Guh. Could I get any slower on the swim? I swear, I'm bleeding time in the water this year. I felt fine, felt like I swam well, apparently I just suck. My HIM swim last fall was 44 minutes. It was probably short, but still! 14 minutes difference?! Blech.

Swim faster? Somehow?

Pretty uneventful. Took my time a little since I knew it was going to be a long day. Made sure to remember to use my inhaler, just in case. Less than 5 bikes left on my age group's rack. Good thing there were 3 waves that started behind us or I may very well have been the last one out of the water...

This is a pretty good bike course. The hard part is coming straight out of the reservoir into a 5+ mile climb, then there are a few ups and downs, then a long downhill section followed by some flats. It's a 2-loop course, so there were tons of people out there for my first loop, but actually a lot more than I expected on the second loop. I was super psyched to actually be passing some guys. I passed one guy on an uphill, and I don't think he liked it much. I said "on your left" and he looked over and muttered something in Spanish under his breath. Went flying by me on the next downhill and took off. Apparently getting chicked was enough to light a fire under him. The weather had started off pretty cloudy, which was awesome, but the clouds cleared out during the second loop. Uh oh.

I'm pretty sure I saw Chrissie Wellington ride by me on her way to spectate...I don't think she was even sweating and she blew by me as I was "racing" like I wasn't even moving. :-D

Not much. This was an awesome bike for me! I felt like my nutrition and hydration were right on and my strategy was pretty good.

Relatively fast, considering I took a potty stop and again stopped to make sure I remembered my inhaler. My one mistake of the race was here, took a gel on the way out of transition. One swallow would have been fine, but the second was not good. Minor digestive issues followed.

Resist the urge for more gel!

Hot. Hot hot hot. Brutally hot. Did I mention that it was hot? I mean, I knew it was going to be hot, but it just seemed kind of unfair. There were scattered clouds everywhere, I could look up and see them. Were they ever over me? NO! There were a lot of people out there for the first loop, which was great. I had to make a potty stop at the second aid station around mile 2.5 (see foreshadowed digestive issues above ). Luckily it was quick. Everybody was pretty much in misery, and it really is true, misery loves company! I made another stop at the mile 4-ish aid station b/c I was feeling some chafing in my armpit (prob. b/c I didn't think to Body Glide my armpits...duh, borrowed sleeveless wetsuit...ouch) and some blisters on my feet. I vaselined them all. Didn't really help much. Around mile 4.5, some guy tried to be nice and encouraging about how we were almost there. Um, thanks, but I still had a whole loop to go. At some point in the first loop, I saw a guy I'm friends w/on dailymile (he's running for charity and had it on his singlet) and chatted with him for a minute, and then a twitter/dailymile friend (that I had never met IRL) found me and gave me some cheers. Just before the end of the first loop, a friend from track who had been roped into doing the run for a relay passed me on her way into the finish (her: you guys are nuts, this is miserable!). I was convinced the second loop was going to be lonely, but it really wasn't. It did pretty much entirely suck running right by the finish line, though. I actually felt a little better on the second loop than I did on the first. I thought by the way that I felt that I may have even negative split, but I didn't. Maybe it was just that I was passing lots of people. Almost everybody on the second loop was walking. I was determined not to walk except for the aid stations, and I didn't. Admittedly, I stretched the aid stations way out, but I didn't walk other than that! I picked up a couple of running buddies with around 5k to go, which was awesome. Ran and chatted with a guy for about 3/4 mile, then he couldn't keep up and I ran with a girl for about a mile and a half until she took off after an aid station. Bummer, because she was in my age group, too. The last mile was actually my second-fastest after the first mile. Not bad!

Not much. Nutrition and hydration were pretty good, for the conditions. I borrowed a trick from a friend and dumped ice down my shorts, and it really helped a lot.

Post-race was not too exciting. Except for when I took my shoes and socks off and found what is, by FAR, the best blister I've ever gotten. That thing was the size of a golfball. I got a massage and grabbed some food, ran into mcgilmartin in the beer garden and StMaas and chatted with them for a bit. Ran into Kath2123 on her way out of transition. So nice to finally meet some of the BTers!


The fact that I suck at swimming and the heat on the run.


Overall, I'm pretty happy with my race. Even though I sucked it up on the swim and the run, I did well enough on the bike for an 11 minute PR. And I know I have a lot of room for improvement.

I'd like to know how noone at WTC caught the fact that the finisher medals say 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile SWIM. Seriously. And also, the sizing of the race shirts was a big disappointment. Other than that, it was fairly well run.