What is it with me and crapping swims this year? All started off well, as the current was taking us along at a nice clip. Once I turned around the peninsula and headed toward swim exit, I wonder if we were in a cross current or something? I felt like I was barely moving. For some reason, there were two waves: women first, then men. That meant with about two buoys to go, the speedy men started to catch up. The fastest ones were fine, and navigated around, but once the crowds of boys caught up, man it was churning up quick. It got shallow very far out, with more than one buoy to go. I tried to swim as long as I could, but kept scraping up mud with my hands. When I stood up to walk in, I sank into mud up to my knees. It was nasty, and quite the struggle to get in to the shore. I spontaneously grabbed hands with a woman next to me, and we clung to each other as we slogged our way to the swim exit. I easily lost 5+ minutes here.

Keep swimming as long as humanly possible. I also went with my light tinted goggles since it was so dark when they closed transition. But the sun came up quickly, and I was really wishing I had my darker tint with mirrors.

Once I was clear of the mud and hit the carpet, I jogged up the hill, pulling off my goggles and cap. It isn't a huge run, but it was short either. Into the transition area, wipe off feet and face, put on bike shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and take a swig of Skratch from my bottle. As I headed toward the mount line, I felt my timing chip slipping. The mud had been pulling at it, so I stopped to adjust it.

Safety pin my timing chip. Hustle even more.

This was a seriously boring bike. I know I complain about hills, but man....flat courses are boring. Straight out of transition you hit "the hill" which is just a bridge over the river. I think if you're from Williamsburg it is probably an actual hill, but for me, it wasn't much of anything. I spun up it, sailed back down, and settled in for a straight line down the highway until the turnaround. I was getting passed, but I told myself to just keep pushing but not too hard so I had something left for the run. At the turnaround, instead of coming back on the road, we were on the multiuse trail. It was paved, but there were a lot of acorn, pinecones, etc, that made the going a little slower. I was still getting passed, but perhaps not as much? On the final hill I passed one person and held off another that I could hear behind me! First time that's ever happened! Due to the sharp turn towards transition we couldn't pedal down the other side of the bridge. Unclipped successfully and made my way into the transition area.

Push a bit harder, especially after the turnaround. While I didn't want to burn out, I do think I could have put in a bigger effort. With the shaded courses, its not like I was feeling overheated or anything.

Swapped shoes without falling over, took another swig of skratch, then grabbed my racebelt and hat while jogging out of transition.

Just a bit more practice getting the shoes switched over.

Mostly full sunshine, 85+ degrees, high humidity....blech. My legs felt like lead as I headed out of transition, but the cheers from my friends really gave me a boost. I told myself to run conservatively for the first mile, follow my legs for the second, and then give it a go. What actually wound up happening was convincing myself not to walk until I got to the turnaround (success there) stopping at a trashcan as I considered whether or not I needed to puke, and then heading back at a slightly quicker trot. I was in the last mile and trying to speed up, and then there was a slight downhill, and I milked it for all it was worth. Then I asked a spectator for a high five, and was rewarded with lots of nice cheering from her, which buoyed me along until the final turn/last .1 mile. I kicked it hard, picked my way down a ridiculous grassy slope (are they trying to kill us?) then ran it in hard down the finisher chute. I heard the announcer say my name, and it was pretty awesome!

I could have dropped the pace sooner, and dropped the hammer for the last half mile at least. At that point, everything is hurting no matter what, might as well hurt and be going faster.

I was handed an ice cold water and gatorade, which I immediately held up to my face. So nice and cool! I drank a bit of water, and poured a decent amount down my back and over my head.


My training has been so spotty this season. I just haven't been hitting all the workouts with the consistency I had last year. Still, I felt stronger on the bike, which set me up for a better run, and I certainly had more in the tank.