Swim went well. Started front and center and fell into a good path with little 'traffic' from the start. I think there were 3-5 others that I could see around me and we were all about the same speed. A few moved ahead after the first bouy, but I still felt like I had a good pace. It started to get crowded about half way through the swim, but not bad until after the last turn. I think I was in a sea of blue caps. It wasn't horrible, but I had to use more effort navigate around people. Kept swimming past people that had started walking and started to run out when I hit sand.

Try to keep swimming instead of pause to navigate around people. Swim pace was the same as last year's race, but 2 seconds shorter. I think my goal was right at 6:18..so I'm happy with the swim.

Pretty good T1, I think I fiddled with the aero helmet a few extra seconds, but nothing major. Goal for T1 was 1:15, so I beat that.

Ride with a new piece of equipment 1-2 times before a race. Not a biggie.

Arrrgghhhh, I'm kinda annoyed at this bike. Overall, the ride itself was good and I felt strong. I've started using my Garmin as my bike computer since I've had issues with my magnet reading lately. But today, I didn't hit the start button right out of T1. It wasn't too long, but maybe 3:00 after I got on the bike- I didn't think it was a huge deal. Pushed hard and tried to get around a lot of the people that were riding 2 and 3 wide- lovely. I'm sure I sounded mean yelling 'on your left'. But really, ziggzagging isn't cool when you're on your bike. Kept working at picking up my pace to my goal pace. I really love this bike course, it has just enough hills to keep it interesting and it's fast. Around mile 4-ish my chain decides to drop into the small ring. Magically. I was about to climb a small hill and it threw me off a second, but I was just glad it didn't drop. Dealt with it and re-adjusted it at the top of the hill. Once we hit Hwy 41, I just tried to go all out. I was happy to finally see 20.4, my goal was 20/mph or 39:00. Overall, I think I only got passed maybe 3-4 times- nice being Katie June- the fastest 15 yr old ever. I was happy it took her till mile 12. Finished the bike with the Garmin reading 20.3-20.4 so I was very happy with that. I think.

Arrr, not quite sure what happened with my bike pace. I had my Garmin pace being a decent amount faster. As much as I hate to say it, I'd have pushed more if I knew I was going to be under 20. I guess the discrepancy is the first few minutes before I hit start. Need to remember to do that in Clearwater to ensure an accurate split. Also, Lisa B had the bike course long, so I'm claiming her distance. Even though I missed a few min on my GPS, I was still over 13 anyways. So what would I do differently? Hit start out of T1 and/or don't rely on watch/GPS completely. Just ride harder.

Good T2. The 1 other bike that showed up on my rack wasn't back so I had lots of room to swing bike around to rack it.

Nada- goal was 1:00 and I beat it.

This run was just ok. I did run the whole time, I still consider this an accomplishment for me. Plus, I swear the RD tried to kill people with some of the hills. I'm sure they aren't bad for a typical runner, but I hate hills. At least they are relatively short. So my plan was just to keep running and no stopping. Just slowed my pace on the hills as needed. It worked well and I was still able to pick people off- even if they were in the older AG's. I carried 1 Fuel Belt bottle and passed by the water stops. I knew there would be club people there, so I tried not to look too miserable. It was really fun to hear everyone yelling for me! Hit mile 2 and just tried to keep up my pace. Around 2.25-2.5 I had 5:00 to hit my race goal. Sweet! Kept running, and running. Looked at my watch again and I was 5:00 over my goal time- WTF????? I'm not one to constantly watch my watch so I was totally confused but also knew we weren't on the same run route as the past years. Anyways..just kept going, not knowing where this would end and finally reached Elena who said the course was long- that was for sure! Finally hit the last street before downtown and I knew where I was again. Up the last hill and into the finish.

Ummm, it would be nice if they'd advertise that the run was long. They mentioned a detour in the run course, but forgot to say it would add over half a mile! I could have at least adjusted my goals! Oh well, my run goal was to run around 8:50 and I hit that. Last year my pace was 9:14...so at least it's an improvement! And I guess technically I still ht my run goal.

Nothing besides talking to people, eating some food(including the chocolate fondue!) and walking 1.5 miles back to the car.


I don't really want to say not having an accurate pace on the bike limited me. It was a race, I should be going all out on the bike since I'm stronger on that that I am on the run. I guess the only limiter here was that I might still be recovering from Steelhead 70.3 last weekend. Still, I felt pretty good over all, just generally tired.


I really like this race, the bike course is fast, but with some small hills. And the run is challenging for me, but not too hard. I'm a bit annoyed that they didn't tell us the run was long, but I'm not sure what I would have done differently anyways. I guess this might be the last year ado this race for a few years, but I'll add it back to the schedule at some point for sure.