The water felt pretty good because it was 10 degrees warmer than the air. We were the 4th wave. Most of us jumped in about 5 minutes before the start and just treaded water. I wasn't very nervous leading up to the start. When the horn went off I started swimming. WHOA!!!! Open water swimming is so much different than pool swimming. Where is my crystal clear water and neatly defined lanes?? Yeah, I knew it wouldn't be like that but that is still what I was used to. I really didn't kick or get kicked by anyone that much to my surprise but the first 5 minutes were very hectic. All of the swimmers around me and the dark water kinda freaked me out. The water was pretty rough at first just from the swimmers. Can I swim? Should I quit already? These thoughts were legitamately going through my head. Luckily after about 5 minutes, the crowd thinned as I assumed most people had swam ahead of me. I got into a rythum and found my stroke. Sighting the bouys was difficult because my googles kept fogging up. Damn, why didn't I just buy a new set of $12 googles. I was resting a bit about every 5 minutes (guessing) to clear my googles and catch my breath. Resting consisted of doing 5-10 strokes of the breast stroke. About 2/3 of the way through I got a pretty bad cramp in my side and was having trouble doing several stokes in a row without having to stop and get my breath. By that time, I was almost home and started just pushing through the pain.

Do open water practice. More long distance practice.

Running up the ramp from the swim, I was very glad it was over, but my legs felt like Jello. Whoa, this is going to be a long race.... The transition went well. I put on my socks and bike shoes, ate a GU quikly and was off.

Nothing...

At the start of the bike, I was really surprised how tired my legs were from the swim. The were burning from the start. I spent a good 2-4 minutes trying to catch my breath (from the swim & transition) and trying to get my HR down. I passed a few people and was passed by a few at the beginning. The course was pretty straight after the first 4 miles on this country road. The road lines fields and was actually pretty pleasent. There were a bunch of rolling hills... nothing too steep but it did get annoying. Several people were passing me and my first though was, "maybe I didn't swim that slow after all." The last 1/4 of the course had many u-turns that I didn't care for. It broke up the pace. Towards the end I was getting pissed off when guys were passing me, but there was nothing I could do. I wasn't slacking, and my legs really wouldn't give me any more effort (I ws saving a bit for the run). Luckily it was still pretty cool, so my one bottle of gatorade and a GU packet halfway through was perfect for nutrition and hydration.

Train more.

Good transition. No problems.

The beginning of the run was difficult as expected. Legs felt heavy but not as bad as I thought they would. I settled into a nice pace trying to control my HR and breathing. I reach the 1st mile marker and my watch says 6:57... NO WAY, I ran that in under 7 minutes!!?? This must be a short course. I reach the second mile marker... 7:15. Whoa!!! I am really running fast. I was feeling great... passing people and really didn't feel like I was running all out. I kept the miles as about 7:30 until the final mile which I turned up and completed in 7:05. GREAT RUN!!!

Nothing. Best run I have ever had.

Lots of water... walked around a bit happy it was over. Overall it was a great race. I wanted to get under 3 hours and really blew that goal out of the water. I am really glad that I didn't wear my HR strap (I wore the watch for lap times). I think that watching my HR shoot up would have made me pull back on my effort level. I just paid close attention to my breathing and how I was feeling to monitor my effort level.


Not bad at all for my first Olympic distance triathlon. Swimming went ok considering the bad start. New googles would have helped. The biking segment was my weakest and can be improved significantly with some more training. Had I shaved 8 minutes off of my bike time, I would have placed in the top half of my age group. Running went awesome... all the speedwork that I did at the track really paid off.


This was the 1st year they did this race. I like the course overall. The community that it was around was really nice. I didn't like all the uturns on the bike course, but perhaps they were neccessary. Post race food was poor... hummus, bagels, banannas, oranges (but I am spoiled from the fajita spread they had at the Tom Landry Triathlon)... Luckily they broke out the beer at noon.