Ah, swimming. My old nemesis.

This was a 1/2 mile swim as opposed the 1/4 I was used to for open water. It wasn't a huge deal, I figured. Well wouldn't you know it, the first 400M went terrific. The last 400 was... well, less than that. I was in a blue swim cap. For the first half of the swim, I was surrounded by blue swim caps. Then slowly I began to notice green.. then pink..


It didn't help that the landmark I picked to sight off of was less visible in the water once I got in there, so I ended up blindly following some guys into oblivion way outside the buoy.

I'd like to say that since the last race my per 100m pace over 400m has improved significantly, but since my last half of the swim was so abysmally slow, it averaged out to be exactly what it was in the last race. Shoot.

I really need to pick up my endurance training in the water. I'm going to be doing OWS training with P3 (a local coaching company) starting next week. I really need to get this swimming thing down.

I'm going to be focusing on swim technique and endurance WAY more in the coming weeks leading up to my Olympic distance in August. It's my biggest limiter.

I came out of the water, got my wetsuit down to my waist, looked down at my "water resistant" watch and saw... a blank screen filled with water. Cheap piece of junk. Therefore I did the run leg without time reference.

This was the first time I attempted a Swim-Bike transition with shoes on the bike. I'd been practicing in private over and over and over, and I had it pretty much down and I was at the point I was confident enough to try it in a race. One thing hit me right away: I had never attempted this after a 1/2 mile swim with my heart rate at race level and my adrenaline pumping. Despite this, I had a successful albeit somewhat wobbly and disoriented mount onto the bike. As per advice given to me, I chose to mount well beyond the mount line so that any incidents of that kind would not cause a dangerous situation for other riders.

Additionally, the rubber band I chose to hold my left shoe up didn't break. to my surprise it simply stretched to accommodate the entire pedal cycle. I had to reach down and yank it off myself.

Don't buy cheap stuff. It breaks.

Don't buy extra stretchy rubber bands. They don't break.

I had a great bike leg. The course was mostly flat and there weren't a lot of sharp corners. I didn't have the skiddish-ness that accompanied my first race, and I was a lot more aggressive as far as passing people. There still seemed to be a lot of people blocking on the left, and bunched up into groups, and this was a little frustrating.

Also I should note that this was my first race with my aero bars, and I feel like that made a significant difference in my time (that and the fact that this course was pretty flat. Maybe mostly that. SHH! Let me justify my purchase.)

I feel like I could have pushed it a lot harder.

Also, don't buy cheap stuff that breaks.

Had a good T2. My bike dismount (shoes still on bike) was spot on. When I got back to my spot, someone had thrown a wetsuit on my stuff.. oh well, I just moved it slightly. Helmet off, shoes on, hat on, race number on, and I'm off.

Be faster!

Seemed really long for a 5K. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that you could see the finish from the entire course and in your head you're thinking "that looks really far".

I wish there were more aid stations (there was one at mile 1.5) but on such a great course I guess I don't have much right to complain.

Run faster!

Medal, bagel, banana, water, Gatorade, stretch, almost pass out. In this order exactly.




Swimming, swimming, and also swimming. I'm currently doing Lauren Jensen's swim faster training with Tri-Faster, which is excellent. P3 also has open water swimming sessions that I plan on attending. I will be a fast swimmer if it's the last thing I do!!!!


Turns out due to the fact that the two top overall finishers were in my age group, I ended up getting a 2nd place age grouper medal (actual place was 4th). Hardware! Due to Technicalities! I'll take it.

Overall a great race, I had a great time