The swim was much harder than I anticipated. We had to tread water for 3 minutes before we started. They had all the women in one wave, so there were far more of us than there were in any other wave. I didn't get kicked too much because I was on the middle left of the pack and everyone wanted to be at the front right. That was a good strategy for me. I swam a combo of freestyle and breastroke.

Just train more for the swim- maybe do some more open water swimming prior to next race. Would like to improve my time.

Not too bad for my first race transition ever. I had a couple towels to wipe my feet and I put on socks and my bike shoes and ran out and then got on the bike.

Well, my husband said some people had their shoes attached to their bikes and they weren't wearing shoes. Next time I'm getting either a race belt for my number or putting it on a spare shirt to put on. I lost time pinning my number on my swim suit.

There were lots of hills, which is why I think my average speed was slow. But the course was nice and rural. I passed several people and got passed, too. We all had our ages on our calves, so it was a little weird to be passed by 56 year old men who totally smoked me! But I passed some people, too. I pushed myself, but not too hard- still had energy for the run.

I need to work on cycling technique, especially cadence. I will be joining a riding group to learn. Need to improve speed. Next time I'm diluting my gatorade or choosing a less syrupy energy drink in addition to water- the gatorade was too sweet and by the end of the race, my stomach was hurting (after the run).

Riding with feet on top of shoes? Huh? Ok- I rode in, got off my bike and ran to my transition area. Everything was fine- I thought I did alright- if I was seriously competing I might ride with feet on top of shoes and make a flying dismount from my bike, but I was trying to just finish and not get hurt!

Flying shoeless dismount while removing helmet and tying running shoes in mid air. No- really, nothing, I guess just get more comfortable with unclicking my shoes from the clipless pedals.

The run felt long. My knee started hurting about half way through, which is extremely annoying since I had to stop running a year ago for a knee injury and my knee had been fine for all of training.

Gotta get faster on the run. My pace was ridiculous. Gotta do more yoga and stretching to prevent knee flare up next time. Maybe wear knee brace.

Ate an orange segment and drank some water. Did a little streching. Walked around a little and then had everyone who came to cheer me on over to my house for a BBQ.


Just lack of training, I guess- I'm just not fast on any of the events, there's plenty of room for improvement.


Everyone was very encouraging and helpful on the course. The post race activities weren't very many, there was plenty of food, but only one tent from a local training group and one retail outfit. Could have been better, but it was a smaller race.