This was what Salty would call a shyte show. I jumped in, feet first as directed then began my journey through the mosh pit. I encountered slower swimmers (i know! right?) who wouldn't let people pass, breast strokers, back strokers and people walking the shallow parts of the lane. Women were swimming over and under each other. This was all compounded by the fact that there were people going both direction in each lane and the center "passing" in each lane was scary. A friend of mine said she got kicked in the face. It was a cluster!!!

And getting on the ladder to get out? Oh dear you'd have thought the pool was on fire the way women were jostling to get to that ladder!

I've done another race at this venue that has the swimmers go down one lane and back the next then has them get out and go back to start again to get the full 400 meters. I'm not usually a fan of the seeded swim starts in a pool because I feel like everyone gets so spread out but dayum, anything it better than that mess!

Not do this race again unless they do the swim differently.

This is a reverse tri so T1 was run to bike. Felt super efficient. I ran my bike to the rack, changed shoes, put on my helmet and grabbed my bike. I ran to the mount line and hopping on and getting up to speed felt really smooth.

Nothing, I'm happy with this one. There were only 8 women in my AG that had a faster time so I think I did pretty good.

I may have paused for a couple seconds and watched the volunteers wrangle a woman who hopped on her bike IN TRANSITION and headed the wrong direction. There was a newbie meeting for this race, I don't think she attended.

The bike route left the aquatic center parking lot and headed up a hill. I know these roads all too well. These are my training roads so I know every hill, every pot hole and rough spot. Like TFTC I was almost constantly passing. Like TFTC this is a newbie friendly, women's only race so there are a lot of "clumps" of riders to pass. This got a bit tricky at times, especially since the roads weren't closed to traffic.

I was about 1/4 in to the ride before I saw the leader headed back. That really boosted my confidence. A bit after that we had a traffic circle on which we would turn left and head toward the high school. As I came up the hill and looked toward the traffic circle I saw a handsome familiar face. DH had ridden his bike to that point and was there to cheer for me as I passed! I love that man!!! He told me later that I looked so strong and everyone else looked so beat at that point.

As I turned left on that traffic circle I rode past a young man who was walking along the road. I heard a young ladies voice say "get back in the car" to which he responded with a resounding "f*** you!". Now, there is a race going on, cars are stopped waiting for permission to continue on their way from the POLICE OFFICERS who are stationed at said traffic circle. I didn't stick around to see how this played out but DH said that the police had a conversation with both the young man and his "friend". Nice timing kids.

So I continued on to the high school and the U-turn that would send us back to the aquatic center. I slowed more than I would have liked for the U-turn but it was because of the congestion there. As I headed back I knew I had some more undulations, one more big hill (one that I used to fear), and a short swim. As I anticipated, on the big hill I had to go around women who were walking the hill. I encouraged them but once you stop on that hill there's no starting again until the top.

The police did a nice job of having traffic stopped for the 4 major intersections we passed. I was a bit nervous still, having seen videos of rogue drivers breaking through race officials. Mostly, though, I was cautious on the non-major intersections that weren't manned. There was a car that turned in front of me with plenty of space, I can only hope that she had seen the racers and was being vigilant, not just lucky.

Nothing. I am really seeing an improvement in my bike fitness, even after being ordered off the bike for 2 weeks. This time is about what I anticipated, knowing there would be a lot of newbies on the course.

Again, this is a reverse tri so T2 was peel off (almost) everything, grab the goggles and head to the pool. I feel like this one also went well. It's so nice to just take everything off and go. Only 3 women in my AG were faster in T2 than I. I'll take those kind of stats!

nothing. I think I did fiddle with getting my bike on the rack a bit, wanting to make sure I left room for the others.

As my wave started several women took off pretty fast. I started telling myself to run my own race. I planned to keep this run at about a 10 min mile because I am rebuilding and my focus is a HM in October. I also thought about my friends I was racing "with". My Manatee friends who were also toeing the line, and my niece, Ashley, doing her first cycling race (yea!)

The other women didn't get too far ahead then kind of leveled out their pace and stayed within striking distance. I even caught and passed some of them.

The undulating hills in the loose sand were challenging. I walked a bit of them because I felt like I wasn't getting up the hill any faster by running, just working harder. Once the sand got better and the hill topped out I got back to running.

Once back on the sidewalk I was leapfrogging a woman in my AG. She finished ahead of me (after hiding the headphones she'd been wearing) but I beat her overall.

As I always do, at the end of the leg I started focusing on what I needed to do in transition. This time it was different. Running shoes off, bike shoes on, helmet on, grab the bike and GO!

Nothing. This time is exactly what I was shooting for.

Got my race bracelet then walked out to get my water bottle and tie up my hair. Got a banana and waited for the results to post.


Need to keep working on fitness.


This race was fun and is good for newbies. I am giving it a less than average rating because of the swim mess and because of the lack of volunteers. I like to thank the volunteers and that wasn't difficult at this one. There were volunteers at the drink station on the run, which was about 2/3 in to the run, and police at the intersections. DH said he saw the first cyclist go the wrong way at the traffic circle where he was standing. My guess is the police were concerned about directing traffic, not racers. When I came back by DH he was telling racers to turn right, bless that man!