I seeded myself along the line and behind a couple of burly guys-big mistake. The guys were slow-I think that I beached myself on the first one. I was wearing my dark goggles because the 2 year old ran off with my good goggles last week-another big mistake. I could barely see anything. I plowed into at least a half dozen people and bumped quite a few more. Being myself, I kept apologizing when I bumped people. I am sure that being polite improves my time. Because there was a rope I couldn't pass on the inside and people kept crowding in. The entire first half of the race I was plowing into someone, pausing and trying to get my bearings, taking 3-6 strokes and plowing into someone else. Finally I broke free of the crowd-only to realize that it was because I swam beyond the boat. So incredibly stupid. After doing an extra 15 yards I went just to the outside of the swimmers and passed a few people that I should already been well ahead of.
Oh well, live and learn.

Never trust other swimmers to seed themselves appropriately. Never wear dark goggles in an OWS. Stop feeling like I need to apologize whenever I bump someone. If I run into one of the big guys again I think that I will just scramble over him rather than pausing so I was no longer on top of him and then once again trying to find away to pass. I really need to learn how to swim in a crowd and maneuver around people-or just seed myself all the way in the front and let some of the faster swimmers pass me. In that small of a group there are not a lot of people that are faster than me.

Could have been faster, but I did alright.

Skip the jersey for the ride-it bunched up on my damp shoulder blades when I was putting it on and was a struggle to pull it down. I would have skipped it except I forgot my sunscreen. My skin cancer risk is too high to let my shoulders and back burn.

I passed a recently killed deer, and a bunch of flattened caterpillars. I passed a couple of bikers, but there were more that passed me. Some of these were competing in the duathlon though.

Not much.

My quads were not happy. I ran the entire amount with no stops. I could have pushed myself harder, but I was hurting. I did lengthen my stride on the last half a mile. I increased my pace a little more for the last couple hundred yards.

I wasn't entirely spent when I finished so I could have put more into it, but the last time I ran hard while hurting I had lingering pain for several years.:(

I need new shoes-the toes on my right foot go numb when I run more than a mile. I also need to practice more and improve my form.

I trotted around some, walked and stretched, walked and stretched some more. And then I stretched.


Pain, cramped muscles, numb toes, a little asthma, and I was really tight.

listen to me whine. :)


They put on fun races in Elma. They are small and everyone is really friendly.

My goal going into this race was to beat my Father's Day race time by 15 minutes-I took off 22.


The race results are a minute faster than I remember...and my time in not in proper place-last time I checked 21 came before 22 and 23. Does that make me #28? The time I saw crossing the line would have been almost exactly at the current #28 position.

I guess that being polite does improve your time...

I kept my original time-I don't think that my watch and the clock they had up were both a minute slow. I placed myself on the result list based on my original time-I don't know where they dropped a minute, but it doesn't make a difference in my age group standing.