Started in the third wave. I don't think I've ever had to deal with this much contact on the swim. I'm generally slow, so I started near the back, but think that was a mistake. Got caught up on a lot of people in the beginning. Things thinned out a bit, but then I was neck and neck with another woman who was stuck on my left and we kept bumping. Eventually, ducked behind her to pull off to her left side. Worst was getting boxed in a bit later with someone stuck ahead of me and on both sides. Tried to maneuver around them, but was stuck, so eventually had to grab the front legs and push her off to the side to get free.

Next year I should line up further up for this race. While I'm not generally fast, this was a particularly bad time for me on this course and likely cost me a podium spot. I'd rather have people potentially have to swim over me than have to pick my way through so many in the future.

Overall, this went fine. My spot was close to the bike out, but that meant I had to run entirely across transition, so that is where most of my time likely came from. Apparently, I had the 9th fastest T1 time, so I can't really complain about that!

I could run a bit faster across transition, but otherwise, this went well!

I can't really complain having the 8th fastest time on the course, but I'm capable of doing better. I think the hills got to me since I haven't been riding that much lately, and most of what I've done has been on the trainer. Overall, not too bad though...

Train more leading up to this race. I haven't been completely lazy, but I haven't been as consistent as I'd like to be either.

This part frustrated me! The racks used at this race are V shaped, with slots to put your rear tire in. While I was out on the bike, someone had thrown their small towel directly on one of my tire slots. Since it was small, I tried to see if I could just cram my tire in without moving it, but when I let go, it was clear that my bike was going to fall over if I left it. As a result, I had to reach in and dig out the towel, then rerack my bike, which definitely cost me time. Otherwise, everything that was under my control went well.

I've already sent an email to the RD asking if people can be made aware of the issue of leaving items on the rack in the future. Sadly, I've had this happen in past races with these racks as well, although usually it's wetsuits instead of towels.

This wasn't terrible, but I was definitely expecting a sub 25 run, so it was disappointing. Not sure what went wrong. I got a little disheartened when I got passed by a woman in my AG in the last mile, so perhaps that hurt me mentally.

I need to run more consistently building up to the race. Doing runs with more hills would be helpful too, since most of the loops near my new place are relatively flat.

Checked the results and found that I had come in 4th in my AG, only 23 seconds behind 3rd place. I'm not going to lie, I was definitely disappointed.


My run performance was not what I'm capable of, but getting hung up with all the contact on the swim, as well as the towel issue in T2 definitely didn't help either.


I like this race and will definitely do it again next year. I was definitely disappointed with the outcome this year, but am eyeing a HIM that would be the following weekend next year, so if I do that, I should be in great shape to come back and get my revenge on this course next year!