Felt really good in the swim. I probably could've done without the wetsuit, but it was fine either way. The biggest problem here was that the water was so shallow, people were standing up and walking rather than swimming! Even out at the turn around, the water was only about chest deep. Walking is fine, but it makes things a bit confusing for people trying to swim. It was a little tough sighting on the way back as we were swimming right into the sun.

Probably skip the wetsuit. I also could've started more toward the middle rather than at the outside. I'm hesitant to do that yet, but in this race it probably would've worked better for me.

I could NOT get that wetsuit off!! Ugh. Caught on the ankles despite the layers of Bodyglide. I at least did better than I usually do with running up the beach after getting out of the water.

Skip the wetsuit

Holy hannah, did I suck on this bike leg. The Big Hill got me, badly. I was doing pretty well before that, but when I got to the hill, I knew I was in trouble. I ended up walking my bike up the last third of it or so. There were lots of people walking, so I wasn't the only one, but still it was very disappointing. My arms were shaking and I felt like I was going to barf, so I figured I'd better get off and walk. The odd thing is, that I was pushing my bike at about 2.5 mph, and some of the people riding past me were not really going all that much faster. It is quite a hill! The guy next to me in transition (19 years old, placed in the top 5 overall, I believe) told me that at one point he was riding about 5 mph on the way up. Still, I was disappointed that the hill got the best of me.

Train much, much more on hills, especially long, steep hills.

This was a simple hand-off of the timing chip to Mark, so pretty uneventful.

Nothing much, except make sure he knew which way the run exit was. (another eye roll)

Pretty average pace for him, and certainly much faster than I can run! There was only one drink station on a 4 mile course, though. No good.

He wishes he's trained more for this event, but I thought he did fine.

I got off the bike and pounded my bottle of Accelerade, then I walked around trying to keep the legs loose. Watched for Mark to come in from the run.


My lack of hill training.


I told Mark that next year, HE gets to do the bike leg!! :) Seriously, I'll probably do this again just so that I can get up that hill without walking. It's kind of disappointing to end the season on a downer, but at least it'll be motivation for next year. Oh, and I got to meet Autumn at the race, so that was really nice! :)