Got to get in more swim practice outdoors.

I did not have a bib belt (did not know about bib belts, no one mentioned this). Someone suggested I pin the bib on my bike jersey and put in on after the swim. Not that great an idea. When I tried to put on my jersey, I was wet, the jersey rolled up around my shoulders. I couldn’t get it on or off. I was stuck for about 3 minutes. Did not know what to do I tugged and pulled and managed to tear the bib. Finally got it off and started over making sure it did not roll-up. For the bike shoes I figured that I did not need to lace them for such a short ride. I would only tighten the Velcro straps. Only the laces got stuck inside my shoe and when I started to run off I realized I had to start over to get the lace back on top.
Got to get organized.

The novice came out again, my bike gloves where inside out.
The swim killed me I just couldn’t get into a good pace. No aero bars did a number on me. I had planed to un-Velcro my shoes and leave the shoes on the pedals. Only I started to un-Velcro too late. Only got one shoe done. So I had to unclip then run in the transition with one shoe flopping...


No gloves, aero bar and practice the dismount.

My ineptitude continued. I knocked 4 bikes over trying to rack mine. One was racked by the rear of the seat and just would not stay on (a weird mountain bike seat). The rest of the transition was ok.

Did I mention that this was as extraordinarily hot day? Well I was totally dehydrated and guess what, the race organizers had not anticipated this warm a day and ran out of water. I had to go to the Red Cross tent. Thank God one of the girls their gave me a bottle of water.


Lack of pre-race preparation and the heat.


As a novice it’s hard for me to rate this race. However, as a novice I was hopping that I would receive some orientation before the race.