This was one of the scariest swims I've ever had. Partly because my shoulder isn't completely up to snuff, partly because I thought it was going to be a 400 yd swim so I didn't train for a 750 meter swim, and MOSTLY BECAUSE THE OCEAN WAS SOOOOO ROUGH! It took me longer to get out to the first buoy (at least it felt like it) then to do the rest of the swim! The wind was blowing right into shore, creating huge waves, all the way out to the buoys. There was no relief from that. I was so afraid I was going to hurt myself I came DARN close to DNFing right there! But I knew Bob was on shore ready to cheer me on and take pictures. I just couldn't. Swimming parallel to shore was definitely not easy, but much better than it was going out. Then, finally, it was time to turn into shore and this was where it got nervous again. During the warmup, this is where I got swallowed up by the waves more than any other time. I said an extra prayer and after what seemed like forever, I made it to shore.

Know how far the race distance is so I would TRAIN for it properly! Also, bring the wetsuit! I wasn't sure what the water temps would be, but I had thought about packing the wetsuit the day before just in case, and it totally slipped my mind! About 75% of the people there had them.

It was a very long run from the beach, up the soft-sand hill to where I put my water shoes to wear for the loooong run through the gravelly parking lot into the gravelly transition area. MAN, I'm glad I had them. It was worth the extra time it took to put those shoes on so my feet wouldn't hurt!

Nothing. This is my first race back in a year...I was just hoping to finish today.

My heart was pounding from the swim. Even though I tried to jog more relaxed into T1, my heart rate was still high when I got onto the bike. I stayed in the small chainring for the first mile just to try to calm down my breathing and HR. This was such a small race that there wasn't a lot of people to see on the course. However, there was always soemone I could sight on further up the road as a "carrot" for me to chase. It helped a lot.

Nothing. Just trying to get thru the race.

Since I was running barefoot into a sandy, gravelly transition area, I had to take a bit of time to wipe off my feet before putting on my run shoes. I think that was the only thing that slowed me down.

Nothing.

The part that is usually my strongest point is now my nemesis. I was nervous about how my stupidity would be. I have only worked my way up to running one 5K distance in training, and that was just a few days ago. My rational brain said "just walk when I need to", but my competitive brain said "yeah, right!" Actually, I did have to walk for a little bit on the way back, but not necessarily because of my knees. I actually got a side stitch! I haven't had one of those in years! Very odd.

Nothing. First race in over a year and I'm happy with surviving the whole thing.

Biked a slow 3 miles down A1A and back. Drank my Recoverite. Did some walking, stretching, showered and changed.


Injuries over the past year, not quite healed yet.


This was a very small race by the RD's design. It was a combo sprint/oly in both triathlon and duathlon, so there were actually 4 races going on at once, and maybe 150 people all together. It's a great race for a beginner (except for the huge surf) because there is only one u-turn and
it's not too crowded.



I had so many reservations about even doing this race today because of injuries, but I'm glad I did it.