swimming is my weakness. My goal was to not be last in my age group, and to get under 3:00 for my pace. I was 15/16 in my age group but did not quite break my pace goal. water kept getting into my goggles every time I took a breath on my right side, which started causing me to get sunblock in my eyes. very irritating. I think I actually swam decently (for my own skills) considering my goggle problem. My plan was to swim the first 200 freestyle and then after wards swim 50 freestyle and swim 25 backstroke alternating for the rest of the race. I was pleased that I did not find this necessary. I only went on my back 3 times for about 12-15 strokes each time on my back. The remainder I did all freestyle, though I did develop a pattern in the final half where I would do 6-7 breaths (12-14 strokes) then take a 5-7 second rest to sight the buoys and just calm myself down. It was freaky with the water being so muddy and so many people kicking me and bumping me.

not put sunblock on my face before the swim. Do that during T1. Also, I was worried about not being able to finish, so I was kind of "saving" energy for the last 200m. Now that I know I can finish, I would push a little harder during the middle and end. Not take so many "rests".

My transition time was actually decent, there is a somewhat long run into the transition area so I already had my wetsuit off to my waist, my goggles and cap removed and my pony-tail re-adjusted before I even got to my bike. Then there is a somewhat long run with your bike out of transition area. I would estimate 2:00 of this time to be just running.

waited to put sunblock on my face in T1 instead of pre-race.

This was a new PR for me on the bike! My goal was to average 15.5 mph or better. I pedaled pretty much constantly and took almost no "breaks" except during the hairpin turns (there were 6 of them) where it would become a bit of a traffic jam so I would coast into the hairpins and drink some Gatorade. I passed 24 people (including one lady walking her bike).

I actually could have pushed harder. I was trying to save energy for the run but I was totally fine on both the bike and the run. My cadence may have been a little low, but I never did get my cadence sensor working for this race.

my T2 time was great! actually mine was the fastest in my age group by over 10 seconds! Again there was a somewhat long run back to the bike racking area which took up the majority of this time.

nothing.

Another PR for me! my goal was to beat a 9:00 pace. previously my fastest 5k (as part of a triathlon) was 28:36. I started out hating it...suffered for the first 6 minutes or so. I was behind a very fit looking 43 year old lady in a fancy looking looking tri-suit and she seemed to be going about 9:00 pace, so I decided to just pace her and then try to pass her at the end. As it turned out, about a mile in, I was feeling great and passed her no problem. I ended up passing 19 people. with about a half mile left to go I realized I wasn't even tired....so I started running quite a bit faster.

maybe bring a water bottle? I was getting cotton mouth so bad it was distracting me. I'm glad I didn't eat any of my energy chews during the bike because I ended up needing them on the run just to combat the cotton mouth.

drank a bottle of water, walked around.


fear and anxiety during the swim. Holding back on the bike and run trying to "save energy" that I really didn't need to save.


good race. lots of fun. I plan to do this race every year.