Began the swim feeling confident and strong. This was going to be my longest swim thus far. Began the swim in a pack and felt good--keeping up with the others and in a pretty solid rhythm. About 200 yards into the swim I found that I could not catch my breadth--the same problem I experienced in an earlier race. It doesn't feel like a panic attach--I am not bothered at all by the water; it is simply a matter of not being able to breathe for some reason. I get the same feeling in the pool after about 200 yards, but then I press through another 100 or so, and everything is fine. A quirk in my system I guess. A stronger warmup should address the problem...I hope. So I pressed on as best I could. Had to breast stroke for 30 seconds or so, but then my lungs came to me, I put my head down and was ready to catch up to the pack. Unfortunately, in my distraction of feeling behind and now not taking the time to sight properly, I turned at the guide marker and not the turn marker. A lifeguard on a raft yelled at me that I had made a wrong turn. Looking back I noticed my mistake--I was now 100 or so yards off course and had to swim back to the missed marker. By the time I got myself correct, two mistakes later, my age group pack was gone and I was hopelessly behind. 20 minutes into the race and I already felt defeated. Using it as a learning experience, I put my head down (but remembering to sight carefully the rest of the way), and pressed on as best I could.

In order to deal with the breathing issue, I have to do a stronger and longer swim warmup before the event. Work through the initial loss of breath and be ready to go full strong when the gun fires.

Because of the really bad swim, I entered transition in what could be described as a bad mood. My frustrations led me to be tense, and the transition wasn't smooth. Fumbled too much with shoes.

Needed to relax more--the poor swim is just a convenient excuse. Also need to practice getting into shoes already attached to the bike. Currently I still put the shoes on in transition and then clip in at the mount line. For the next race I will better prepare for getting into the shoes while on the ride.

My bike just continues to stink but not anything I would really do differently. I just need more practice/training on the bike

Nothing different, just more training.

Getting out of the shoes on the ride is not a problem, and I felt I manged this better this race than I did in the last. Feeling more comfortable with it--considering I don't practice this enough. Manged to pinch my finger between the bike and the rack, but this posed no problems.

Would not do anything differently--just need to continue practicing to be more relaxed and subsequently more smooth. That should shave off a few seconds.

Run is still my strongest area, and this run felt good. Legs took about a quarter mile to get under me, but then the pace picked up and I was feeling good. Passed a number of other runners but no one passed me--not a surprise considering how far back I was after the mistakes in the swim and the poor performance on the bike. The run kept my time from being completely dismal.

Nothing--the run is the one thing that seems to be working for me.

Did not complete a warm down--felt too frustrated at the end. Drank a bottle of water, enjoyed a light meal (sandwich and chocolate milk) and gathered my stuff. Didn't hang around.


In part it was my frustration over the swim--which is still nagging at me a bit as I get ready for my next race in two weeks; and my still limited experience on the bike.


This seemed to me to be an average race; although, I am still very new at this with little to compare it to. The organizers/volunteers seemed a little disorganized at times, but overall the race seemed to go on with little problems. I appreciated having chocolate milk at the end.