When I signed up I put down that it would take me 9 minutes to swim 300m. That put me near the very back of the swim start and had to stand around and wait over an hour before starting.
I was very happy with my time as this was the first time I've swam with other people in the same lanes. I spent too much time going around people and was never able to concentrate on my swim stroke. I knew it would be much different than my swimming by myself in the 25yd gym pool, I just didn't want to panic and I stayed pretty focused considering this was my first swim with arms and legs flailing all around me.

The last 50m was slow because I had to wait for people to get out of the pool and wait my turn to climb up the ladder. That probably cost me 20-30 extra seconds.

Up to this point in my training, I was happy with my result. I would like to start training with a group to get faster and start the swim portion earlier. I would almost rather be the one getting passed so not to exert that extra push to go around people.

It was cold outside and I took my time to put on extra clothes.

Practice transitions more! My transition area was a big pile of clothes. I tried to put everything down nice and neat in the order I planned on putting them on, but it was still a mess. I had a huge towel doubled that I wrapped around the clothes and another towel on top of that. Was trying to keep my shoes and clothes from getting drenched in the drizzle/rain.

My first 1/2 mile was pretty slow getting out of transition and turning several times before the main loop started. I think I kind of rode with the crowd at first and I didn't push myself like I should have. Once I got in the groove there were lots of downhills on miles 2-4 and I passed lots of people and hit 30mph a couple of times. Mile 5 was a killer -- I averaged about 11mph on that mile both times around the loop. A few times I looked down and saw I was speeding up the hill at 7mph. I had one 20oz bottle of water on my bike and drank about 3/4 of it. Probably should have hydrated myself better during the bike. I was never passed by a mountain bike -- woohoo, but there was a 62yr old lady that flew by me on those hills!

I rode with my running shoes and strap cage, so I will be using bike shoes and pedals next time!

I already had my running shoes on, so this should have been much faster. I took off my jacket I wore on the bike and had to dig through my transition pile for my race number and watch band. I was barely moving out of transition as my legs were jello.

Not sure since my transition area wasn't laid out like I had practiced previously. I changed what I had practiced so I wouldn't struggle in the weather.

My time was slower than my training. My legs felt horrible after transition. As I just got out of transition, my race belt came undone. It was still clipped but the loop thingy came undone and stopped to fix it. I tried to weave it through while jogging, but that wasn't working so I just stopped and worked on it until it was secure. I did a combination of walking/jogging like I did while training, but my jogging was much slower than my training.



I knew that running was my weakest area and I think mentally I talked myself into just trudging along and taking my time. I did not have a race or competition mentality at this point of the course and just wanted to finish. That won't happen again!

Walked around and grabbed a drink.


Being overweight and not on in great physical shape yet.


My first race, so hard for me to compare and rate.