The 1 mile swim was supposed to start right at 8:00am so I started to get my wetsuit on around 7:45 and as I walked over to the start, I didn’t see any of my color caps. I quickly realized I was late and had to run down, jump in the water, and orient myself with the route all within 1 minute of the start. Fortunately some guy next to me was already sizing up the other males as well as the route so he gave me a few pointers and I felt good, despite my lack of warm up. Once the race began, I tried to settle into an easy stroke but soon realized that was impossible. Some guy next to me was terrible at sighting and ran in to me just about every other stroke which made things very frustrating for the first half of the race. Although looking back now it could have been me who was bad at sighting and zigzagging in front of the guy. I guess we’ll never know. But about half way through I swam ahead of that guy and started to swim my race. The water was pretty choppy which made things interesting and the water was 78 degrees which forced me to put water into my wetsuit every few minutes, but overall I was feeling good and fast. As I was about to exit, I realized I was one of the first few guys out of the water and was very happy about that. That brief excitement was immediately cut short by my swim exit when I sliced my big toe on the exit stairs. Needless to say the run to transition was a struggle. The adrenaline was pumping so I wasn’t in too much pain but I realized I went out too hard and too fast on the swim so my brain and legs had a tough time catching up with me. I pretty much stumbled the whole way into transition but still made great time with 26:00.

Focus on technique a little more and get a good swim warm up in before to adjust to the choppiness.

T1 was just a mess. I had high ambitions to be in and out quickly but even after a 2 minute run/walk from the water I was still dizzy and my toe become more and more painful. I decided I would sit down to take off my wetsuit and put on my cycling gear which helped my body adjust to land. Fortunately, after a long 1:46 I was out of transition.

Tape more of my stuff on my bike so I can just grab the bike and go.

I came in with high hopes that my bike portion would be my best. Even during my brick workouts I felt that I would fly through the bike section with ease but that just wasn’t the case on so many levels. I was still woozy from my T1 so I spent the first mile pedaling slowly and hoping the feeling would go away. Once it finally did, I got into a nice groove but made a crucial mistake pre-race that haunted me on the bike. I raise my seat about an inch. It put more strain on my calves than I was accustomed to and a few times during the bike I was cramping pretty badly. Con - my time was way less than I wanted, Pro - I was so worried about my cramping that I focused on my sodium intake and lost track of what mile I was on. After what felt like 30 minutes on the bike, I arrived at the base of mile 22. I was so shocked I was already there that I asked the guy next to me if this was the major climb and he informed me that it was. Given my pain and cramping, I thought I did a pretty good job at getting up the hill. I was passed by a few people, specifically one girl that rode up next to me and asked me how I was going up this hill with flat pedals. Now, this being my first triathlon, I didn't see a need to invest in a TT bike or clips and bike shoes, but I think once I do a few more I'm definitely getting clips. After mile 22, the course was mostly downhill with a few rollers. I cruised through this part and sipped as much Gatorade as possible to help with the calves.

Not make any changes to the bike right before the race. I know, I read the warning everywhere but being a foolish first timer I didn't listen.

This was my shining moment. I had practice the leg flip dismount a bunch of times and executed it perfectly riding into transition. My legs were feeling surprisingly well so I ran hard into transition and got out of there quickly.

Nothing but I'll have to change my tactics one I invest in bike shoes.

Going into the run I was feeling great because A. I was almost done, and B. my legs weren't cramping like I thought they would. I started out strong but after 45 seconds into the run, I felt it. My side was cramping pretty badly and I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd have to stop and stretch. I passed a few folks cheering everyone on (obviously, I couldn't stop in front of them) and once I was into an empty stretch I stopped to stretch. The pain went away but came back a few more times so for the first mile I had to stop 3 times which wasted a few minutes. I wasn't too upset with this though because I knew that if I kept my legs moving I'd finish with a respectable time regardless of my run pace. I definitely got passed by my fair share of runners but I just kept running my own race and focused on not stopping. The run was mostly uneventful up until mile 4.5, which I thought was mile 3.5. They had miles 1 and 4 marked well and I noticed this on the way out but coming back I must have missed the sign for mile 4 so I spent miles 3-5 wondering why I was running so slow. Just when my frustration was about to get the best of me, I turned a corner and there it was - the finish. I was so happy I didn't really know what to do. In hindsight I wish I had sped up to finish with a bang but my legs weren't going to listen to anything I had to say. Nevertheless, I finished at a nice pace and crossed my first triathlon finish line with a big smile on my face.

Focus on my sodium intake before the run so I didn't cramp as much.