It was...foul to say the least. Feet sank about a foot into algae at the bottom, which, after the start, got kicked up by a few hundred people kicking and swimming. Lovely. It was cold, but I warmed up fast. I was super happy to get out of there, though. The toughest part was at the top, I just could not catch my breath, I thought I was hyperventilating. That was frustrating because I had planned to sort of go hard at the top and then settle into my pace. Turned out I did that the other way around. You know, panicked at the top, then settled into a solid pace. I think it was just nerves and the cold...

The start...but I'm not sure what exactly. Will get back to you on that. It's not like I was surprised by the frenzy at the top, since that's sort of standard at most races anyway. Maybe just commit to ducking my head down and going?

Oh. And maybe invest in a wetsuit.

The run to the transition area was ridiculously long, but it was good to get out of the water and loosen up the legs for the bike. Dumped an entire bottle of water over my head to get rid of the green gooeyness (ew).

Nada, I was happy with the transition.

So, I decided to "not eat the paste" at the top, and kept myself at a "I could be going harder" speed for the first loop. There was some significant headwind on the latter part of the loop, which just near killed me the second time around. But I kept going. I drank often, alternating between watered down Gatorade and water, even when I was pretty sure I wasn't "thirsty"...which I thought was incredibly sensible of me. :) I also ate a full power bar within the first two hours, which is something I haven't done in training (I know, bad idea, trying something new on race day). But it worked out really well, kept my energy up and the hunger at bay. After hour two, I switched to GU gels and water.

I finished about 24 minutes faster than I had expected. Came in smiling. :)

I need to get my bike fit adjusted. Or rather, my bike fit done, as I've never even had an official first fitting. Around the second loop, I had major neck pain, which has happened to me on the few "longer" rides I've gone on. It's no good and I think it has to do with the bike fit.

Just a standard switcheroo to the run, though my toes were super numb (er, huh? Maybe need to get the clip position looked at? I couldn't decide if that was because the water had darn near frozen my toes off or if it was from pressure or maybe both??).

Nada, pretty happy with this one, too. Although after the race, I did realize I forgot to slap on some extra deodorant because it wasn't lying in front of me on my towel. D'oh.

So, the run...that's my event. Or that's what I like to tell myself. I can't swim well, I'm not a fabulous cyclist, but I LOVE to run. So I always expect more from myself on this event. Of course, I've been nursing my stupid post-tib tendonitis for the past month, and haven't been able to do significant miles in training. So I knew I had to keep my expectations low. I went out sorta soft on the first 3 miles, letting my legs loosen up. But then I settled into my pace. What felt so great was at mile 9, I knew I had enough juice in me to step up the pace for the last 4 miles. Which I did. Even had time for a super quick pee break. I drank water at every station I passed, then water plus Gatorade towards the last few, plus two GU gels, plus dumping leftover water over my head to cool down. I think that was pretty effective.

Meh, I'm a little disappointed I couldn't pull in under 2 hours, but I'm not gonna beat myself up over it, because of the injury. Still...grrrrr.

Stretching, stretching, stretching. And had a sandwich. :) And water.


Foot injury slowed me down on the run. Otherwise, I don't really have an excuse. :-P


Good race for a first HIM, because it's flat and "easy"...Well organized, though the post race activities were a tad dull. Yay, I did my first HIM ever!!

P.S. Just as a note--the temps were at around 55F in the morning when I got there, overcast, dreary and COLD. By the first half hour of the bike, sun broke through. And I mean BROKE THROUGH. Super sunny, no clouds, and like 73F the rest of the bike, I think it bumped up much higher by the end of the run. Weather report couldn't have been more wrong. Which only sucked because I didn't have my sunblock in my transition bag (left it in the car when I saw the weather report and the chilly grey skies...d'oh!!) and now I've got a nice sunburn going--my race number is actually tattoed onto my skin. LOL.