This was my first tri, and I had heard horror stories about the swim leg. I had done a handful of open water swims earlier in the month to get used to sighting and swiming in the elements. There were only 12 in my wave, so the human-washing-machine effect wasn't too bad. Sighting for the first leg was easy - head straight towards the giant rock formation out in the distance. After the 1st turn I got into a good groove and just cruised down the back stretch. By the time I made the last turn I noticed that my shoulders were a little tight. This is probably due to breathing only on my right side, instead of ever-other side like in practice. The last stretch was straight into the sunrise, so I had to sight off of the swim caps in front of me and hope that they know where they were going. By the time I reached the beach, the waves were pretty mixed.

Lengthen out my stroke and try to take breaths on both my right and left.

Tied for 6th overall in T1. I guess all that practicing in the garage worked. Yippee!

Not much. I practiced my transitions in the weeks leading up. It was strange to see faster athletes in transition who were still getting their stuff together when I left. What the heck were they waiting for?

Well, all of the people I passed in transition passed me right back on the bike. The first 11 miles felt good, but Garvin Heights took a lot out of me. After the hill it took me another 15 minutes to get my legs back and then back up to cruising speed. The last several miles were mostly downhill. I had a gel packet with about 3 miles left to go in an attempt to fuel up for the run.

Convince the wife to let me buy a lighter bike. Other than that, it's all about more time in the saddle.

Tied for 8th overall in T2. Double yippee!

I try to keep transitions simple so I'm not changing complete outfits. I just un-velcroed my shoes, hopped off my bike, racked it, took off my helmet, threw on my running shoes and grabbed my hat.

I ran about 100 yards and then it felt like I got shot in the butt. My glutes started cramping and I could only shuffle allong for the first couple of miles. I took water and Heed at the 1.5 mile point. By 3 miles, my legs started to feel somewhat normal. I tried to 'reel-in' some runners in front of me, but it was still slow going. I think the adrenalin kicked in for the last mile, because that one felt great. I ended up crossing the finish line in a full stride.

The transition to the run was a shock. I need to work in some more bricks to teach my my muscles not to be wimpy.

Hug the wife, grab something to drink and hang out with friends before going out for mexican food. Hmmm..I wonder why my legs siezed up later that afternoon.


The race was well organized and the course was challenging, but not impossible. The difficult bike was balanced out by a flat run. I'll try to work this in next year again if the schedule allows.