Finally we lined up and inched our way towards the swim. You basically walk down a long plank (ha!) and then slip into the water. It's a very fast process and all of a sudden, they are telling you to go.

Once I was in the water, I really didn't have time to be nervous. My goals for this race were to beat my St. Anthony's swim time and to feel great on the bike. I put my face in the water and headed out. We were basically swimming in a straight line, keeping the orange buoys to our right. This was the first swim I've done like that, and it was really different! I knew we'd have to swim under 3 bridges, so that helped to gauge where we were. I felt pretty strong on the swim, but the entire time, had a stitch in my side. I just tried to breathe deeply and keep going. I didn't wear a watch on the swim, so I wasn't sure how long I'd been in the water, but I was ready to get out by the time I rounded the boats and headed towards the stairs. I was helped out and surprisingly, didn't wobble too much! I believe our swim time ends when we came out of the water, but didn't see any mats.

Swim Time: 34:33. Giddy-Up!! This is compared to my St. Anthony's time of 45:00. I am super excited about that!

We had to run up a flight of stairs, down through the grassy expo area, across the street, and then all the way through transition. Transition may have started when we entered here, not sure. It was a long way to my bike and then everything was a soggy mess. I took extra time to put gloves on since it was raining, and fumbled with my soggy bike shoes. Hustled to get out of there and ran with the bike part of the way, but it was basically all the way back to the opposite end of transition, through all the mud.

Whatever man, with the path to get to transition and then back out, this is fine with me. Shorter than my 5:01 at St. A's and probably the equivalent in terms of running. I'll eventually get better at this.

My bike was soaked and I was wet, so I took my time at the mount line and then headed out. It was a blur at first after all the messing around in T1, so I tried to just chill out and drink something for a bit. The bike route takes you along the riverfront for a little bit, and then you basically get on the on ramp for the highway. You ride in the left lane of the highway, with the rest of the road open to cars (and semi trucks). It's a little intimidating at first! I hadn't driven the bike course, but had watched someone's video of it on YouTube. Totally deceiving! You hit the first hill pretty soon into the bike and it's a long, gradual climb over a mile. I was a little worried, but I just dug in and got to the top. I noticed some dark clouds rolling in, which made me a little nervous, but what are ya gonna do? Gotta keep rolling! There were more hills, but they didn't seem as bad as the first one and I was doing pretty well speed-wise. I was actually surprised! Since it's an out and back, you see other racers across the median, which is nice. As I neared the bike turnaround, the skies opened up and the rain pelted down. It was coming down hard! There was some thunder and lighting, which scared me, but that tapered off and it was just heavy rain. Cupcake handled well though and we just kept pressing on. We actually passed a few people towards the end, too! The miles clicked by and after one more hill, it was time to get off the highway and head back to transition. I didn't hydrate as much as I should have on the bike because I was hanging on for dear life and some points, but other than that, the ride felt good. It was so gloomy out though that at some points I wondered if I'd make it on the run. I didn't want to deal with the weather on foot! The plus side was that we weren't baking in the sun. Smiled for one last picture and then carefully dismounted in the puddles.

Bike Time: 1:48:18. 14.5 mph average. I was really estimating 13, so this made me happy. I know at some points on the ride I was closer to 15mph average, so I'm getting there. My average at St. A's was 16 on all flats, so this is good. I feel like I'm really improving overall.

Just work to get stronger on hills, and I'd have had more of my drink, I wanted it all gone by the time I got back to transition.

I had to trudge back through the mud to the other side of transition to rack my bike. It was a mud pit, but I grabbed what I needed and headed out fairly quickly.

T2 Time: 2:19. This is good! St. A's was 3:04, so I improved. St. A's probably had a slightly longer run, but I really didn't waste too much time, I did have to slow down since it was so soggy and I was trying not to get my feet totally soaked.

It was so soggy, I'm find with this time.

This is where the wheels fell off. The rain had tapered off, but it was still kind of muggy out. Luckily there wasn't any sun as I headed out. The run towards Mile 1 is up a hill and then tapers out, then a short downhill. It's an out and back, so I got to see several friends and was distracted watching all the runners. Mile 1 clicked by pretty quickly, but I was feeling really bloated from not fueling enough on the bike. It made my stomach hurt and made running NO FUN. I just kept going though and was really just ready to hit the turnaround. It was a nice path along the river, so it was fairly quiet, but the volunteers were awesome. I saw several more friends and then eventually hit the turnaround point. It was VERY quiet on the course at this point since we were in the back. My stomach was still bothering me, but I tried to take in some Powerade, Water and Endurolytes (well, what was left of them, since they'd gotten soggy in my bento box).

Finally, headed down the home stretch to the cheers of my tri club peeps and that picked me right up. The finish line was not far at all, so I gave it one last kick to cross the line.

I really need to work on my run. Period. I also started the run with a stomachache that never went away - not enough nutrition on the bike.

Grabbed some water and a slice of pizza, then headed back to cheer with our club for one more member.


Finish Time: 3:57:35. Compared to 3:47:59 on the flat St. A's course. I didn't think I would beat this time, so I guess I'm happy that it's somewhat close. My swim really helped! My run time was abysmal, so this is definitely where I want to focus some energy. If I can pick up my run pace, I'll feel much more confident. I'm happy with my bike and swim progress so far, so I'll keep working on those as well.

It was a fun race, despite the weather. I may have done a little better if it was just overcast, because the crazy rain took my energy away from fueling properly on the bike. I was also just kind feeling like Debbie Downer because of the weather. But now I have some great experience and know what it's like to race and ride in the rain next to big crazy semi trucks barreling down the highway. Rawr!!!