Highmark Triathlon at Presque Isle - TriathlonSprint

The lifeguards shortened the course because of the strong current, but assured us it would "feel longer than 500 yards" which I would agree. I'm sure I swam closer to 1000, mostly within the first 100 yards where I swear I spent most of my time in the water. It felt like I was in the lake for 30 minutes I was "swimming" (and I use the term loosely!) so slowly. After the first 100 yards or so (the second buoy) I realized that maybe I could actually swim instead of flail, and that sped things up quite a bit until I got to about 30 yards or so from shore when (ironically) I was confronted with an abandoned life guard board--spent some time trying to keep it from hitting me--that took some focus. That said, I was aiming to survive, which I did, and not drift into the rocks (which several folks had trouble with). And since I largely did breast stroke, I actually had pretty good navigation. I didn't really get off course too much. I was just plain slow.

Start swimming sooner--but really I'm just still surviving these crazy open water swims. I'm a long way off from a fast crawl. My open water swims look nothing like my pool swims which are really fine, though not specatacular. Just staying alive!

Had a lot of trouble getting my shoes into the pedals on the course because I had been running through the wet sand and mud--I guess that's why folks put the shoes on the pedals and put the feet in after. Go figure! I was also fumbling with my helmet straps because they felt tight to me--I think my daughter had been wearing my helmet!

I improved my t-time from last year--so that was good. I need to try and talk less still.

The bike seems to be my best and since I knew I was coming into this entire race pretty under-trained, I wasn't expecting much more than to finish. So I felt pretty good overall about my bike. In fact, I felt downright euphoric for the first 3 miles just because I was out of the lake!!!
I probably could have pushed even a little bit harder on the bike ride, but I knew that the run was going to be tough since I had really not being doing much in the way of running at all, and every run in recent months felt like a very slow struggle, PLUS I only did one brick before the race--hadn't done a bike-run brick in literally months.

Push just a little bit harder. Plus, I need to work on drinking more. It is just so difficult for me when I'm still coughing up lake water!

Again, I improved on my t-time from last year--a little less talking and even got a puff of asthma medicine, though not quite enough. My bungee shoe laces came off their track, but I put them back on during the run, so that took time off my run rather than my t-time! Still need to self-narrate less and focus more.

Don't really know. More focus, less talking.

Easy to keep cool since it was raining~! I knew this would be my nearly worst event (the swim--I'm so bad I don't even count it!) for me since I have been struggling so much these last few months. I haven't really been running the distances I should--only at most 4 or so miles--and I really have been going at slow speeds (just about 11 minute miles!). So I had a goal (I say aim low and hope for the best!) of finishing with under 12 minute miles. Which I did. I was surprised I ran under 10 minute miles because I was feeling pretty okay--probably could have had a little faster if I had better lungs--not enough of the asthma medicine.

Well, other than TRAIN> not much

walking stretching


Being undertrained


Could have had more kayaks and such in the lake. A lot of the kayaks and assistance had to drift over to help the first wave at the end of the course and that left us over-40s in the beginning of the course--some folks were really struggling and a couple were in trouble. Though when asked we always said--"we're fine!" Such liars we were! I don't have too many to compare to, but everyone is very nice and it's a fun event.