Started near the back of my wave and started my watch right at the bell. Got passed by nearly everyone in the 2 waves behind me. Mostly felt OK except around minute 19 my eyes started stinging and watering and I had to fuss with my goggles while treading water for a minute. It never really got better, but I just decided to power through it and then eventually after my eyes teared enough (maybe 10 more minutes) it stopped. I think I was sweating off some of the sunblock I applied yesterday. I made a point NOT to wear sunblock on my face pre race because this happened last year, but I never showered after applying sunblock last night at about 5:30 pm. *it's also possible that it was caused by the anti-fog spray that I applied last night, but this usually never bothers me at the pool unless I apply it immediately before wearing the goggles and even then it's never this intense.

for some reason, my watch never tracked my distance during the swim portion only. time worked fine though and I could estimate well enough.

Sighting was actually pretty good....rarely got off course and even then only a tiny bit. I settled into a pattern of breathing every 2nd stroke on my left side and then every 8th stroke doing 1 or 2 strokes of breast stroke to sight. this worked really well for me. Swam nonstop, zero backstroke (except for the 1 min or so of treading water). I paused at each buoy to look at my time...but only a 1 second pause or so.

I actually got comfortable enough that I attempted drafting off others a little bit. it didn't work great for me because they were so much faster they were quickly gone....but it was something to think bout and take my mind off the monotony.

at about 30 mins in I started to get a mild headache which I'm pretty sure was from the tightness of the goggles and/or cap. this happens to me sometimes in the pool too.

I passed 2 people near the end. 1 older man and 1 woman from my heat. also there were 2 women from my heat just barely in front of me. I probably swam quite a bit faster the final 300 or so because I wanted to try and pass 1 more person (but didn't end up doing it).


shower the night before to remove any sunblock residue
push harder on swim. faster arm turnover.

I jogged most of the way taking off my cap and goggles and sleeves and watch, and put my watch back on. took a little extra time to put on more sunblock on my arms and legs due to very hot day. missed a couple spots and got a mild sunburn on my left shoulder, back of neck and left thigh. was glad to have the bucket to sit on in transition area this time. Tried to run with my bike but there was a big guy in front of me walking and I couldn't get around him.

better coverage with sunblock

started out feeling fine on the bike. after about 10 mins though my toes starting tingling and eventually my feet started falling asleep. It was then that I remembered the cardinal rule of triathlon: "Never do anything new on race day" I had put the yanks laces into my shoes friday night and bought new $15 running socks but hadn't had much chance to test them out except a couple of 3-5 minute transition practices. I have raced in yanks before but I must have laced them up too tight this time. At least I was hoping it was the yanks because if it was the socks I'd be screwed as I didn't bring any other socks. It kept getting worse so a bout 35 mins in I had to slow way down so that I could loosen the laces....didn't stop but had to stop pedaling. Anyways....that seemed to do the trick because eventually the feeling came back in my feet.

drank entire water bottle of water (20 oz?) and almost entire gatorade bottle (drank probably 21 of 24 oz) also at the powerbar energy chews strawberry banana and 1 Hammer Gel raspberry flavored. Flavor was OK but I generally hate that goo.

near the end of my ride I started to mildly feel like I had to pee but it wasn't too terrible.

only passed 1 person on the bike, and was passed by about 11 (3 more people passed me but they did not appear to be part of the race).

according to my watch it was only 22.15 miles and not the advertised 24.8 miles. average speed 12.5 MPH and max speed 30.1 MPH.

I think my gear shifting was pretty good. spent most of the time in the big gear. average cadence was 78. didn't ever get down in the drops....my back and neck were hurting all weekend and I just plain didn't feel like doing it.

looser laces...actually not try something new on race day! should have been a minimum of 1 week prior

train bike harder! I say this every year.

somewhat jogged with my bike but my feet were still a tiny bit numb. took some extra time to put on more sunblock and the "chill its" neck bandana thing. wore a hat, kept the sunglasses on from my ride and grabbed my frozen water bottle that by now was about 85% thawed but the water was still ice cold!



could have taken my helmet off while running with bike. better coverage with sunblock on back of neck, shoulders and fronts of thighs

My goal was to run the first 2 miles at about a 10:30 pace and then speed up from there based on how I felt. That plan quickly turned to shit.

First mile wasn't too terrible, in the shade mostly and ran it in 10:26

then I had to walk up some blaring sunny hills in this neighborhood. right after the first water/aid station I passed an older guy who was alternating jogging and walking. he had passed me on the bike near mile 20.

Then the run became REALLY lonely and hot. just running through this hot neighborhood with almost no shade and no people hardly. I din't come across another racer until about mile 3.5. I was dying from the heat and knew I was going to have to take considerable walk breaks. So I started allowing myself 60 seconds of walking for every 4-7 minutes of jogging depending on how I felt.

near the beginning I ate the Clif "shot bloks" black cherry flavor. My mostly melted ice water stayed refreshingly cold almost the whole time and so I sometimes drank the water when I wasn't even thirsty just for the cold. I drank about 80% of the bottle and it was pretty cold until the last 0.8 mile or so.

I started to feel that I had to pee about mile 3 but didn't want to stop. I was willing to pee myself if that's what it came to but going inside a hot porta potty would probably make me puke and my tri suit is a one piece so peeing off in the bushes means I have to get completely naked....so I risked it and I did kinda make it (barely).

As I approached the turnaround I started to realize I was going to pass a lot of people. Almost everybody left in the race was walking and I was still jogging about 5 out of every 6 minutes. All in all I passed 8 more people for a total of 9 people passed on the run. most of these were the same people that passed me on the bike.

Near the end I got a little turned around in the park and couldn't find the finish line...probably ran an extra .10 mile. my watch said it was 6.02 miles and not the advertised 6.2 miles.

know the course better so I don't get lost. push a little harder in the shady areas.

afterwards went immediately to hot stinking porta potty and couldn't get out of my racing suit fast enough and sorta peed myself just a little. it was gross and hot and stinky in there and I kinda wished I'd just peed myself off in the bushes somewhere. I refilled my water bottle and took it down to the lake and dipped in, kinda washed off the pee as best I could. swam around for like 3-5 minutes until I was cool (seriously overheating at this point. it was 90 degrees now at 12:30.

Then went back up to the finish area and ate 4 peices watermelon and a cheese and tomato and lettuce open faced sandwich (dry). then packed it up.


The HEAT! and generally being undertrained on the bike.
eyes tearing up. Now that I know I can do this distance swim non-stop with basically not problems, I need to experiment with faster arm turnover and kicking harder.


It wasn't the fault of the race organizers that it was unseasonably hot. like 25 degrees higher than average. They actually imposed a race cutoff time because of the heat...anyone who started the run after 12:00 was only allowed to do a 5k because of extreme heat.

One thing I wish is that they would have pushed the start times earlier in light of the heat instead of a cut-off time. My wave started at 8:36 and the first wave was at 8:00. I think they could have started at 7:00 or 7:30 to give the runners a little relief. I started my run about 11:15 and it was already REALLY REALLY hot.