that and getting settled, it was an awesome ride.

I need to figure out how to reach my water bottle. I didn't get a sip of water for the entire ride. I couldn't control the bike when I let go with one hand.

Had to stop a bit to get some electrolytes in me. Probably lost about 20 seconds, but really needed the energy.

Great first 2 miles of run and started feeling tired on the way back. Possibly because of the sun beaming down on me. Had pleanty of water. However run became very tough. I kept running and kept begging for the turn, but wasn't seeing it, so I had to slow down. Finally found turn and finished strong.
Come to find out it was a 3.42 mile run instead of a 3.1 run. No wonder it hurt so much.

Practice running 3.2 or 3.3 miles instead of 3.1, just in case course becomes longer than 3.1, as it was in this run.

A lot of water, and fruit.


Not used to the course, different area of the U.S. than VA. Also not being used to swimming so log, which drained me.


Very good race course and a fun day. Only wish I was aware run course was longer than 3.1 miles. I would have prepared better and probably had a better run.
Final Stats: 30/73 Novice Males - 273/389 Overall Males - 411/668 Participants