This was only my second OWS competition. First one was a complete disaster, so I was really hoping to fare better. I had a few additional practice OWSs, so I felt a little more comfortable and had reason to be optimistic that at least I wouldn't bomb. I also hadn't had any wave starts (first competitive OWS was a time trial start), so was curious to see how that would turn out. But there were only 30 or so in my wave, so it wasn't too crazy...the normal jostling and contact and other than one guy that tried to pull me under, it was fairly smooth sailing. Ended up sighting off of other swimmers for the most part, occasionally sighting off of buoys/shore to make sure we were headed in the right direction. There was a pretty significant amount of wind that created some decent chop out there; got a mouth full of water at the second turn buoy that made me lose my breath and caused me to flip over on my back for about 20 seconds. Drafting was non-existent...I'm still in survival mode out there as opposed to trying to find someone's feet to follow.

Once I have a few more OWSs under my belt, I'll start looking around for like-speed swimmers that can pull me!

Swallowed some water on the swim and was a little out of breath when I first got out of the water. So it was more of a light jog in the surf and up the boat ramp. Still almost wiped out on some moss on the boat ramp. Near the top of the ramp, I was able to get my legs underneath me and pick up the pace to the rack. Shoes were clipped in, so I just threw on my race belt (RD requirement), sunglasses, and helmet and headed for the exit. Mounted smoothly but was a little wobbly slipping my feet into my shoes.

Had I felt better, I could have shaved a few seconds off at the beginning by running a little faster coming out of the water.

This was a really good bike for me. I've only been riding for a year and usually am in the 18-19mph range. Given the short nature of the race, I hammered it about as hard as a I could the entire race. Probably too hard...paid for it on the run. But coming into the race, I wanted to put up a good bike split and felt like I did that. My wave for the first to go out in the swim and I think I was 6th out of the water, so the bike course was pretty empty. I think I passed one or two people and was passed by two or three...one of them from a later wave that posted a sick bike split at over 25mph. Needless to say he whizzed by me.

Probably hold a little back. The run was only two miles but I underestimated how much I'd need in the tank to run the two miles.

Was out of my shoes on the side of my bike at the dismount line. Got a shout out from one of the volunteers for a nice dismount. Headed to the rack and there wasn't much to do besides put the running shoes on (race belt was already on for the bike).

This was clearly my worst leg of the race. I hammered it too hard on the bike, figuring I didn't need much to finish the run since it was only two miles. As soon as I hit the course, my calves started screaming. Thought about stopping a few times to stretch but powered through it. Felt better at about the one-mile mark and was able to stride things out a little more. Was hoping for a pace closer to 7:00/mile, but didn't have it in me. Also timed my finishing kick wrong...a lot of people were confused by the set up at the end of the race. I even scouted it out before hand and it looked like you rounded a turn and went straight to the finish line. But they hadn't yet put up tape/rope to direct you around a few more bands before the finish which added about another 1/4 or 1/2 mile. It is SO defeating to start your finishing kick only to be told you have longer to go.