Wow, the cold water just took the breath right out of me. Stared out doing freestyle and then switched to breast stroke. With the different waves you did not have to worry about getting kicked in the head. That was great. Since we were swimming along a shore line, if you breathed to the left you could keep in a fairly straight line heading for the bouy. Rounding the bouy was awful. Everyone was crowded around the bouy making the turn.

Need to get more OWS under my belt. Work on increasing my lung capacity.

The trek from the water to the transition area was long, over a bridge, up stairs, through a picnic area, up a very steep hill. Wow, finally there.

Set up was good, so once in transition area things went fairly quickly for a first timer.

Bring a bucket or stool to sit on. I'm too old to get up off the ground quickly.

The description of the course was "flat as a pancake". They must have pretty lumpy pancakes. The hills weren't bad, but they were there.

Had a little trouble getting my breath at first. Managed to get through without any mishaps. Saw a couple. One poor guy got taken out by a car. The police were writing up the driver, but he was out of the race and his bike was pretty messed up. He was able to walk around so hopefully not hurt too bad.

Got a cramp in my left calf on one of the hills coming back, but was able to work through it.

Again, work on improving my lung capacity. Practice with more hills.

Well, racking my bike knocked off another bike that was not hooked on well at all. That cost me time, cause I was not going to leave their bike on the ground.

Will have to try riding without socks. They were soaked, so I changed them. That cost me some time.

The beginning of the run, you go down the steep hill, stairs and bridge that take you to the swim start area. Then a hard right up a very steep hill to eventually get to the road. Once on the road, things went well.

But I did not carry water expecting there to be a water table at least at one point on the run. No water. The table was there at the turnaround point, but no water. Wish I had held onto that bottle that I had not finished when I started out.

Of course the bridge and stairs and hill were at the end of the run also. Yuck. Three times, up, down, up for the whole race, I dont' want to see that section again ever.

Make sure that I have water bottles on my belt. Don't count on the race to supply that necessity.

I warmed down too quickly, so that told me I could have pushed myself harder.


The cold in my lungs.


Don't want to really judge the race, since it was my first tri. Don't have anything to compare it to yet.