Getting okay with the wrong bouys and then realizing that the REALLY FAR ones were actually mine was NOT good. That was right before we got in the water. As usual, I had trouble getting the whole freestyle/air thing to work, and ended up spending a lot of time on backstroke. This is where a bit of a warm-up swim may have helped. I still don't have a lot of endurance though, so spending much energy on the swim warm-up may or may not have helped. I still passed people, even doing backstroke, and caught someone from a previous wave. My wave went last, and when we were just getting into the water, an elite from the first wave was just getting out. Wow. She was fast. Her time was 10:44. I bet she's been swimming longer than 54 days though.

Work on sighting. I got off track a lot.

This was really slow and I didn't even have a wetsuit on. Good thing! LOL. It was about 150-200 yards to run from the beach to the transition area and the same with the bike to the mount up area. I also discovered that my hands don't work for crap and tying shoes and putting socks on wet feet doesn't work well. No wonder all you all get the one strap shoes and go without socks. :) Since most people managed to do this transition way faster, I'll need to work on this.

See if my HR monitor is waterproof. I put that on in transition as well, and it would have been nice to be able to just wear it through the swim.

This was GREAT! I got on, clicked in, and got up to a good speed really quickly. There were some sharp turns to negotiate before the straightaway on Marine Drive, so I couldn't get a lot of speed going until then. Once I was on Marine Drive, I held 20-21mph out and back. What a kick! I passed and passed and passed people. No one passed me. Lots of people had mtn bikes, but there were quite a few roadies, and some with aerobars.

I would drink a bit more at the beginning of the ride.

Transition had two "sides" with a separator in the middle. I came in from the end of the bike and was on the wrong side and had to go around. Very annoying. Had 1/2 a gel, but should have had it at T1.

Check the view of the transition area from where the bike section ends.

I still have the drink water=stomach cramps problem. They didn't start out too bad, but by the end of the run it was awful. Non-essential equipment though, so sprinted out the last few hundred yards. I had been hoping for 8:30 or 8:40 pace, but just didn't have the air to do it.

Make sure to have the gel at T1. Drink the water at the beginning of the ride, and nothing at T2. At least for this distance.

Water, and cooling down with my jockstrappers: hubby, brother, brother's GF.


cardio on the swim
no aerobars on my bike
stomach cramps on the run.


The race was really fun, and I'm sure I'll be back next year. After I do some more swim practice!