Oh my! I thought that all of my pool swimming would pay off here. I know that I had heard about people bombing the OWS; but I really didn't think that I'd be one of them. I put on my wesuit, got it the water and swam around and felt pretty good. It was weird not being able to see where you are in the water.. So the canon thing goes off, and I am on the outside and to the left. I put my face in the water to start swimming and I got the gasping reflex thing going on. I could not catch my breath or anything. I breast-stroked, back-stroked, side- stroked.. anything to keep me moving forward. I think the proximity of the other people, the coldness of the water, nerves- it all caught up to me. I was definitely disappointed and embarrassed especially when I know how much swim training I have done. I did finally freestyle in the last 100 or yards. Yeah!

OWS, OWS, OWS, OWS, OWS, OWS

I felt pretty good here. Wetsuit came off pretty easily.

I'll get better as I do more tris. There wasn't really one thing that I could do differently, I just to get faster.

Great course. I was a little nervous because I had heard that the course was hilly. Those hills were NOTHING! I was flying by people on the bike- especially on the uphills. That was awesome!

nothing

My race belt came out of the clippy thing. I had to mess with that.. while I was running out of T2.

nothing

By now it is hot and really humid out! Plus I had an exertion of about 9 the whole time so far. My legs were tired. I walked a few times out of sheer necessity. I had to get my HR down. It didn't stay down at all. I ran really hard and fast the last .25 mile coming down the stretch to the finish line. I finished and looked at my HRM and it said 177. I can truthfully say that I left NOTHING out there on that course. I gave it all I had that day!

Would of, should of, could of....
so much was out of my control and then my own problems started with the swim.

walked around and chatted with hubby and friend.


Humidity, going out like I did on the swim.


I am definitely going to do this tri again next year. It was awesome! I have some demons there to beat for next year. The event was very well run.
This was my second tri, ever. I have improved so much this year alone. I am excited and inspired to think how far I can go. This race was challenging both physically and mentally. I know that it was only a "sprint", but I know now that I have potential and nowwhere to go but up!