Short easy pool swim. I caught up with a group of three swimmers in front of me after about 2 laps, but it was nearly impossible to pass anyone in the narrow lanes. Instead of pushing through them, I slowed my pace a little bit and stayed behind them. Overall, i only lost 15 seconds off of my best practice time, and I felt better going into the bike than I have in the past. Being forced to slow down a bit turned out to be a good thing.

It would be great to be able to flip-turn in the pool.

I had a very fast T1 time, but as I mounted the bike, my right shoe caught on the ground, causing me to slow a bit. Also, as I went to put my feet in the shoes, I realized that I forgot to unfasten the velcro on my right shoe. This cost me a couple of seconds as I was trying to get up to speed.

doublecheck shoes before race. I think I have almost mastered the running mount, but I need to work on accelerating and putting the shoes on my feet.

For such a short ride, this was much more difficult than I had anticipated. After about mile 6, I began to get stomach cramps. I suspect that I overate at breakfast and it was sitting heavy in my stomach. I am somewhat disappointed with my performnce on the ride.

Eat a lighter meal pre-race. Find some hills to train on (there aren't many here in Houston.)

Overall, I am fairly pleased with T2. I think that I took my feet out of my shoes a little prematurely. I need to work on the timing of this. I decided to wear socks on the run, so it took me a little longer than usual to get socks on my sweaty feet.

Keep feet in shoes until closer to T2.

Continued to fight stomach cramps into the first part of the run. I started with a decent pace (7:42), but wasnt able to hold it past mile 1. My legs felt like they had lead weights tied to them. I definitely did not spend enough time practicing bricks. Lesson learned!

Brick training between now and my next race.

Brief stretching.


Training. This race was a wake-up call. I need to spend much more time training as I lead up to my next race. I improved my time over last year's race by 9:26 (10.6%), but I had hoped to do much better.


Overall, this is a well coordinated and planned race. I'm not crazy about pool swims, but that aside, the course was fun and challenging.