I swam it about 45 seconds faster than in practice therefore I could have moved myself up a group for the start (I was in the 4:45 group). Unfortunately I had 2 superslow swimmmers ahead of me that should have put themselves farther back. I ended up having to tread behind the first swimmer for about 10meters until we hit the wall and I could pass. I was really happy with my swim and able to freestyle the whole way which is a first for me.

For time trial starts, practice several times on different days to get a more accurate time in which to seed myself.

They rolled the time for T1 into the bike portion, but I felt I did pretty good. I was biking in toe clips so I put on my socks and running shoes at this point. I was pretty ungraceful getting on the bike, but I'm a bit of a klutz and I really didn't want to fall in front of everybody!

Bring a smaller towel specifically to dry off my feet and not try to dry my feet and put on my shoes while standing. Due to my lack of overall grace and being a little wobbly from the swim, it would have been quicker for me to just park my butt on the ground immediately and get it done as opposed to trying to stay upright then realizing I was going to fall over if I just didn't sit. Also, I need some yanks or lace locks to eliminate the need for bow-tying.

My time was actually a bit faster than recorded because they added the T1 time to this split. I did the first half really fast, then after the turn around realized I was fast because I had the wind at my back the first half and after the turnaround I was riding straight into it.

I know that my heartrate was ridiculously high the second half and I really should have geared down more before the end of this leg so that I had more gas left for the run. I thought I was pretty fast though given that I was on my old mountain bike and I had only been riding it outdoors for less than a month.

The time for T2 was added into the run. I was really quick on this one because I already had my running shoes on so it was basically just a matter of racking the bike, pulling off my helmet and flipping my race belt around.

I probably could have run with the bike a bit more and of course I am incredibly clumsy about the dismount. I also seemed to have troubles racking the bike so next race, I'm going to practice racking it a few times.

I totally bit it on the run. I came out of the bike going way too fast and I was already out of breath 100meters into the run. I took a quick walk break right out of transition to get my heart rate down, and again about 1/2 way through the run. I probably only walked a total of 1 minute but I really didn't like that I needed to on such a short distance. My overall pace wasn't bad given that I'm normally between 11 and 11:30 in training, but I really didn't feel in control during the run and I was really uncomfortable due to side stitches.

Pace myself more on the bike and slow it down so that I can start the run at a more appropriate level. Also, I'm not going to beat myself up if I need to take walk breaks because the recovery will make me faster in the end.

I didn't really warm down - just walked a bit and grabbed some fluids. I should have stretched but I got caught up in what was going on. Had the race been longer, I'm sure I would have been sore the next day due to lack of stretching.


I am only limited by my inexperience and I think that with more training I'll get faster and smarter as a racer.


A well-organized, affordable and fun event that really catered to the first timer. Quite a few volunteers, a decent supply of after race snacks and really good door prizes. I also liked that there were a lot of children participating (the youngest was 9) which gave it a family feeling as opposed to being super competitive. I would highly recommend this race to anyone scared to death of their first race = like me!