As I watched the earlier waves start, I could see how the wind & current were pushing the swimmers to the left, inside what would be the bouy line if there were a line. Therefore, I positioned myself more to the middle of the group. It's hard to tell how much I got pushed over, some but not too badly I think.
On the long leg, we were advantaged by the wind, but the angle of the chop & the sun made it only feasible to breathe to the left, which is my weaker side. Good thing I work on that side a lot, so it wasn't a problem. My sighting was pretty good. After the short far leg, the return was medium-long and against the wind/current; however breathing to my stronger right side was advantageous. I think this was the best part of my entire race. I was really in a zone, relaxed, strong, & confident. I even passed some other swimmers.
The group was very small, only about 30 swimmers, and I didn't catch many opportunities to draft. The whole swim felt very good, and my time when I exited the water was 17:07, a big improvement on my previous best of 18:30 at CLT. I had yet to trot up the 29 steps & across the road to the timing mat, though.
My swim time was in the 34th %ile of all females

Although there is a penalty for removing any part of your wetsuit while on the steps (safety), it would be smarter to get it unzipped before reaching them. When I rehearsed the race in my mind in advance, I omitted the small details like this.
And if I drop my earplug on the steps again, or anywhere, DO NOT stop to pick it up.

I was a little discombobulated by the "no stripping on steps" rule, and still had one arm in the wetsuit when I arrived at my bike. The rest went fine.
My transition time was in the 84th %ile of all women, so not too bad.

Focus on those details more in my mental rehearsals.

I had been looking forward to using my new Garmin 310xt, even though my Power Tap isn't installed yet. Surprise! When I took it out in the morning the battery was mostly discharged, even though I had fully charged it & powered it off before I packed it. I had brought my Polar watch & sensors for back-up, so I just put them on instead. However, although it had worked perfectly during my equipment check/warm-up, it also failed in its own ideosyncratic way. It didn't pick up my HR until mile 7, and not the gps until mile 10.
I have to admit, when I realized I was riding data-free (except for the faithful Cateye, reporting cadence, distance & speed), I rode by feel and enjoyed myself. Not having to look at my monitors, I could admire the gorgeous scenery a bit more. I must have passed about 20 other cyclists and that required a lot of attention since I had to yell at many of them to move to the right to give me room. My performance was probably hurt a bit by the lack of gizmos, but I had a really good time.
Nutrition: 2 Perpetuem solids & 1 water bottle. Still hard to drink out of the rear bottle.
Time was at 48th %ile of all women.

My wheel is being rebuilt this week with the Power Tap, so I'll have plenty of time to integrate it into my training. I'll charge the Garmin until the last possible minute & bring the charger along as well!

I forgot to grab the gps unit from the bike so I had to run without it.
Time was at 57th %ile among all women.

If I'm using the Garmin, the gps is in the unit, so I won't have to remember to grab it. That's a plus.

I suffered more on the run than on the bike from the lack of any data to monitor. By this time I had lost all sense of perceiving my rate of exertion. I thought I might be running too easy, but I was unsure & didn't want to go too hard too early. I also couldn't pinpoint that 2.6-mile point at which I like to start pouring it on.
I might add that due to recovering from my hamstring injuries, I have done no tempo runs for the last 8 weeks, just easy runs & brief accelerations. The good thing is that the race didn't aggravate the hams or any part of my legs, so I'm clear to train with more intensity.
Nutrition: 1 gel plus most of the small water bottle.

Ride the run course on my bike warm-up so I can identify that acceleration point.
I could try doing some tempo runs in training without looking at my watch to try to get a better feel for RPE (although everything feels different in a race.)

I intended to cool down & stretch, but I was just too tired & didn't. I had some Recoverite & half a recovery bar & walked around, then changed my clothes & ate a big delicious lunch. Unfortunately, then I had to sit around in the sun for an hour to collect my award. I should have used the time to stretch at least.
Then I drove home & took a nap.


I went into this race tired and with a bit of a bad attitude. I was cranky about everything I had to pack for the dorm stay, was anxious about the water temperature, and was doing it only as a tune-up event and to get my 3 races for USAT ranking.


This race has a younger, more dedicated group of competitors then the races later in the summer. (57% of the women were under 40!). It's early in the season, and everyone knows the water will be cold. It isn't their only race of the year, just their first. It's no surprise that my percentile rankings were a bit lower than at last year's CLT. I'm very happy, though, with my total time, which was almost a minute faster than my most optimistic goal.
All the gizmo failures changed the experience considerably: it was possibly a little less high-performance but more enjoyable. I should consider doing this deliberately once a year.
Note: this event has the best post-race food anywhere. It's in the college dining hall; the food is plentiful, fresh, varied, & delicious!