This was my first beach start, and the first race in a while where I didn't have a wetsuit on. Didn't miss it at all for this - warm water, 1/3 mile swim. The start was done in waves of about 100 people just running down towards the ocean and starting off. TONS of fun. I started towards the back, although given that I'm a decent swimmer, probably shouldn't have. Ran into the water and did a few dives off the bottom, then just started swimming. HUGE buoys were great for sighting off of and I feel like I kept to a pretty good, if not perfect line. I passed a bunch of people on the swim, but it never really felt too crowded. Made the turn and swam almost all the way onto the beach.

Start closer to the front, swim harder and stay closer to the buoys.

Running on sand is hard!! Without having to take the wetsuit off, this was much smoother. I definitely relaxed a little more than I probably could have once I got to my transition area, but I ran all the time that I could (out of the water, in and out of transition).

Not sit to put on shoes - try to practice getting into everything a little faster and staying more focused.

I knew I wanted to average about 18 on the bike, or faster if I could. On the way out of transition, I got up to speed but was having trouble staying right around 18, which was a little odd since it was entirely flat. I then realized that I was riding into the wind! Not a strong wind, but enough to make a difference. Kept working, and got to the turn around point, and wouldn't you know, I could average above 20 on the way back. Kept this up throughout the three loops.

I found I was passing more people than being passed, which again is unusual for me. This was definitely a smaller race with more newbies on non-racing bikes (just like me in in my first two tris). But I also realized that I was actually having a pretty good bike. At one point, a guy passed me and told me I was doing well and that I should now follow him for a while. I realized that he had probably been drafting off of me on the windy part of the race. I didn't want to draft off of him, but he kept looking back at me! Stayed what I felt was about two bike-lengths behind and didn't draft. Once we got to the less windy part, I sped by him.

Had water with Nuun in it, and about 2/3 of a GU near the end of the second lap.

I still want to work on relaxing a bit more on the bike - maybe a bike fit?

Again, happy b/c I ran the whole way - not sure why this seemed to take so long? I put on my Garmin, which of course wasn't working - need to figure out what to do about that.

Stay focused, change shoes faster.

SO happy about this run! I was disappointed after NYC going over 10 min miles because I'd worked so hard to get faster - well this was the payoff! My Garmin worked for about the first 3 minutes, and showed me going between 9 and 9:30s, which I was happy with. Then it died, so I just picked someone in front of me who seemed to be running a consistent pace I could maintain and stayed with her. The first mile hurt, and I felt a pain in my arch that worried me, but I kept running and stayed with the woman in pink. With no idea of my pace, I couldn't tell how fast I was going, but kept thinking to myself - you can do this for another 3 miles, 2 miles . . . Took water at miles 1 and 3, but no other nutrition. At mile 1, there was a VERY small incline which I cursed, but it was entirely flat the rest of the way. My hamstrings were tired from the bike, but I was doing OK keeping up my speed because of the lack of hills.

At about mile 3, you could see the finish line, and that totally kept me going. The pink woman stayed ahead of me (I never did manage to catch her), but I sprinted in at the end to get in just under 1:27.

Not much! really happy with this run.

Hung out and waiting for Hilary, who had started 3 minutes behind me. Found K and E who showed up to cheer about 5 minutes after I finished! Muscle milk, packed up, and enjoyed some time at the beach!


This was a great and pretty easy race, and I'm really happy with my time, particularly on the run. The lack of hills and humidity helped a ton in terms of my run, but also just having done a previous tri during the year helped my body get used to it!

Overall a well organized race and a good race for me!