This was a very good swim for me. Navigation was right on- I kept looking for feet to draft off of, but there was only one girl around me (the rest were way ahead) and she was right at my side until the back straight away when I dropped her. Ran into the back of 2 men's waves.

Thought I was the first female swimmer to finish because I didn't see any other women around me at all. Couldn't understand why the announcer didn't say anything about it. Later looking at results I see that the 9th girl out of the swim was just a few seconds shy of being a full minute faster. That's why I didn't see anyone. D'OH!

Nothing. I couldn't have kept up with the faster girls enough to have drafted.

Long run to transition, easily .1 of a mile. Couldn't get my helmet on over my pony tail.

Be more coordinated.

I really had the #1 bike split. When I finished, the dismount sign was on the left side of a line of flags. I followed it and dismounted and then everyone started yelling at me I needed to be on the other side of the flags. So I picked my bike up and and to climb over the flag line. Probably lost about :10 here. Since I was only :01 off the #1 bike split, it's safe to say I was actually the fastest on the course.

Dismount on the right side!

Good transition

nothing

Finally a race where no one ran me down. I was wondering where I was in the placement... out on the ride no one in my age group passed me. In fact, only a few women passed me on the bike(later found out that the 3 that passed me went 1,2,3 in the overall women's finish). But I digress to the run. Since it was 3 loops it was hard to tell who was on what loop. But on my first loop, the only ones that passed me were some really fast 40 somethings that went on to win the overall race, and a couple of 20 and early 30 somethings. I thought I might have placed but wasn't sure if there were any that were way ahead of me.

Run on trails more often in training.

My run.


This was the first triathlon that my mom has ever come to to watch me race. And this was my first age group win. I am normally just out of the placements, so this was a total and utter surprise for me, and it just ticked the shit out of me. My dad grew up not far from the race site, so I felt his presence the whole race. And to win in front of my mom, well, that was just icing on the cake.

I will say that it's way more fun to race when you win something, and it makes the drive home soooo much easier!

My coach told me when I started with her that she would make me competitive. I didn't believe her. Now, I'm under no delusions that I'm gonna start placing in all my races, but now I know that I am competitive. It all depends on who shows up on race day anyway, but it sure does feel good to walk away with an award.