This is only the 3rd open race I've done...I was really dreading it, but told myself that my goal was just to stay calm and make it to the end...it actually wasn't bad. I'm still slower than almost everyone, but I didn't have any moments of panic. My friend's son was doing the race and he commented that his goggles have a tint that blocks orange & red, and that he could hardly make out the orange buoys. Turns out that the goggles of Phoebe's I wore did the same thing. I could only see the buoys when I was right on top of them, and then they looked like big brown garbage bags floating on the water. I caught myself going to the inside of the first buoy and had to backtrack to swim around it. The couple of times that I bumped into people I thought I'd try to draft off of them, but after a few strokes I could tell I was no longer riding their bubbles. I'm not really sure how people draft when they can't see the swimmer ahead of them.

Wear different goggles.

When I was choosing what to wear I decided on a short sleeved shirt, but didn't think about how goofy that would look under a sleeveless wetsuit. I'll probably go back to wearing a tank. Also, I suspect that my black under armour bra was quite obvious below my blue shirt.

The distance from the beach to the transition area was pretty long. I really didn't feel like running up the beach, but I tried...you know, pride and all. I threw a couple of gel packets into the pockets of my shorts (I love my tri shorts!)and ate a gel in the transition area. My bike rack was the last one before the exit and there weren't many bikes left (I think I counted 13), so I pretty much hopped on and rode away right from the rack.

nothing really- it wasn't a fast transition, but I was so happy that I did ok on the swim, I wasn't bothered by being slow.

I forgot about taking in calories on the bike. I was probably well over an hour into my ride before I thought to take a gel. Then I had a hard time getting it open. I had hoped to make up some time on the bike and pass some people so I was pretty disheartened when 4 people passed me early on. Towards the end I was able to pass 3.

Maybe take gatorade on the bike and skip the gel

Carrie met me at the transition and gave me a good pep talk (and reminded me to take my helmet off). I was technologically disadvantaged this race- yesterday I got the battery replaced in my stopwatch. Apparently they only put 2 of the 4 screws back in, so now it's pretty much a snow globe. I also don't have a bike computer that fits on my road bike, so it was kind of frustrating not to know how long or far I had gone.

I got passed by a couple of people on the run, but worked really hard at just "running my own race". I was hot and tired, but I was able to run the entire way, just walking through the aid stations.

Work on interval training and learn how to run faster.

met my family and friends at the finish- ate oreos and drank gatorade.


lack of experience at this distance, excess weight


This was the race I wathced 1 year ago that has served as my motivation in changing my lifestyle. It was great to have my family and friends from my bike group there.