I could not find my rythm and breathing was poor. I was trying to keep up with the crowd and kept thinking about what others where doing. I was in the first of four waves and kept looking back to see if the other waves would catch up to me. Eventually, the second wave did (who cares if they did). The constant kicking, body checking and slapping didn't help my concentration either. I'll mark this second race ever as a good experience.

On the positive side, I've come out with a lot more experience and lessons learned. My first race was in a pool and now I know what clothes feel like in a washing machine.

I need to learn to relax and keep to my pace in the water despite watching others pass me by.

Train with concentration on any of the other disciplines if I'm injured doing one of the others. In this case swimming and cycling should have benifited when I could not run due to my ankle (tendidnitis), injury.

Don't know what my time is in the transitions but I do know it was much better than last time where I placed dead last with about 2.5 minutes.

I'm thinking of putting a little piece of paper in my shoes (or anywhere else) to keep track of time myself. I'm a bit dissappointed that their timing system (small antenna built inside the # bib) was not able to pick up my times in the swim, transition and bike legs of the race.

Took 1 bottle with gatorade and 1 with water. Drinking the gatorade first was the best thing I did. I felt my body needing the salty taste of it and felt real good going down.
I need more liquids for hills and high temps. Two bottles where just not enough for me (and to think I almost bought only one bottle, YIKES).
I ran out of liquids almost half way thru the bike course (and that was during the easy part). I could have easily drank more without weighting myself down with liquids. Carrying too much liquids is way better than not enough (you can always pour out whatever you are confident you won't use).
I didn't own a decent bike pump and thought the little portable pump was enough. Bad move. Tire were mushy thought the race and feel that really affected my effort level in the hills (which was most of the race). My tires can handle 120psi and I was riding with 70psi. A few people even tole me I had a flat.

Make sure I learn to work my HR monitor so I can keep track of my times, HR, cadence,etc.
I definately need to work on climbing. I've never done so poorly on any sporting event like this last bike race.
Install additional water bottle holders in the back seat for races on hot days.
Buy a good bike pump and make sure tires are up to 120psi as indicated.

Learn my lesson from last race. I unstrapped the shoes before coming to a stop but almost toppled over trying to pull my feet out while moving. My helmet was unstrapped before reaching T2.

Practice removing feet from shoes while in motion.

I never felt my entire leg cramp up at the same time. Every step was just painful and shocking to my hams, calfs and quads. Had to stop several times to massage them so I could at least walk again, never mind run.

Be prepared to drink more. Keep extra fluids in the transition are (in a back to keep others from taking it too). I really needed to pour some water over my head. I'm sure I was over-heating cause I was feeling a bit on the dizzy side.

Stretched and felt much better. I'm seriously considering getting a massage the day of or after a race.


A number of things:
1) Poor training
2) Poor hydration
3) Still to heavy
4) Poor diet
5) Stressed before race (picking up family, etc.)


I think I did poorly and could definatly have done much better if I had not slacked off. My right ankle was injured with tendinitis and I used that to slack off on my training and diet.
The race was orgainzed pretty good but the late opening for registration really stressed me out early in the AM. Needed to drive 30min from hotel to register, drive back 30min to get family (that was still not ready-they appologized in all different ways and languages) and drove back another 30min (totally convinced I was going to be too late). Not too stressed I thought but still.

Overall everyone had a great time and happy to report they will come back to watch me race again. They promised they'll learn the route or be ready at 5:00AM so I don't have to come back to get them.