I've been in open water plenty of times, but this was my first triathlon, so it was my first open water race. The first 200m were ok, but it all fell apart after that. After about 200m of freestyle I switched to the backstroke to relax for a bit, and for whatever reason did the remaining 1300m using backstroke instead of HTFU and going back to freestyle.

Very disappointed in myself for the swim portion... dead last in my AG, and in the slowest 5% overall. Go me. On the bright side, it can only get better, it can't get any worse. I really should have just relaxed and tried to get back into the rhythm I practiced at the pool so often.

I wish I could have seen the route I took. I probably swam 100m extra with the zig-zagging I did. I was outside of the kayaks for a while (most everyone else was between the kayaks and the buoys). I think the most disorienting part was the murkiness of the water. Usually I can see at least a little something when I go to the beach, but not this time. Fortunately a nice current helped the whole thing along.

Swimming needs more practice. I want to take some swim lessons, and get some OWS practice in. Just need a lot of improvement here.

Didn't have much sand on my feet, but I still splashed some water on them from a spare bottle I took for that purpose. Got my socks on, put my shoes on (didn't have them on the bike already like a lot of others), glass, helmet, and off I ran to the exit. No jersey and no wetsuit, so that saved time. Seeing that all the bike stands were almost empty was pretty disheartening though. Having my girlfriend cheer me on as I ran up from the beach made me smile though, as always.

Have the shoes rubberbanded on the bike and use a flying mount... other than that I thought I did well.

Cycling is what I've been doing longest, so this was my favorite part. The course was fast and flat, and with the exception of having to pass a few cars, it was a joy to ride. Did a lot of passing, and wasn't passed a single time, so, hey, I have something going for me there. I also used my regular road bike, no tri bike for me yet. Around mile 21 I ate the gel packet I had taped to my top tube.

Push harder...

I was really happy with my performance here. Girlfriend was right there cheering me on again and grabbing a short video. All I had to do was switch shoes and off I went with my race belt in my hands, put that on while running.

Replace the regular laces on my shoes with some yankz or whatever they're called, maybe shave 5-10 seconds off there... that's pretty much it.

Legs didn't get into the rhythm until about a mile in or so, which is pretty much what I expected. There was a water station at every mile marker, so I'd have some sips of gatorade and throw a cup of cold water on my head, which felt great. Passed a few people in my age group, too. Really I just tried to pick people off on by one, and only had one guy pass me. I could hear my girlfriend cheering for me at least a hundred yards out. :)

I think I could have pushed harder and maybe tried for a 7:30-7:40 pace instead. I was worried I would cramp, but that wasn't a problem. Just ran a little conservative, I'll be more aggressive next time.

Walked around for a while, found some shade, had some water... then went and had half a bagel with peanut butter and a cookie. Yum!


Swimming first and foremost. If I could cut the swim down to a more reasonable 18 min instead of almost 24, and picked up a minute or two on the run, I could have moved up to 3rd place instead of 5th.




Definitely a fun race, and one I will definitely do again next year if possible!

Overall I'm pretty happy with how I did, considering it was my first triathlon.