This was my first wetsuit legal swim . . well, the first one that I actually had a wetsuit on. What an awesome feeling. Sighting was a TON easier, and I had bought new goggles the week prior, so they really helped alot. I felt pretty confident in the water, not fast, but I wasn't pushing to be fast, I just wanted to get out of the water with plenty of energy. As you can see from my place on the swim, I obviously wasn't too worried about my swim time. I knew if I'd get out of the water around 45 minutes, I'd be plenty happy.

Try to find someone to draft off of. Although with my pace it's difficult, mostly everyone else is faster than me on the swim. Other than that, I was pleased.

T1 had a rather long run getting up to transition after getting out of the water. It was slightly uphill, but I was able to jog the entire way and not exert too much energy. I have a short, sleeveless wetsuit so it came off extremely easy.

What an awesome route. I loved it, actually. The hills were definitely challenging, but a lot of fun and a definite change of scenery from what we ride around here. It caused some pain and some questioning of my abilities at some points, but I surprised myself by averaging 19 mph. I had really wanted to average just a bit over 18 and finish comfortable. But 19 felt comfortable, so I just kept pedaling and it turned out great. The 56 miles went by in a flash. I'd say the first 20 to 30 miles went by really fast and the second half was a bit more challenging, but the last 5-8 were extremely fast and smooth.

I might have pushed just a BIT harder, not much, but just a little bit. I think I could've eeked out another 0.5 mph without hurting too much. I missed a bottle on the last handup, which really put me not drinking anything for the last 6 miles. I really was thirsty when I got off due to that. But I had drank 3 full bottles of my AeroDrink and a bottle of carb-mix.

I rolled my socks to make it easier to get my feet into them, which helped. I really focused on controlling myself and not letting myself get into a frenzy. I took my bike shoes and helmet off, threw on the socks and slipped on my running shoes. I grabbed my hat, slipped that on, and took my Garmin and slapped that one while I was running out of T2. I think it went well. I took my time and didn't get too flustered.

OOHH MMMYYY GGOOOOD. That hurt. That's about all you can say about the run. I finished the run. I started running after T2 and felt awesome. I had so much confidence. The first 3 miles flew by at or a little faster than the pace I wanted to try to maintain. I felt like I could really do the entire run at about 10-10:30/mile and feel okay. How wrong was I? Well, around mile 7, I started walking/running because my body would have none of the constant running. At mile 11, I think I walked the entire mile. Mile twelve I told myself I was going to run the rest of the way. . . NOPE. I think I ran the last 4/10 of a mile, but wow. So disappointing that my overall time was ten minutes over my goal, and I know I could've done 10-minutes better on the run. But I'm still happy. I finished my first HIM!

Train more bricks. More long bricks. I felt fine through the distance I had trained for. It was the unknown that killed me. I felt confident knowing I could run 5-6 miles at the pace I wanted after the bike, I guess my body just wasn't prepared for the final 6 or 7 miles.

I only put the "Events on Time?" as No, because the race started about 20 minutes later than slated due to the delayed shuttling of people from the parking lots to the Transition site. I loved this race, the run was BRUTAL for me and alot of people I spoke with, but what's a triathlon without the pain? I'm looking forward to my next HIM . . . which hopefully will be flat.