I was really comfortable in the water. Perfect temperature. The start was fine - normal wave start. The line I picked was toward the shore, close to the buoys, which oddly enough wasn't the line most people chose. I stayed with my friend Carla, who's a good swimmer as well.

There was another quick girl who hung with us, and honestly, she got incredibly annoying. She was unnecessarily physical - constantly throwing elbows and zig-zagging into both me and my friend. I'm all about being competitive, but when you're clearly a strong swimmer and in the lead of the pack, I think being that physical is completely uncalled for. If you have to manhandle me in order to beat me by 2 seconds out of the water... go for it... but don't be surprised when I kick your ass right back either in T1 or the bike.

The crowning glory for this chick was when we rounded the last buoy. Like I said, I had chosen a line that was toward the extreme inside. I had surprisingly little resistance of previous waves - just the annoyance of "that girl." At the last buoy, I was literally as close as you could physically be to the buoy, and she was to my immediate right. Well, apparently being 2 feet away from the buoy just wasn't close enough for this chick. She elbowed her way to being in my face and knocked one of my goggles full of water. I popped my head up, and yelled "SERIOUSLY?!?" at her, and then took off after her and swam clear over her. Serves her right. What a stupid (and potentially dangerous) way to race.

Stay away from violent swimmers.

Thank goodness for wetsuit strippers! I do want to work on having my shoes already on my bike and just jumping on - I feel like such a goober stopping, and messing around with trying to get my feet in the pedals, blah blah blah.

Go barefoot and put my shoes on while riding.

I kind of expected the headwind on the way back since my avg on the way out was upwards of 23+mph. I tried hard to not settle into a comfortable pace, and rather push it the whole time. My goal was a 20+mph average, so I'm very happy with my ride. (It's almost 2mph faster than my average last year on the same course!)

Go faster against the headwind. Possibly go faster with the tailwind, too!

I think I could have saved a few seconds by not trying to rack my bike so perfectly (I'm anal, what can I say?). Other than that, I just wish I had done a brick this year so I'd have remembered how crappy my legs feel when I start running after a hard ride.

Just put the stupid bike on the rack.

I really felt crappy for the first .25 miles. But I forced myself to keep a high cadence because that's served me well in the past. It was a bit like shuffling at first, but once I got my legs back under me and there was some power behind my stride, I was good to go. I was passing people left and right, which is always a boost. I think only 2 people passed me on the run, one of whom was Andrea Fisher... so I didn't feel too bad about that one. Overall, I'm really pleased with this run - it's a new PR for a 5K for me, and :06/mile faster than last year.

I'm tempted to say wear socks, because I got some nasty blisters, but putting on socks is annoying and time consuming, so the jury is out on that one.

Found my friend Carla, grabbed some food, a beer, and a spot in the sun by the band.


Lack of early season training - which makes me thrilled to have done so well on such a small amount of training. I'm really looking forward to this season with a first race like this. I can't wait to up the training and see the speed!!!


I feel bad saying this, but it's almost like I knew it was going to be an awesome race, and it was, so there was no real surprise. There's no way I was going to miss this race after having so much fun last year, and there's no way I'll miss it next year. My mom already wants to know when next year's race will be so she can get reservations at Moody Gardens :)

As usual, another AWESOME race by Keith and EndorFUN!