I started the swim off to the side, away from the crush, and I didn’t have any panic like I did last year. It was a good swim. I caught my rhythm, ignored everybody else, and swam steadily. A woman with sighting issues swam under me, realized she was going the wrong direction, and then swam under me again. After rounding the first buoy, she did it again. WTH? And then she started to do it again, but I shouldered her to the side and swam as fast as I could to get ahead. Finally, I got away and didn’t have any more issues. (Or maybe she messed up her sighting again and headed out to the middle of the lake!) I could see as I was getting out that there were still a lot of women the water behind me, so for a change, I wasn’t last!

Swim faster.

T1 didn’t go as well as it could have. I was really cold and struggled putting on my socks. I almost went without, but I’ve never done that before and wasn’t sure how uncomfortable it would be. My bike was a little difficult to get off the rack. Because I’m tall, it won’t fit under the bar, so I had to wiggle it under sideways, a maneuver that’s always a bit difficult when there are nearby bikes on the rack.

Try longer socks next time so there's more fabric to hold onto when pulling them on.

I put everything I had into the bike ride. I passed some women and a few men. Two women and I kept changing places until about the last three miles, when they finally pulled ahead. I tried really hard to catch up, but couldn’t quite do it. However, I turned in the fifth fastest bike time for women, averaging 18.25 mph.

Had some issues with my chain slipping around mile 8. I need to check it out.

I had some difficulty re-racking my bike because it doesn’t fit under the bar.

Don't know.

I put everything I had into the run. My Garmin helped keep me on pace, and I just pushed it and blew through all the aid stations. I was thirsty, but it wasn’t hot, and it was only three miles, so I sucked it up and just ran. The first two miles went great, but the last mile had a few little hills that slowed me down a bit. But, I knew I was on track to beat last year’s time by about seven minutes, and I did! I beat it by 7:08 and SMOKED my age group, beating my nearest competitor by more than 13 minutes. Moreover, I was only 10:38 behind the top female.

Run faster?

I need to swim faster and run faster.


This is an excellent first race for the new triathlete. Easy, flat course; well organized, with lots of post-race activities.