Water was a little chilly, but it felt good once I got going. Four people to a lane. I only passed one woman who started at the other side and was doing breaststroke, I wasn't passed.

I've been in the water exactly twice this week, and that was my only swimming for the past year or so. My strategy was to focus on cycling and let the swim take care of itself. It kind of worked, because my time wasn't that much slower given how much less work I put in. However, it kind of backfired too. The swim took a lot out of me, and I never really caught my breath again for the rest of the race.

Since I was an even number in lane 13, I had one of the longest runs to transition on the concrete and pavement in bare feet. I was in and out of the transition area pretty quickly. I got on my bike ok, and got one foot on the shoe, but the other shoe flipped over, and I had to turn the crank twice all the way to get it to come around again. Had some trouble getting my feet in my shoes because I kept losing momentum, and the road was very narrow. I was swerving and people were passing me. It was a little harrowing, but not a complete disaster.

Practice mounting start on new bike some more.

I really struggled to get any kind of rhythm going. I would fly downhill and come almost to a stop on the uphills. The road surface made it hard to stay on any kind of line.

Weight loss, more bike time would help.

T2 was probably the best part of my race. I got my feet out right at the split between the lap and the exit. I thought I wasn't going to be able to get my right leg over the bar for a second, but second effort got it there and I performed a respectable running dismount.

Nothing.

It rained last night, so the course was muddy. You really had to watch where you put your feet. By this point, I was just plodding along and didn't want to have to think about where I put my feet. Had to walk a couple of steep up hills, but made it up when I picked up speed on the downhills.

More running, particularly after harder bike workouts. My legs were just dead so this was pretty much just survival.

Walked from the finish to the food tents and had a banana and Gatorade. Went and took a shower and walked back to the car.


Weight, strength, training. Injuries: patellar tendonitis and trochanteric bursitis. Other than that it was good.


This was my first race, and even though the course is challenging, and the competition is stiff for a small local race, it's really fun and well-run, and I like to support it.