The water was perfect. I never got off course and never pushed the pace ..just took it easy and enjoyed the swim. Thought about AZ and how I would like to swim there. The course is obviously short. At the half point I was only at 10 minutes, and I finished in just over 20. A good performance for me would be 30.xx, so this course was WAY short.

Maybe go just a bit faster. I was way in the back of the pack.

Long run from the swim exit to transition and another jog through the grass with your bike to the road.
Time is best guess. I remember seeing 25.xx on my watch when i started the bike. Long run to transition, taking wetsuit off, jog with bike to mount area...took a long time.

Nothing.

Well, the bike sucked. The first half I was not happy. I was pushing a zone 3+ HR and my leg was killing me. I was trying to decide whether I should DNF or not since I had never had leg problems on the bike before and was afraid of making my injury worse.
But, I decided instead to turn off my HR gauge and just go by feel and bring it down a notch or two. The second half of the course was done at a lower HR but my speed remained the same! And I found that my leg was mostly OK if I didn't push it past what felt like a mid zone 2 effort. As soon as I tried to push harder, the leg would hurt.
I saw Jeff twice on the course and the second time he freaking had me laughing my ass off just when I needed a boost - beep beep beep..beep...beep....beep......beep. Also, this one girl just FLEW past me with about 5 miles to go. But, I caught her within 1.5 miles on the run and felt OH SO GOOD about that! Ha!
Had about 1.5 bottles of fluid - first a bottle of Gatorade Endurance, then started another bottle of the same but with 1/2 can of red bull added.

Take it easier from the beginning and have a target HR range in mind.

Nothing special. Chugged the remainder of my red bull/gatorade mix and headed out for the run, not knowing what to expect from my leg.

Nothing.

Started the run with a gel. I felt great off the bike and just ran by feel. My leg did hurt quite a bit and, just like the bike, it would really flare up whenever I tried to pick up the pace. My body wanted to go faster and I felt SUPER the whole way but I had to stay at "cruising" speed to avoid major leg pain.
It is SUCH a good feeling to feel fresh and light on the run. I love having a tri bike and I love having such good endurance from the IM training.
I tried to make sure I was always smiling and that my shoulders were relaxed. Again, I was thinking of AZ and how I wanted to feel in that race.
I could tell I was keeping a good pace and it looks like I did 8 minute miles or just under, so I am totally thrilled with that!!

Nothing.

Hugged Jeff. Did stuff. Ate oreos. Bought matching swimsuits for me and Haley. Jeff and I BOTH got 1st in our age groups!!!!!! OK, so we both only had 3 people in our age groups, but we beat them, so THERE!!! Got a medal for that.


My left IT band.


I am mad at the last minute distance change on the run. I am mad at the wacky distance problems overall. But, this is a great race venue and the atmosphere was fun. I would love to race in that park again. I would have PRed if the course had been a true Oly, I think. But it doesn't really matter. I just did the race because I can. :) And racing with Jeff was so much fun!!!