I had two goals for this swim...go easy and save my legs, and do not freak out. I accomplished both.

I took it so easy, because the opportunity for freak out was great. The water was gooey and DARK and pretty gross, IMHO. Plus, it seemed like girls were all over the place. I went away from the crowd, and people were just zipping back and forth and being really stupid in the swim...I tried just to draft, but people kept randomly stopping, so I just did some slow strokes.

One interesting point is that I got my hoop earring caught in my wetsuit about 1/2 way through...I stopped, calmly removed it and went about my race. Three weeks ago, I probably would have quit the race.

I walked really calmly out of the water in transition because I again wanted to conserve for the bike.

I think I would go a bit harder. I would like to still get more comfy with the whole swim portion and learn how to maximize my swimming without overtiring myself. Still a 7 minute swim is good for only my second race!

As a newbie, I take my transitions slow and almost use them to rest.

Go faster.

Yay! I finally was racing on the bike. I was getting up to 28-29 mph on some down hills and flats. My time was really negatively effected by my poor poor hill climbing ability.

I was trying out a new bike and it has really different gearing, so a few times, I would completely start spinning when I was just trying to take it up or down a gear, losing momentum.

Lose weight and train hills harder.

I really really have a hard time after hammering the bike. Once again, I had to walk a lot on the run because the lactic acid buildup is so painful in my legs.

More and more and more bricks, and try some at race pace. It's easier to run after spinning on the bike than going all out for race pace and race distance.

Walked around and hugged my fiancee.


Training!


I have to say that BUDU racing is just great. My timing chip did not register on the final mat, and Deanna from Budu made sure to tell me several times that she would figure it out.

That afternoon, she called twice and got information and told me she had coordinated with the photographer to figure out my final time. She apologized for the issues...she really went above and beyond.

I have to say that this race really made my happy, because I dropped ten minutes off my time from Moses Lake three weeks ago, and added two miles to the bike leg! I didn't freak out from stupid stuff and did not swim my whole race backstroke!

I have tons more to work on to improve, but overall I am pleased with a 1:30 in my second tri ever!