I was so surprised that this ended up being the most unpleasant leg of the three. This was the one I was least worried about when training! First of all, the water was pretty cold. My body wasn't that cold, but I couldn't catch my breath for anything. Worse, though, was the giant mouth/lungs full of water I took in about 100 yards into the race. I honestly didn't know if I was going to be able to recover for a couple seconds. I don't think I've ever inhaled that much water in my life, no joke. I took a few seconds to regroup and calm down and kept going. That was a very long 1/4 mile. The one thing that was good, is that apparently I am pretty good at swimming in a straight line. Every time I sighted, I was right on course.

Warm up more in the water. I had a terrible time getting my face in the water because it was cold, and I could not catch my breath during the race. I was in the first wave for this race (since I was the third person to register out of 437!), so it would have been easy to stay warm. Turns out I had the 94th fastest swim split, so respectable for a newbie.

T1 went well, even though I was much more tired than expected coming out of the water. I got to my bike while starting to peel off my wetsuit, immediately sat down to get it over my feet and put my shoes and socks on, and then stood up to put on my helmet and sunglasses. Trotted with the bike out of transition and got going!

Nothing really, it went pretty well. I didn't need the bottles of water to rinse off my feet, nor my large towel. I just used a hand towel to wipe off my feet quickly before putting my socks on. I probably should've drank some Accelerade, but I was *plenty* hydrated from my "drink" during the swim!

It was a good ride for me! I was getting passed left and right, but didn't care too much, really. I kept the rpm's around 90 and made much better time than I thought I would. It was a gorgeous day, and a very nice ride. I could've done without some of the hills in the beginning, but it was a good test. I managed to successfully take some drinks while riding without crashing. :)

Test my bike after getting it tuned!! I had it tuned up the day before, but didn't ride it until the race, when I discovered that the front brake was rubbing! Nice! That always helps! Honestly, I'm sure it didn't really affect my time all that much, but it was really annoying hearing that constant noise! Next time, I'll try to eat a Gu during the bike sometime to help with the run.

T2 was also pretty uneventul. I didn't have to change shoes, so it was pretty quick. I racked my bike, took off my helmet, took a swig of Accelerade, put on my visor, and I was off!

Eat a Gu. I was dragging for most of the run, I suspect it might have helped.

I was getting pretty dang tired by this time, and the hills didn't help. I did ok, though. The hardest part of the run was right after the turn around. Althouh it was nice to have a nice, long downslope going into the turnaround, of course that meant we had to run back up it right away. That was tough. I had to start singing one of my running songs in my head and tell myself that if I made it up this long hill, I'd be home free because this was the longest hill on the course.

As mentioned before, a gu might have helped with the energy level. It was actually an ok run for me, though not great. I am very slow, and the fact that I just keep going was good enough for me! The finish was great of course, with the announcer making a big deal out of those of us doing our first races!

Just walked around a bit, drank a whole bunch of water, had a banana, took pictures with the kids and family. I probably should have stretched more, but oh well.


Water sloshing around in my stomach during the swim gave me a side cramp. I should've drank more Accelerade during the bike leg. And, my general extreme slowness in running! I desperately need to work on speed at some point!


For being a brand new race, this was very well done! Bravo to the race committee! There were plenty of volunteers, the course was well marked, and I simply can't say enough about the traffic control during the bike and run--it was excellent! They estimated that about 150 of the 437 registrants (although only 374 actually raced) were first timers, so that made for a cool atmosphere, especially since the announcer kept saying how great that was, and how much we were all going to love it. It was really a great first time race! (Next year, they plan to add an Olympic course, and move it to a warmer lake. Good idea!!)