Was SO unprepared for this. This was my first tri and I am sooo not a swimmer. Had trained by doing nothing but pool swimming, thinking that open water wouldn't be so incredibly different. But - I hit the water and soon after that started panicking. Tried backstroke so that I could calm my breathing and talk some sense into myself, but that didn't do too much except put me really off course. Was saved by the Danskin Water Angels, who swam with me about half the way and gave me a water noodle to hold on to to convince me that I wasn't going to drown.

Train better. I need to both be a stronger swimmer and get more experience in open water (and now, conquer my new-found fear of open water swimming). I'ved heard that the Total Immersion swimming program is worth the money -- I will look into that if I decide to do this again.

I had stumbled/crawled up the shore from the swim, so I didn't see what the time was. I figured that I had been in the water for about 5 days, and so decided to take it easy because I thought my goal of a 2 hour finish was out the window. So, I took my time drying my feet and getting my socks and shoes on, and just walked my bike out. And then was completely surprised to find that I was still just at 33 minutes into the whole thing. And so THEN I got on my horse and started going a little harder.

Pay attention to my time coming out of the swim. Could definitely have cut at least a minute or two off my transition time.

Was pleased with the bike... wasn't nearly as drained from the swim as I thought I was going to be. I just kept thinking -- you can't fall off a bike and drown!! THAT kept me going and happy!!

If I decide to start doing these things, I'll get a new bike. I'm riding on a 15-year old mountain bike, so my pace could have been better with better equipment.

By the time I got back to the bike, my spot was pretty well crowded in (the long time in the water did me in here) and getting my bike back on the rack required a little bit of work. Other than that, I kind of played it low-key -- while I didn't run and rush around, I also didn't lolly-gag either. Gave myself just enough time to get my legs back under me before heading out for the run.

Not too much... other than maybe swimming faster so that there wouldn't be as many bikes already racked by the time I got there!!

I couldn't feel my legs, but they seemed to do their job admirably anyway. My time also included about 1:30 minutes of potty break! It was warm out, so I had chugged quite a bit while on the bike, and so I decided that I was going to make my 2 hour goal, and so took the time to make my run more comfortable. :)

Somehow make it so that I didn't have to pee so badly that it was distracting! Other than that, the run was my strongest link, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be with it being the last event.

Swim! Swim! Swim!!!


The course wasn't hard... just the fact that the swim got me made it hard. Other than that - it wasn't too bad.