Overall I was so pleased with this swim coming off last weekend where I totally botched up every turn. I caught the girl in front of me in the first 100m and just stayed at her feet the rest of the way. Time is slightly deceiving because there was a super-long run after the pool before we crossed into T1.

I forgot to start my watch at the start of the swim (too busy chatting!!) so when I got out of the pool was unable to record my isolated swim time...next time...

T1 was slowwwww mostly because I was concerned about being cold on the bike course. The air temp was ok but sun was unreliable and it was also windy. So I chose to go with arm warmers and a bike jersey....which took FOREVER to put on. Yikes. We were also racked according to our swim times so everyone around my bike was transitioning at the same time - crowded!

Next time choose a long-sleeve jersey (1-piece) instead of 3 pieces.

About 1/2 way through the course I tried to push myself...my goal was a 18mph+ average. However the legs just didn't seem to respond and after about a mile of pushing I just decided that it "wasn't my day" and cruised in to try and prepare for a good run.

Of course the next day, I discovered a 1/8" chunk of glass embedded in my rear tire. Had I ridden the course on a flat? Probably. At least that's what I'm telling myself...

Nothing. I felt confident in my mental "handling" of the situation even though I didn't know it was externally caused.

Much more room in T2 because my swim group was all separated on the bike. However once I changed equipment I a) tried to run out the wrong way and b) forgot my race belt. Way to go!!! Thanks to the girl at the next rack over for reminding me where to run out.

Memorize the transition layout!

Happy! Just stuck with a high cadence the first mile or so than began to push things. I missed the first mile marker so had no idea how I stood on my splits. Just tried to keep tempo and pick off runners ahead of me one by one.

It's hard to remember that in a time-trial start, even when you see runners ahead of you, they may actually have slower overall times. When I was running out, there were people running in and I thought I was wayyyyyy back in the pack. Basically my mind playing tricks on me - I finished better than anticipated!!

Look over the run course and memorize mile marker landmarks.

Post-race food was hard to find. I missed it completely and packed all my stuff up before someone told me there were snacks. Thank goodness!!


I didn't take the course very seriously and due to operator error was unable to track my progress (swim start watch issue, T2 fiasco and run mile markers). However when I was actually on the course I was happy with the mental adaptations I made.