I really thought this was a good swim for me... no panic, stayed strong, bilaterally breathed about 75% of the time (which speeds me up, usually). Was with a good chunk of my wave for about a third of the race, and then things thinned out a little. I tried drafting, but wasn't too successful there -- not too many feet to choose from.

Worked hard the first 100m or so to get some clean water, then settled into a good pace. Picked it up after turning the last buoy back towards the dock.

I continued thinking it was a good swim until I looked at my watch getting out of the water -- about 4 minutes slower than I had anticipated. Really not sure what happened out there. Kelly and I thought the course might be long, but I really could just be that slow.

Tough getting out the water for me... no footholds, and the volunteers just kind of stared at me while I hauled my body out of the water and then basically threw myself, face down, onto the dock and tried to squirm the rest of my body onto land. I'm sure I was the picture of grace.

Swim faster? Obviously. In the end, any swim that doesn't include panic is a good swim for me.

Long 300m run back to transition, so this time isn't as bad as it looks. Wetsuit got stuck on the chip, but other than that, this went smoothly.

Move the transition area closer to the swim. :)

This was where my race emphasis was -- go out, hammer the bike and see what happens. I wasn't wearing my HRM, but I'm positive that I was in z3/z4 for the bulk of this ride... and yet, my pace still wasn't all that good -- almost dead last in my age group. I obviously need more work climbing hills (hard to gain time in a race when you're going 6mph). Perhaps a little more mental focus too -- I get easily distracted by fatigue and I slow down instead of pushing through it.

Ride harder, faster, better. More hill training would help, I'm sure.

Aside from one of my shoes flying off my pedal after I had hopped off my bike, this went smoothly (and a volunteer retrieved my shoe for me even before I had a chance to go after it, so that didn't cost me but a few seconds).

T2 was lumped into the run, but this is about what I had on my watch, so I'll go with it.

Not a whole lot. This was an easy transition.

While I didn't think this had gone all that well, looking back, I think mile markers were a little off so it skewed my split times. Had scouted the route enough to know that the first 5 miles were flat and then there was a big uphill into the city. But - didn't scout enough because it wasn't just *one* hill... it was 1.55 miles of (to borrow a phrase!) soul-destroying hills. :) I kept pushing along the flats knowing what was in store for me -- I thought to myself, run hard now and you can walk the hill to rest...

Of course, even walking the hill wasn't much rest -- I think my HR may have gone UP instead of down, even. You know that good things aren't in store for you when, spray-painted on the ground is "Welcome to the Gates of Hell!" And then after that, I thought it would be relatively flat, but it SO wasn't. And while the hills weren't too bad after the first ridiculously stupid steep climb, my legs were already toast. I alternately ran and walked the rest of the hills and just tried to make up some time on the downhills. The steep decline from the city back to the river was, uh, interesting... I kept wondering when my quads would just decide to give out on me and send me tumbling....!

But for me, at least that was the end of my race... I felt bad for Kelly who would have to endure that TWICE since she was doing the HIM distance!

Scout the course better. Lesson learned. It wouldn't have changed the reality of it, but I would have been mentally prepared for it which may have helped.

Crossed the finish line, contemplated throwing up and decided not to go that route. Instead, walked through the food tent, got a banana and some water and headed back to the bike transition to wait for Kelly to get back from her second loop on the bike course. After that, my stomach had calmed down a little so I went back, got more food and then positioned myself to see Kelly a couple of times looking very strong out on the run course -- this course was VERY spectator-friendly.


Felt flat this entire race - nothing bad happened, but just didn't have a whole lot of get up and GO! to make it through. Need to climb more hills to perform better on a course like this, too (both bike and run). I finished this race having not really met my expectations, but I knew it would be a challenge given that I don't ride or run hills with any regularity.


There were some great things and some not so great things about this race. The not-so-great: I didn't feel like they did a good job at telling us about the course (the difference between Oly and HIM swims, and that the 40k bike didn't have to do an out-and-back section), the website wasn't terribly informative, race ran late, some roads were REALLY bad. The great: small race, nice swim, beautiful venue, challenging course, lots of post-race food, lots of volunteers and plenty of drink stations, AG awards 5 deep (which is how I got hardware despite not even being top 50% of my AG), and a VERY VERY spectator-friendly course.

Especially having done it once and now knowing the course, I'd do it again.