The only OWS I've done is the swim portions of the two tris I've done so far. I've only been swimming for a few months and my swimming endurance is pretty much nil, so I was very happy with this time. I've only swum faster than this in a pool once, and that's only because it was a 25yd pool instead of the Olympic size pool I normally swim in - so half the distance and 2x as much pushing off the wall. This was about 50/50 free & breast.

Was wearing my Garmin & I had my time as 59:00 and I didn't stop it until crossing the dismount line and going over the transition mat, but whatever. :)

I've only been biking regularly for a few months as well. Reading the course description and prior report, I thought I would be able to ride this strong since it appeared to be flatter than my usual rides. I plotted the course on mapmyride.com a week before the race and according to that there wasn't anything more than a 1% grade. Newbie that I am, I expected to just glide along nearly effortlessly.

Wrong! While there was nothing that made me want to jump off the bike and walk, I felt like I had to really work to maintain a decent pace. And unlike all my other rides up to this point,there was no part during the ride where you could rest your legs and recover, it was constant peddling. Not used to that!

I registered as an Athena for this race and looking at last year's results there were only 6 Athenas and if you finished in under 1:50, you placed. I had fooled myself into thinking it was a possibility for me this year and that I would need a good bike if it were to happen. Well, guess I accomplished that as this was my fastest ride to date.

This was just awful, I am so disappointed. While I have hardly been setting the world on fire with my bricks, none have been at anything remotely close to this pace. I did my first tri a month ago on almost no training and only one bike/run brick before that race. In the last 6 weeks, I felt that I had gotten much stronger. I've been riding more, running more, eating better, losing weight, etc. I managed to do this run at an entire 9 seconds per mile faster than my first one. :(

So disappointed to be over 2 hours for my second sprint. My total time was 5 minutes faster than my first tri and this bike was 3 miles longer, so grasping at straws here for something to hold on to, lol.

Ending the event so badly after a good swim and bike for me has left such a bad taste in my mouth. I need to put the next race on my calendar to get rid of it, fast!

go easier on the bike