Water was cold until your face and feet went numb. After that I didn't notice the water temperature. I lined up in the back because I know I am not the fastest swimmer. But when the group narrowed I found myself too far on the outside and had to cover a large distance to make it back into the group. I pull harder with the left arm so I end up bowing out. I sighted the buoy but seemed to loose the group and had to arch back into the collective. I corrected fairly well after the first turn. They needed another buoy marker after the 2nd one. Several people rounded the buoy and then commented they couldn't see the last marker. It was a long straight path and it got a little lonely out there when I was dropped by the main group. However, I did manage to pass a few people. I think I swam closer to 2000 yards. Overall I felt good, nice pull and was more bored than tired.

Need to practice owsing with a group to learn to stay with the pack.

Terrible transition. I forgot how disorienting owsing can be. Was off balance for a few seconds standing up out of the water. But I was able to run up the path to the bikes, then I couldn't get my wetsuit off or my gloves on! Finally got through that ordeal and for some reason I couldn't move the bike fast enough with one foot clipped in to get the second one clipped and not loose my balance at the mount line. Horrible transition.

EVERYTHING!!!!

This course is just like my lake loop at my house, so I was fine. Am disappointed my overall pace wasn't faster b/c it has more flat stretches than at home, but some of those were false flats and had some strong winds. Didn't spend too much time in the aero bars, had to change gears just enough to make things difficult (Tri-bike tri-bike tri-bike). Miss my aero bottle. For the hills I dropped into a low gear right away and just spun. This worked amazingly well for my overall condition. I think I might have lost a little time doing this but I was able to hold the same speed all the way up the hill and, more importantly, there was no need to recover at the top. I was able to pop back into a bigger gear and be on my way. Now I have to practice this to get my speed up at these low gear-high cadances.

Not much. This was a very successful ride.

Things went okay. Took a second to detach my Garmin from the bike, but overall it went well. I was a little confused on the path out of the transition area, that could have been marked better.

Didn't need to grab the arm warmers. Put them in my back pocket right away.

Felt great coming out of T2. THAT IS A FIRST FOR ME!!! In fact I was holding a 9:45 min/mile pace for the first mile. Then we went up a hill and I slowed down to save my legs. "Remember, this is a training race, so don't blow yourself out Tracy." On mile 2 my foot started to hurt again. Right under the 5th metatarsal on the right foot. This concerned me so I slowed down more. Don't know if that was the best move b/c it actually hurt less when I ran faster. I think running faster put me on my toes more and took the weight off the center of my foot. However I was able to run the whole thing and really enjoyed it. Usually the run is so hard and such a joy kill for me that this was a very refreshing change. I took water at all the turn arounds and my last Gu at the half way mark. I was even able to sprint accross the finish line.

Run faster if this were more than a training race and my foot wasn't injured.

Found the water and walked around.


Slow swimming and hurt foot on the run.


This was a great location but kind of a downer as far as atmosphere. It was very obvious most of the racers were using this as a start of season warm up race, but there were enough participants that weren't in this elite category that deserved more hype. By the time the last racers finished everything was broken down and there wasn't anyone there cheering them on. There wasn't music playing or much of a party feel. I will definitely run this race again next year, but I hope it will become more festive as it grows in participation number. You could tell this was it's first year.

Overall it was a very useful race. I was able to do some OWSing, practice my transitions and nutrition, and even had a good run. That helped my confidence a lot. So that is what a good run feels like? :)