Felt like I paced too slowly. I was in the elite wave with both men and women, and got stuck within a pack of men, all of whom were considerably bigger than me, and kicked like maniacs. (Why do men kick so much??) Somehow I ended up in a calm vortex at the middle, and just got pulled along. I thought it seemed too slow and easy but when I tried I couldn't get out of it. Trouble rounding the buoy as the turn was extremely tight with a tightly bunched pack. Should have gotten out of the pack at the beach turn but somehow I didn't. Never really "home free". Third woman out of the water in the elite wave--the other two women said afterwards they felt boxed in too. Apparently the top women in the two AG waves were faster as they had more open water. Drafting/not drafting wouldn't have mattered much as water was very calm.

Not sure in the elite wave. Try to start more to the outside, maybe, and swim a harder pace at the start, then cut in. But this might still put me in a bad position at the buoy. There must be a better strategy--just not sure what it is as I've never swum this kind of course before.

As fast as I could make it. Decided to eliminate socks as the race was so short. (Good call--I won by only 15 seconds!) Rather long run up beach to transition--maybe 150-200m.

Nothing I can think of, except maybe not even try to dry my feet. (It had rained heavily the night before and my towel was already wet.)

The usual 5km feeling. Just kind of put it into "as fast as I can run without puking" gear and go. Breathing felt better than usual, maybe due to clean air. Passed one woman in the first km. and then a few guys (maybe they were running hurt, or cramped badly). Elite wave and with no bike leg meant it was not the ego trip that tri runs usually are for me. More like a run-only race--had to work hard to pass people. In the last two km, passed a few more guys. Realized at the second turn-around (about 3 km) that I was gaining on the leader. (She had a bit over a minute on me on the swim.) By 4 km her lead had dropped from 24 sec. to 11. Snuck in behind her and slowly cut the distance until somewhere around 600 to 800 to go I blew past her. Tried not breathe hard and then accelerate away--all that psyche stuff. Teenager (maybe 17?) so figured it might actually work on her. She didn't really respond so said a brief prayer that I wouldn't puke, cramp up, or fall on my face before the finish, and went for it. At least this time at the finish, I knew I was winning and hopefully looked and acted like I was (unlike Vietnam Tri)!

Nothing I can think of. It was the best execution I could manage at my current level of fitness. Some hamstring/piriformis pain/tightness kept me from really hitting my stride (as usual) and I haven't done much speedwork aimed at 5 km as part of HIM base training, so I did what I could and it was enough.

Walked around; jogged about 20 minutes easy back on race course and beach, went into water to swim around for about 15 minutes, stretched. Does shopping count as a warmdown? Lots of that after the awards!


Bad position on swim. I realized I wasn't swimming hard enough for this event/distance but couldn't get out of the box. Running-wise, the usual--tight hamstrings, lack of speedwork. But did my best.


Very well-organized event; oriented toward beginners with calm water, small start waves, lane swim, flat run. I was frankly surprised I won as I tend to do better with tough conditions and longer distances. I think some top athletes bypassed this one; I did beat some women who've beaten me before; they just seemed to have sub-par races--it's early in the season. There was an amazing number of waves for all age-groups; also featured mini (half-distance) and kids' races. It took over 3 hours to start all the waves. It was a great event but did seem to go on forever! It was nice to get in a warmdown jog and swim, shower and change, and socialize with some Singapore athletes while waiting for awards. In retrospect, probably a bit short to justify the trip (actually I signed up after I got the mistaken impression that the Oly-distance Singapore Biathlon was cancelled this year--it's not and I'm now signed up to do it in two weeks), but it was fun to win, and I needed a recovery week and sanity break!