Santa Rosa Island Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Really lousy swim. I couldn't stay on course to save my life! I kept straying off, then had to zig zag to get back on course. Finally gave up and swam breaststoke -- at least I could stay on course that way. And it probably wasn't any slower than all of that zig-zagging!

I need to figure out how to sight!

Long run from the water to my bike, through sand first, then over the pavement. Ouch!

I felt like this was a good bike for me. Despite the hairpin turns, I was able to get back up to speed fairly quickly. I didn't get passed by anyone in my age group, and the only people really passing me were fast guys from the wave behind me.

Haven't had a lot of bike training over the last couple of months. I think I could have done better if I'd been better trained, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.

The person who was racked next to me took up my space, so I had to move that bike before I could rack. I spent a little extra time drinking, since I didn't drink at all on the bike and I knew I wouldn't drink on the run course (I never can!).

Can't really predict selfishness in someone else, so I don't how I could have prevented that person from taking up my space. I also had a little difficulty with the tongue on my racing flats, but I'm sure that couldn't have taken up much time.

This was definitely my best leg, but it was really strange. I've gotten very used to running with my Garmin and constantly checking my pace. I didn't have it on, and felt lost! In fact, I felt that I was going very slowly. Turns out I did just fine -- I guess I used my "pace memory".

I'm thinking that I need my Garmin for at least the run portion. I have my bike computer so I don't need it there. I could have it on and ready to strap on as I'm running. I need to think about this, but I think it would have given me some confidence that I was doing ok on the run, plus I would have known how far I'd gone.

Mostly re-hydrating, walking around, waiting for T.J. and Billie.


Definitely my swim. I panicked a bit when I kept going off course. I did finally tell myself that it would be ok, and managed to recover.


I would have given this race a 5, except for the loop in the middle of the bike course. They didn't have any choice because the road was cut off further out from hurricane damage, but the loop seemed to cause problems with the race results. Turns out that some people skipped the loop, and they had to be eliminated before the results could be announced (and that took a very long time!). I'm still not sure if they got it right or not. During the awards ceremony they gave me second place, but now the official results show me in third place. Don't know if someone above me skipped the loop or not. But overall this was a fun race!