So, I'm fairly sure this distance was short. I would see these were some of the worst conditions I've ever swam in. I'm happy to say that I remained calm throughout. I often couldn't see over the swells. But, I just sited on the other people in the water, figuring that someone was catching glimpses of the buoys. Every once in a while I'd time it right to look up when I was cresting a wave and make sure I was on track. The goal for this race was just to settle in and relax and not to push pace, since I have another race coming up on Sunday. I think I did that fairly well.

Not much, really - met my goal and maintained a decent line.

Not sure of the time on this - I'm going by memory until they post the results. Aaron came over to report my swim time and to wish me luck on the run. And, then I was off.

My heart rate was a bit higher than I wanted coming into the run. So, I just focused on getting it down and finding my pace. Only about 3 people passed me on the run, which is fairly good for me in this race. People doing this tend to be fast. Coming towards the turnaround, I noticed a woman I'd been joking with before the race. She was probably a half mile ahead of me. At the turn around, I realized that I was running mostly alone - the next racer was a ways back, and there wasn't anyone to chase down in front of me either. I couldn't decide if that was good or bad. The goal was a tempo workout more than a race, so I decided it was good - just run my run. As I neared the 3/4 mile left point, I realized that the woman I'd seen earlier was ahead of me, walking. I had a little chat with myself about continuing to run my race and not trying to catch her. She started running again, and I just kept on going my pace. I caught up to her with about 200 yards to go. I could have blown past her, but asked if she wanted to run in together and she said, "You set the pace and I'll try to keep up." So, I pushed her in to the end, gradually increasing the pace, and we crossed together. She thanked me afterwards. It felt pretty darn good to remember that this race wasn't about my best performance speed-wise, and that I could do my donkey good deed for the day.

Nothing - ran it the way I wanted to run it.

Stretched out a little and drank some water. They had cookies at this race last year. No such luck last night. So, I went home, showered, and had some yogurt.


I held back because of Sunday's race. But, that's what I wanted to do. So, I'm cool with it.