This swim was even worse than Bozeman's. It was over 6 minutes slower and I have no idea how I slowed down that much. You would think I would have sunk. haha!

I am glad that I am finally done with my triathlons for the season. It gives me a chance to totally rework my swim stroke. I am planning on swimming at least an hour a day five days a week for the whole winter. I have had it with being fast on the bike and one of the fastest on the run and still being in the middle of the pack because of my horrible swim.

I was in no hurry.

It didn't make a big difference I just took my time and made sure I had everything just right.

I didn't push myself on the bike much at all. I was just enjoying the ride. I only finished a little over a minute behind my time in Bozeman too which surprised me. I hadn't been on my bike in 3 weeks.

Train more on the bike leading up to the race and have a different mental state going into the race.

I took my time again. I wasn't in a hurry at all.

I started off the run feeling like I had to pee. This feeling quickly faded when my lower back started hurting so bad that I really couldn't run at all. I had to stop 4 or 5 times on the way to the turn around to try ad stretch out my back. I was running with a hand on my lower back for most of the race. Finally for about the last two miles I was able to loosen up some and start to actually run.

This was by far the worst run race of my life. I think not being on my bike for three weeks prior was the main reason for the back problem(not being used to being in aero position). I was able to catch the couple people who passed me though so I feel good about that and I finished strong.

Stretched, ate a banana, and loaded up my gear and headed home.


Mental fatigue and lack of recent training. My horrible swim skills.


I have only been doing triathlons and road races for a year but this was by far my worse race yet. It motivates me to improve my swim and I learned from my training mistakes. Looking forward to my first half Ironman in Boise! I have a lot of motivation for next year.