There was a good bit of contact at the start of the race, I wasn't prepared for that, its the first time I have come across this. Went out a little hard to break away from the pack. Eased off after the first 200m or so and settled into my own breathing pattern. Was able to stay on my breathing pattern the whole way, even though the cold water was making it difficult for me to breath. Had a ton of contact with the red wave as I caught up with them around the first yellow buoy. Lots of contact all the way to the finish. Eased way up on the pace during that last stretch, as I wasn't sure how I was going to feel coming out of the swim and getting on the bike.

I need to start lifting and focusing on my upper body. My arms get heavy in the suit about 500m into a swim.

Pretty disappointing T1 for me. I struggled a lot getting my wetsuit off, I don't even think I was unzipped by the time I got to my bike, then couldn't get my suit off my heals. Also, had another bike that was knocked over and leaning on my bike, so had a difficult time getting it off the rack. Long run from almost the back of transition to the bike mount.

Learn how to get out of the wetsuit faster, glad I was able to practice this early in the season.

Pushed hard on the course. I have been really working on the bike over the winter and am starting to feel like some of that is paying off. Was able to shift a lot smoother and read the course better. Legs were burning the entire time but really wanted to see what riding hard would do to my legs on the the run. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful course.

Keep training on the bike. Need to improve my cornering skills as I have to slow way down to take sharp turns. I hope to improve my overall handling skills as the year goes on. I'm still in awe of all triathletes that look so comfortable in aero, I look forward to getting there someday.

Long run back from the bike dismount and I almost totally wiped out when I couldn't un-clip my right foot right away. I fought to stay vertical. Had a little trouble racking my bike, as we were really packed on the rack and a guy who had come late to the race (that morning) totally condensed the space in our transition area. I couldn't stand in front of my space and had to reach around my bike to get to my stuff. It felt really chaotic at the time. Running out of transition I dropped the cup of water that I desperately needed but just kept running. Slapped hands with Slake and Tim as I ran out, good to see them on the course. :)

Make sure I have as clean of a transition area as possible. Don't drop the water.

Knew this was going to be rough. Heading out of transition and up the hill I heard, "Go Ally" and it was my club swimming coach from back in high school (his son now competes in triathlons), this totally lifted my spirits and just when I needed it. :) The run through the woods was a little unexpected. I wasn't prepared to off road it and jump over ditches but made the best of it. My legs felt heavy but I told myself to breathe and just keep going. Saw Dan on my way out as he was on his way back in and this really helped. Kept telling myself that the turn around was right ahead, however, it felt like forever before it eventually came. At the turn around the volunteers weren't ready with the water, so I missed it again, I really thought I was going to pass out but I told myself it would be ok, and I just kept running. I now started running cone to cone because I was too tired to think about how far away the finish was, I was so happy to run back through the woods that I was so annoyed with during the beginning of the run and that was only because I knew that the race finish wasn't too far away.

Drink more.

Drank lots of water and walked back and forth for awhile and ate Mike&Ikes. :)


Was up until 1AM the night before for my sister's wedding. But I wouldn't have changed that for the world. :)


Though I woke up completely exhausted I'm glad that we went and did this race. I've also been training hard for the last few weeks and it was good to see that I can still push hard when I am tired. It was pretty mentally challenging day but I had a great time racing.