Easy swim. Drafted off of someone else for most of the swim. Took it easy for the last 200 yards.

Swim more - I haven't been swimming consistently and it shows. My time was 5 minutes slower than last year.

Couldn't get myself organized after the swim. Everything seemed like it was in the wrong place.

Get to the race earlier so I can have more time to set up transition. I felt really rushed.

Almost exactly the same time as last year, but the course was short by a mile this year. So, again I was a little slower, but ok. Average speed about 14.5 mph - I was pretty happy with this. I held off the last two people until the very end of the bike, but they both passed me with about a mile to go. I was not happy about this as I'd held them off the whole way, but I always slow down coming back in. What was fun about being last on the bike, was that I got my own personal motorcycle escort for the last mile. He was pretty funny - kept saying things like "Rock on, baby, they won't know what hit them."

Train more.

I wasn't in a hurry, I figured I was last anyway. Interestingly, both people who passed me on the bike, passed me again at the beginning of the run, so at least I got out of transition faster than they did.

It was hot. Really hot. I don't do well in the heat, and running is by far the hardest thing for me to do. Last year, I trained in the heat of the day, but this year it has been much cooler and so I haven't been able to do that. I crashed on the run. I ran/walked at first, but then the heat started hitting me and I couldn't run. When I tried, I would get dizzy and lightheaded. Passing out seemed like a bad idea, so the run turned into the death march from hell. I would try and slowly jog every once in a while, but mostly it was just too much. I found myself in the middle of the run, asking myself, why in hell I was out there anyway. It was awful. I think I only finished due to sheer refusal to quit.


Train more, run in the heat.

I had carried water on the run, as well as drinking at every aid station - as soon as I finished I walked slowly over to somewhere shady and sat down. I got a plaque (I was the only Athena who entered so I got first place) and the EMT guys made me drink 3 bottles of water. They were worried about dehydration. I had to mix the last batch with warm water though, cause they were having me drink it so fast I was getting an ice-cream headache. I know that I was overheated, and I didn't argue with them, but I drank at least 13 cups (104 oz) of water during the event. I guess that wasn't enough.



Weight, training


I'm rating this race just right, even though it kicked my butt, it's a good race in a nice venue. The run is super hot though, be prepared. I can't say enough about the volunteers at this race they were all so great. One of them got me a plate of food afterwards, I couldn't eat it, but it was appreciated, and another guy saw me walking to get my bike and gave me a cold Red Bull which really hit the spot.

Post race activities: I don't know as I'm too d*mn slow.