A buoy came lose right before the start and so there was a 5 minute delay before the swim. We were all huddled on the dock, standing in the rain, freezing. When it came to time to actually get into the water, I was apprehensive about the water temp but it was actually pretty warm compared to standing out in the rain. I realized that I was in the middle of everyone once in the water and so I moved to the back to wwait for the start. When the horn blared it seemed like no one moved. All the folks in front of me started doing the breast stroke and it took forever to navigate around and through everyone. I finally found some more open water around to 200 meter point and was able to settle into my swim. I got kicked in the back and the head once, but the last one was my fault for getting to close to a guy.

Line up closer to the fron in the swim and find some better goggles or mask. I had to stop 3 times to adjust my mask because of taking on water.

OK, this sucked. The rain totally blew my plans of running in my socks to the bike start point to bits. I have never trained without socks on the bike and so I had to run in my bike shoes and this was slow. Also, my spot sucked becasue I was almost as far as you could get (150 yards) from the bike start and the run start. I was a little dizzy coming out of the water and I really took things too slow in this transition. Getting on my gear was easy, except my gloves which I will try to do without for my Olympic.

Practice coming out of the water and running. Try to ride without socks.

This is the fastest I have ever averaged on my bike and so I was really happy with my time. After saying that though, I got passed by a lot of people on the bike. There was one guy in a big orange and blue chicken suit and he passed me. I decided that he was my nemesis and so I passed him back and didn't see him for the rest of the bike; damn chicken guy! I really felt fine after the bike and I guess I should have pushed myself more. I had one gel half-way through the bike and a lot of Gatorade that I think came back to bite me in the ass for the run. I guess races in Europe are different becasue not one person said anything on the bike; no good job, keep it up, nothing. I made sure to tell the 4 people I passed good job and while I have no idea if they actually understood me, I thought it was the nice thing to do.

I need a lot more practice; especially on the hills. I was happy with my personal performance but it really sucked compared to everyone else.

I had to stop at the line to clip out of my pedals right after the 180 turn and so this took a little time. The rack for my bike was only 15 feet from the line and so that was nice, but when I had everything on I realized that I really didn't know where the run start line was. I had to wait around a few seconds before I could foolow someone else. The porta johns were right behind my bike and after I got around 40 ft from them, I realized that had to pee. I figured I could just use one on the course in stead of turn back and this turned out to be a bad mistake.

Pee if I need to and be sure where I need to go.

I wasn't even completely out of the transition area before I knew I was in trouble. My stomach felt horrible and I had to pee bad! I spent the whole first lap of the course scoping out bushes but the problem was that there were no porta johns on the course and no where to really go that wouldn't have been in someones yard. I did finally find a spot just before the end of the loop. I did feel better afterwards but it didn't cure it and so I really think that it had something to do with all the orange gatorade I had on the bike and before the event. My second lap was 2 minutes quicker than my first but overall I was pretty unhappy with my run and once again I got passed by loads of people, including the damn chicken guy.

I've already ordered my Gatorade Endurance so hopefully that will fix my hydration problems, but I do need to experiment with race day nutrition. More brick workouts.

At the end of the race I felt almost 100%. My stomach was still cramping, but much more manageable. Ate some watermelon and drank some water. Went and met Carrie and Jayden and had a few beers at the tent.


Stomach issues during the run and lack of experince on the bike and in transition.


For my first triathlon I have no real complaints. I was really happy with my personal times, but it sucks that I still ended up ranking so low in all the categories. This was just a practice race and I did have fun and am really ahppy that I was able to finish it. There was a point early in the swim where I thought to myself, Holy crap I'm in a triathlon! It's really cool to be able to do this and I am looking forward to starting my training back up tomorrow.