I haven't done ANY OWS practice this year at ALL, and my pool swimming has really dropped off the past month after having swam pretty regularly for the previous 2 months. I knew I could make it through the swim, but I thought it would be exhaisting and simply a survival game. There were also some rolling waves to contend with the entire time. Amazingly, I found my stroke pretty quickly and didn't have to deal with any hyperventalation issues. I was able to settle in to a consistent stroke and make my way through. I got out of the water and looked at my watch and it was under 30 minutes!! I was really stoked with this time.

Hit the pool more consistently, practice OWS before race.

T1 had a run from the beach up to transition, which included a run through powdery sand so HR got elevated. Should probably work on cutting out 1 or more minutes from this transition time.

Have bike shoes attached to pedals and attempt putting them on while riding.

I enjoyed the bike course a lot. There wasn't much headwind to deal with except for a short time during the second loop. It was cool being able to average over 21 MPH without having to drop the hammer. I was trying not to blow up my HR too much so I wouldn't have to start the run already blasted. This was probably a high Z3 effort on the bike, I definitely could have gona faster but I think I paced it just about right. Played leapfrog with a girl on a Cervelo about 5 or 6 times.

T2 went pretty quick. Was able to get out of the bike gear and into the running gear with no issues.

Started out running through some woods with a pirate theme. There was a skeleton hanging from a tree, and the facade of a pirate ship with a boombox playing some techno music. Nice touch. Then it was out onto the sidewalk running out about 3.5 miles to the turnaround. part of the way back they diverted you out onto the beach for about 1.5 miles. Running on the hard-packed wet sand is not bad. It's running out through the powdery dry sand that gets to you. Shot my HR up to 190!! Walked part of the powder. Almost done and really starting to feel like I wanted to stop but just pushed through it. Anywho, nearing the finish had to turn back away from the beach and run through the nice powdery sand again to head back to the finish line.

I really need to focus on not going out to hard on the run. I started out running 8:45 to 9:00 miles at the start b/c I was feeling really good. All this did was shot my HR through the roof and made the second half of the run a game of survival. Shojuld probably start out at around a 9:30 pace for this distance and adjust from there.

Start out slower. Look at that average HR~~~! Wow. I'm shocked I didn't blow up completely.

Grabbed some water, some food, and chilled out listening to music and people watching while waiting for the parents to find me.


I have to figure out how to keep my HR under control on the run coming off the bike. This single factor is the bane of my triathlon experience.


This was an awesome race! I really enjoyed the small, local feel of the event. There were only about 200 triathlon participants and 100 duathlon participants. So it was really cool to see Heather Gollnick out there on the beach before the race, out on the bike course, and even saw her headning back out on to the beach for another run as I was finishing up and she had obviously already finished. She told me to "nice job" as she passed by. She really seemed to be enjoying herself. I will definitely keep this race in mind for next year. I think I may enjoy these smaller events more than the larger corporate affairs.