Woot! Look at my swim placing! 20th overall! Now, this WAS a lot of people's first race, but this is a HUGE improvement for me! I realize it was still over 2 minutes per hundred, but it felt a lot faster. I heard someone say the swim course was long, but I don't know if they were right or not. Anyway, I'm very happy with this swim.

I got right up front and just went for it. I was in the second line that went into the water - by that I mean that the pack was only one person deep in front of me when I dove in. I NEVER run, and I NEVER dive in, but this time I tried it. What a rush! This was a last minute decision, and I only did it because my buddies were up front. I tried to stay on one of their feet and did ok for a while, but kind of got pushed off them by someone beside me and didn't know what to do.

My swims are usually very calm and pretty peaceful and I usually just chuckle knowingly when our coach talks about the HR spiking during the first 200 yards. Who knew? He was right!

This swim was pretty physical and I had to 'talk myself down' a couple of times during when I'd miss breaths or get breaths of water. We immediately swam through some long weeds that had grown all the way to the surface - each stroke was against a handful of weeds and they were stringing across my shoulders and wrapping around my ankles. And during the weeds, it was a free-for-all - people all around with all of us moving the weeds around. I was glad to get out of the weeds. Then I found myself very close to someone on my breathing side and was getting splashed every breath and was starting to get a little freaked out by it, so I switched breathing sides and even though we were still bumping into each other it wasn't a problem after I switched. I got swam over and drafted off, and felt hands coming down on my back and around my head, and still managed to pretty much keep it together. I tried not to kick much so I wouldn't hurt anyone. At the first buoy, I did the fancy turn and was headed about in the right direction immediatly after the turn without having to swim in a semi-circle. It cleared out a bit and I was worried that I swam wide, but the buoy was right where it should be every time I sighted. I started to catch swimmers from previous waves and was careful to watch for sidestroke or breaststroke kicks, and mostly avoided them. There were only a few caps from my wave in front of me but it got more crowded near the exit. I ended this swim feeling like I gave it my all.

Figure out how to keep the drafting feet I claimed. :) Practice more swims like this so I can get through the chaos without getting panicked at all.

66/372 overall. There was an uphill run from the lake to T1. I was feeling a bit dizzy and walked part of it. My wetsuit came off easy, no socks to worry about, shoes went on ok (I may be in the market for new shoes at some point.) Helmet on and glasses on. Glasses were wet with raindrops and fogged up right away...darn. I didn't wear gloves for this ride and it worked fine - I'll probably do this more often. I DID put on my wind vest - a great idea since it was cold and rainy - I think I was probably a whole lot more comfortable with it on. Ran to the mount line (which I didn't see marked). Once again I couldn't get my foot clipped into the first pedal...sigh. And I almost got hit by someone who clipped in behind me then wobbled all over trying to get up-to-speed.

New shoes. Run up the hill and catch my breath while putting on my shoes.

Well, I have to give myself a 'poor' in the decision-making category for this ride, at least for the start. My friend who was racked by me was right behind me, and after I got up on the road and got started, I heard her yell something that was "something something Colleen something Dropped something something" What she really said was, " #$%@)$#&*@$! Go Colleen! I dropped my chain, @#&($! GO!" but what I heard was that I had dropped something. I couldn't figure it out and was thinking abandonment of equipment, so I TURNED AROUND and rode back to her. She felt terrible, I just felt stupid. Oh well, these things happen. I've no idea how much time I lost. Once I got turned back around, I had to go re-pass a bunch of people. It was raining harder by this point, and was truly not the most comfortable ride I've had all year. I was wishing for a fender. I played leapfrog with one girl and when I looked back she was drafting me! I didn't know what to do about that either, but she eventually passed me and disappeared - maybe she got a good breather behind this Athena! There were a couple of corners where they slowed us way down because it was slippery, but overall it was a pretty good ride.

Not turn around and go back. Duh. Hit the brakes when someone is drafting? (where's that little evil smiley?) Keep practicing clipping in or figure out a better way to get on my bike. Maybe this is good incentive to learn how to keep my shoes on my bike?

Stopped at the dismount line and dismounted. As soon as my foot touched the ground, someone ran their handlebars into my big ol' lycra-clad butt. That was a bit of a surprise. Made it to my spot, and racked my bike by the handlebars - went easy. Bike shoes off - ok. Dry run socks on wet feet = time, but at least I'd rolled them up. Left my vest on, grabbed hat, number belt and carry flask. Had to put my glasses on top of my head since they fogged up as soon as I stopped. Forgot they were there and tried to put my hat over them, and ended up juggling my stuff through the transition. Number belt didn't feel right over my vest so it took some time time to get it adjusted. My friend with the dropped chain made up her time and followed me into transition - her transition was really fast and she beat me out.

Ummm. Not sure. I could have left my carry flask there - I probably didn't need it for a short run in the rain.

Right out of transition there was a steep uphill. I walked part of that. The ride and the rain had kind of taken it out of me and I didn't feel like I had that hill in me. At the top I decided it was stupid to be walking, so I trotted off.

I could see my 'rabbit' up ahead, but she was so far ahead that it seemed impossible to catch her so I didn't really try. She told me later that she kept looking back for me - didn't want me to sneak up on her like at Valley Girl. No chance of that today!

Looking at my average pace, I guess I ran harder than I thought I did. I like to gauge my run off HR, and my HRM wasn't reading right. It does that periodically - I was working at what I thought was Z3 or Z4, and it read 74. I pretty much ignored the reading for the rest of the run.

I played leapfrog with a lady from my age group for most of the run - she would pass me then I'd catch her when she walked, rinse, repeat. We talked a bit - turned out she was the other person interviewed for the article in the paper! Small world! I talked to a 16 year-old for a bit (wish I had started when I was 16!) Remembering all this, it is obvious I wasn't racing hard enough. It rained for the whole run, but at least it was just a drizzle. I caught the lady from the paper just a bit before the finish and said we should sprint in together, and we did. It was a fun finish to the race. Overall the run for me felt more like an easy training run. I just wasn't into it today.

Duh. Race the race!

Walked around a bit - probably should have stretched. Watched the later finishers. Qdoba had chips but had run out of salsa so I at a plate of chips. The person giving out the ribbons had disappeared and no one was handing out ribbons, so I did that for the last bit of the race. The director had collected the remaining ribbons before the last finishers came through, so I took three separate runs through the park to get more. I was feeling good - again I obviously hadn't raced hard enough. I was able change into blessedly warm dry clothes (and my raincoat!) before all the ribbon work, so at least I was relatively warm.


My mind was the biggest limiter today. I wasn't too excited about this race - I kind of lost focus after my "A" race two weeks ago. I am feeling better about the next one though.


This was the first year for this race, so it didn't run as smoothly as some that have been going on for years. I expect next year will be better. I was really disappointed at the lack of support for the last runners. The weather played a big part as it was pretty miserable out at the finish line, but it seemed kind of anticlimactic.

The course was well marked and easy to follow. It was also well staffed with volunteers. They had medical staff on bikes all over the bike and run courses. There were a lot of kayaks in the water - overall the race felt well-organized.

The race supported research for osteoporosis, and they had a division for those with the disease. They also had free screenings at the finish.

It was a fun race and would be good for someone doing their first triathlon, but was challenging enough for anyone.