When the gun went off, lots of people ran out of the chute way to the left to avoid swimming. I hadnt even thought of doing that, so followed a smaller group straight into the water. During my warm-up swim, there was lots of sea-grass, so I hoped that straight out from the start would be cleared a bit, but it wasnt. Guess I should have run left. I had good sighting for the first half but I think I was spending too much time at it. If I were to put my head down and swim, my breathing was easier, but then I became worried about going in the right direction. After rounding the first bouy, I found some open water and swam good for about 200 yards. with about 200 yards to go, a swimmer from the wave behind me caught up, so I jumped in behind him and did some good drafting. It was nice to know that I could follow him and keep up! about 100 yards from shore, it got grassy again. You couldnt really stand up and run because the ground was too mushy, but it was hard to swim through the grass...glad to be done with that swim, but its the bike that has me nervous!

Put my head in the water and swim. I get too worried about sighting so I keep my head up, then it makes it harder to breathe. Also Practice Open-water swimming with my wetsuit

My rack was really close to the swim, which made it easier to find, but that meant that I had to run the whole length of the transition with my bike (both ways.) Everything went smoothly, no complaints!

Practice Ha!

The bike was what had me worried. I was unable to ride (let alone drive) the course until the day before, I made time to drive it. Being from the desert, I have few hills to practice riding and so was not ready. I knew I could make up some time on the downhill, but it wouldnt be enough. The ride out over the bay, down Reed and up Mission was great. There were potholes, but they had been decently marked and some even filled. I guess I am just used to riding on roads that are rough.
As I started up the hill, I knew I was not going to make it all the way up so I pushed as long as I could and told myself I would not be the first one to walk. I made sure there were a few others walking around me before I dismounted! I would say probably 1/5 people were walking.
The way down was amazing. I reached 36mph at one point. One advantage of being big is that I can coast downhill and pass people that are pedaling. Got a little bit of the speed wobbles but controled it. At one point, coming through the side-streets of LaJolla, I got stuck with another lady who would take the corners slow so I was forced to slow down, but I dont think it took too much time off. While on the course, I kept leap-frogging with another girl (in another age group). Downhills and corners I would pass her, but up hills, she would pass me.

Ride the hill a couple of times before the race so I know what I am getting into. My grandpa used to ride the hill weekly from the beach house and says he will ride it with me this summer once he gets his "super-charger" (Pace-maker)!! I plan on riding that hill several times this summer on weekends.

Had to push my bike to the opposite end of the transition again, but everything went smoothly

Nothing really

I decided once I started moving I would start my timer and run 3 minutes, then walk 1. I kept pretty consistent with that until about the last mile when I couldnt run much more. The girl whom I was leap-frogging with on the bike ran with me for a while which was nice. She said she was a marathoner so I knew I would be able to keep up for a long period of time, but I did stick with her for about 5 minutes. After about 1.5miles, my aunt made her way on her bike to one of the side-streets and handed me some water and encouragement. She popped in about every 200 yards to make sure I kept going. It was cool to see people there supporting me!

Run more...Im a broken record... The run was a good one for me, but I know that I have more potential.

Walked around, ate a bananna, met up with family and friends.


Myself. I dont train to win, I have fun doing Triathlons. I am the type of person that will do something like a triathlon to prove to myself that I can, not to be the fastest. I have never been fast and dont expect it, I just want to be able to go further.


Going into this race, I was worried about what kind of Quality this race would be. They were slow to post lots of information that I felt should have been posted more than 3 days ahead of time (like the fact you had to check your bike the night before, along with wave start times etc.) However I was very impressed with evertyhing when it came to check in and race day. Packet pick-up was easy, great expo, bike check went smooth, and it was really neat to run down the same finish chute as the pros did.
I forgot to mention above all the volunteers. At every road or turn or anything along the bike and run course, there were lots of volunteers. They were very encouraging and kept vehicles/people off the course as much as possible. At the top of the hill, they handed us water or gatorade and along the run did the same. Overall I was really impressed with how the race was put on.

Overall average time for the sprint distance was 1:54:41. That was encouraging to me, to see that it was that slow compared to others I have done. That hill was a killer.