Guy in front of me was a lot faster than his time. There was a guy missing in front of him, so he had open water and he just took off. I'm sure he passed a bunch. Still, I pass one guy and nobody passed me, so I was pleased. Couldn't really draft with anyone because by the time I got to the person ahead of the guy I passed, she had slowed down and I had to slow too... there was a solid line of people trying to exit the pool. So a little traffic jam. Could have taken about 10 seconds off my pool time probably had I been able to swim directly to the ladder and get out of the pool.... oh well.

I still need to work on keeping my stroke long in a race situation. Even though I swam about what I expected, I could tell I shortened my stroke a good bit.

Had to take time to brush the sand and crud off my feet and get them into socks. I took longer in T1 because of this.

This was a great course. All on the marine base. Very scenic, very clean. Wasn't expecting to see a golf course on base. I rode hard, was breathing hard, but after trying to get comfortable in the first 1/3rd of the bike with a cadence around 95 or so, I finally bumped it up to a lighter gear and hit a 107 cadence which was perfect. I started passing people, catching up to the girl in front of me, my breathing calmed down and I started to feel great. Stayed aero except to drink.

Would start off with an easier gear and get to the higher cadence sooner. I just do better with a higher cadence.

No issues- in and out in good time!

Nuttin'

When I started out I was just trying to catch my breath. I felt like I was going soooo slow and I was mentally started to feel down. Then I saw my coach and she's running along waving a bag of m&ms(gift for me after the race) and was telling me that I looked good and strong and that my form looked good, my breathing was good, and that my pace was great. I thought she was just being nice, but I kept going, literally giving it 110%. Then I came upon a platoon formation. They were marching down a road and I needed to turn right ahead of them. It was going to be close. I put it in high gear and sprinted ahead of them as fast as I could so I didn't get stopped. As I'm pushing it as hard as I could, I literally cut the corner about 10 ft ahead of the platoon. I had to recover a few seconds after that close call and sprint and then another friend caught up to me and was trying to cajole me into not letting him beat me. I pushed for that final sprint and ended up finishing just a couple of seconds behind him. After seeing my time on my watch I realized I just beat my 5K PR by 1:01. Un freakin believable! And here I was thinking that I was having a slow run. Just shows you how much I can't judge my pace without my garmin. I think I just thought I was slow because of the jelly leg feeling from getting off the bike... who knows...

Absolutely nothing. I left it all out on the course!

Got some water, saw Barqhead and celebrated the fact she beat her arch rival. Then started back out on the run course to do my ez 3 mile cool down run. Ran back out to where my coach was, chit chatted and ran back to transition. Felt bad on the run back because people were cheering me on, telling me I was doing good and that I was almost done. I was too embarrassed to tell them I was already done so I just smiled and thanked them. Even got pictures made again on the run, this time I really hammed it up for the camera!


Just time running. I'm still getting faster the more experience I get. I love my coach. She's given me the tools I needed to get faster. I thought she was smokin crack last year when she said she could have me running 8:30 pace. And lookie here, I just beat that! I remember when I thought if I could just do a 10m/m pace I would be sooo happy. I am thrilled beyond words about my progress. Racing is soo much fun!


I loved this race. I loved being on the base, I loved the weather, I love the beautiful location. The distances of each leg were great- the people are awesome. I can't wait for next year!