I thought it was a very enjoyable swim. The entrance/exit is on a sandy beach and the water was a good temp.

I just need to continue working on my form and fitness. Getting fast at swimming is proving to be a very slow process! However, thinking back to my first open water swims in 2006, I have improved by leaps and bounds.

I find it amusing that this form assumes that most people have their shoes clipped into the pedals in advance and do the running mount. Ha!

It was only my second race with a wetsuit. Still getting the hang of it.

I had no idea how many were in my age group, but I was behind a woman on some rolling hills and knew she was in it from her leg markings, so some hidden competitive streak welled up and I decided to ride past and drop her. This was a great move in the end because she was a faster runner than me, but I had put just enough time between us on the bike to win by 15 seconds!

This is a weird race because it's non-USAT and draft-legal. That really changes the dynamics! I didn't really have anyone to draft with, but others did.

Stay in the aero bars more. Buy a new bike. Ride more.

I love Sport Beans.

I was doing OK on the run, but not pushing it too hard. I'm a lazy runner. But I thought I heard a woman's voice behind me at a water stop and became convinced it was the woman I passed on the bike ride (paranoia?). I didn't look, but started to run faster. I got up the last hideous hill then really tried to run fast. And, lo and behold, I only won my age group by 15 seconds, so it was a good strategy. A better one would be to try to improve my run speed in general.

Run faster. Train more.

Walk around, water, free hotdog.


Still getting the pacing thing down. I was also sick with a chest cold all week and didn't work out for about 9 days. So considering, I did pretty well.


Very nice people and race. The course is challenging, but enjoyable. Having to transport your stuff a mile from the parking lot is slightly lame. But this is a good race for all levels. They also have a duathlon. And they gave us nice wicking T-shirts. Oh, by the way, there were 85 people in this race, but the overall results were presents separately for men and women. So my overall rankings are only for all females.